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The Income Tax:
Root of all Evil
by Frank Chodorov
Introduction by J. Bracken Lee
Governor of Utah
The Devin-Adair Company
New York, 1954
Online edition \u00a9 2002 The Ludwig von Mises Institute.

Copyright 1954 by Frank Chodorov. Material in this book must not be reprinted in any form without written permission from the publisher. For information address The Devin-Adair Company, 23 East 26th Street, New York 10, N. Y. Manufactured in the United States of America.

To the Memory of
ALBERT J. NOCK
Foreword

THIS WAS, to be sure, "the home of the free and the land of the
brave." Americans were free simply because the government was too
weak to intervene in the private affairs of the people\u2014it did not have the
money to do so\u2014and they were brave because a free people is always
venturesome. The obligation of freedom is a willingness to stand on your

own feet.

The early American wanted it that way. He was wary of government,
especially one that was out of his reach. He had just rid himself of far-
away and self- sufficient political establishment and he was not going to
tolerate anything like it in his newly founded country. He recognized the
need of some sort of government, to keep order, to protect him in the
exe rcise of his rights, and to look after his interests in foreign lands. But,
he wanted it understood that the powers of that government would be
clearly defined and be limited; it could not go beyond specified limits. It
was in recognition of this fear of centralized power that the Founding
Fathers put into the Constitution\u2014it never would have been ratified
without them\u2014very specific restraints on the federal government.

In other matters, the early American was willing to put his faith in
home government, in a government of neighbors, in a government that one
could keep one's eyes on and, if necessary, lay one's hands on. For that
reason, the United States was founded as a Union of separate and
autonomous commonwealths. The states could go in for any political
experiments the folks might want to try out\u2014even socialism, for that
matter\u2014but the federal government had no such leeway. After all, there
were other states nearby, and if a citizen did not