1855: U. S. v. 10,000 Cigars, 2 Curtis 436; Connor v. Elliott, 18 How. 591; Smith v. Md., 18 How. 74.

1856: Dodge v. Woolsey, 18 How. 353.

1857: Dred Scott v. Sandford, 19 How. 594.

1858: Roberts v. Skolfield, 3 Ware 184; Allen v. Newberry, 21 How. 246; State v. North, 27 Mo. 464.

1859: Smith v. Davenport, 22 How. 239; The Wm. Jarvis, I Sprague 485; Silliman v. Bridge Co., 4 Blatchf. 395; 1 Black 582, 2

Wall. 403.

1860: Almy v. Cal., 24 Wall. 173; The Martha Washington, 3 Ware 245.

1861: Brumagin v. Tillinghast, 18 Cal. 265; Garrison v. Tillinghast, Id. 404; The Seneca, 1 Biss. 371; Conway v. Taylor's Ex., 1 Black 603.

1862: State v. Robinson, 49 Me. 285; Lin Sing v. Washburne, 20 Cal. 534.

1863: Ferry Co. v. U. S., 5 Blatchf. 198.

1865: Gilman v. Phila., 3 Wall. 713; The Mohawk, Id. 571; U. S. v. Holliday, Id. 417.

1866: Pervear v. Comm., 5 Wall. 478.

1867: Crandall v. Nevada, 6 Wall. 47; Soc. v. Coite, Id. 605; The Clinton Bridge, Wool. 150; Lumber Co. v. Patterson, 33 Cal. 334; The People v. Marving, 3 Keyes (N. Y.) 374; Woodman v. Mfg. Co., 1 Abb. (U. S.) 158; Woodman v. Mfg. Co., 1 Biss. 546.

1868: Monty v. Arneson, 25 Iowa 383; The Bright Star, Woolw. 266.

1869: Waring v. The Mayor, 8 Wall. 121; Woodruff v. Parham, Id. 130; Hinson v. Lott, Id. 151; Paul v. Va., Id. 168; U. S. v. De Witt, Id. 41.

1870: Downham v. Alexandria, 10 Wall, 173; Minot v. P., W. &. B. R. R., 2 Abb. (U. S.) 323; The Cheeseman v. Two Ferryboats, 2 Bond 363; The Danl. Ball, 10 Wall. 535; Brown 203; Clinton Bridge, Id. 462, 16 A. L. Reg. 149; State Tonnage Tax Cases, 12 Wall. 215.

1871: Legal Tender Cases, Id. 550; Ward v. Md., Id. 428; Low v. Austin, 13 Wall. 32; Seveatt v. R. R. Co., 3 Clifford 339; Day v. Buffington, 3 Clifford 376; Ex rel Hobbs, 1 Woods 537.

1872: U. S. v. Seveloff, 2 Sawyer 311; The Thomas Swain, 6 Ben. 42.

(To be continued.)

No. 2.

Political Economy.

Distribution, Distribution, or the department in political economy which determines the principles governing in the division of the proceeds of industry, recognizes labor, capital, and the government which protects the interests of all in the exercise of their respective rights.

The wage-earners engaged at manual labor have been estimated at from three-fourths to two-thirds of the English-speaking people. This is distinct from salaries, which are generally fixed sums for a year, and distinct from commissions, which are a certain rate per cent, on the amount involved in the purchase or sale; and also distinct from fees, which are the remuneration of professional men. And in determining the remuneration, the necessaries and comforts of life that it commands may be laid down as the standard of measuring its value. It is not how much I get, but the value of what I get, for my expenditure of brain or muscle. Among the cause that affect wages may be mentioned the changing value of money, regular or irregular employment, and the character of the services to be rendered as to endurance and power to work. The efficiency of labor is another consideration that must be kept in view in determining its value. Race, climate, food, and intelligence and moral condition are all to be taken into consideration under this branch of the subject.

"The true wage," says Atkinson, "which the workman seeks, is the food, fuel, shelter, and means of subsistence with which the sum of his wages will supply him.

"If we look to the derivation of the word itself, his wage is the measure of the expectation of subsistence, against which his labor is staked, wagered, or hazarded."

Wages imply a contract between two parties, the cost of living on part of employee and the value of the products on part of the employer, and the minimum of wages the necessary support of the family, and the maximum the rate determined by the value of the products; and competition steps in to the help of all. "Competition thus tends to bring wages and profits to an equilibrium most favorable to the interests of all."

Remuneration for labor varies with the nature of the employment. A Vanderbilt may pay his cook ten thousand dollars a year and a furnace owner pay an iron master twenty-five dollars a day and the Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court may receive but ten thousand five hundred dollars a year, and the intel

lectual labors of a college president may be secured at twenty-five hundred or three thousand dollars a year, an average of less than ten dollars a day for every working day in the year, and yet, with all the apparent disparagement of remuneration, the honors and dignity of the one class of labor must be set over against the manual drudgery and toil of the other. All are useful and necessary, and the great law of supply and demand according to the nature and character of the article runs through and governs in the adjustment of wage, salary, or fees as in all other departments of human necessities. Personal character and reputation are as much the requisites in certain lines of human employment as skill and technical knowledge, and while they should be the property or acquirements and attainments of every man, their want in the judge or college professor would unfit either of them for the position, while they might be matters considered of minor importance in other lines of employment from a merely business standpoint.

But we not only remunerate labor, but capital also comes in for its share, we have seen how it is the fruit of past labor, let us now see how it may increase its usefulness. With great prospects and great risks, its remuneration is great, in striking comparison with its loses, with small risks and safe investment the returns in increase are small. One of the means of increasing capital is from rentals, another from dividends on stocks, and both of these subjects are so familiar to every reader that they need only to be mentioned to remind one of the part they play in the increase of capital. Like the miser's idea of interest, "it works both night and day while I sleep or wake," and so the rent goes on and the dividends accrue under proper management, while the owner of the capital may have no supervision whatever of the property or enterprise.

Profit-the net proceeds-the surplus values after the payment of wages, salaries, interest on the capital, and insurance against loss, and the tax paid to the government for protection and security, are not, as some define it, merely remuneration paid for the use of capital. Profits, therefore, cannot be correctly expressed as a percentage on the capital invested.

"A shoemaker with a capital of five hundred dollars may, by untiring industry through a year, make his proceeds count a hundred per cent. on that amount and yet receive an insufficient return for his labor. Twenty per cent. on five hundred thousand dollars invested in a great manufacturing establishment may pay out for labor and management and ordinary interest on capital, with a larger margin for profits. Hence it is often better to work for

wages or a salary in connection with a large establishment rather than attempt an independent business." So with truth is it said, “It is in the nature of trade and manufacture that great capital drives small capital out of the field; it can work for smaller returns." But the legitimate increase of profits can only be advanced by lessening expenses or increasing the amount and value of the product. And the fair distribution of the profits must recognize the capital employed, which takes the greater risk, the executive ability which successfully superintends and manages the business, and, third, the labor which, by some, is called the third member of the firm.

Another consideration in the distribution of wealth is the government that protects and gives security to its citizens in the results of their labor, and to its support the citizen contributes a portion of the profits of his industry in the way of taxes.

Adam Smith's four rules of equitable taxation were as follows: I. "The subjects of every State ought to contribute toward the support of the government as nearly as possible in proportion to their respective abilities; that is, in proportion to the revenue which they respectively enjoy under the protection of the State.

2. "The tax which each individual is bound to pay ought to be certain, and not arbitrary. The time of payment, the manner of payment, the quantity to be paid, ought all to be clear and plain to the contributor, and to every other person.

3. "Every tax ought to be levied at the time and in the manner in which it is most likely to be convenient for the contributor to pay it.

4. "Every tax ought to be so contrived as both to take out and to keep out of the pockets of the people as little as possible over and above what it brings into the public treasury of the State." The same author defines

A direct tax, as "one which is demanded from the very persons whom it is intended or desired should pay it."

An indirect tax, "one which is demanded from one person, in the expectation and intention that he shall indemnify himself at the expense of another." The distinction between tax and tariff should be kept in mind, and while in one sense a tariff is a tax, such as duties laid on imported articles sufficient for just and equitable government expenses, a protective tariff designed to encourage home manufacturers may be pressed to such an extent as to be a burdensome and oppressive measure and no longer entitled to consideration as a tax for the support of government.

An interesting table on the distribution of wages may be readily figured out from Atkinson's tables of all persons occupied in gainful occupations, as taken from the census of 1880.

Class I-Persons engaged in agriculture, including

farm laborers,

Class 11-Professional and personal service, omitting laborers not specified, .

Class III-Transportation and trade,

7,670,493

2,215,015 1,810,256

Class IV-Pursuits which are mechanical rather than manufacturing, according to common custom in classifying them, . .

2,397,112

Class V-Pursuits which are of the nature of manufacturing rather than mechanical, according to common custom in classifying them, by estimate, 1,200,000 Class VI-Mining and pursuits immediately connected therewith, separated by estimate,.

Class VIII-Laborers not specified, who doubtless distributed in the service of the various arts or occupations included in the last five classes-agricultural laborers having been separately enumerated --but doubtless many laborers passed from one to another class as occasion may require, .

X. X.

LAWYER wanted at Long Creek, Oregon.

240,000 15,532,876

1,859,223 17,392,099

COMPOSITORS Who are not regularly employed on law reports, of course make fine messes, though rarely so easily seen through as— Intelligent comp.-"That new reporter spells victuals vit-als." Foreman-"Yes, he's fresh. Mak'er right an' dump'er in." So the reader was informed the coroner's jury brought in a verdict of death from the effects of a gunshot wound in the victuals. This is the story of the Medical Standard. We fear to add our stories, except an old one where the proof-reader caught a statement of a case where the drawer of a bill had no friends [funds].

THE PUNISHMENT which it is proper for the unenlightened to submit to, is to be instructed by the enlightened.-Repub. Plato, i, 337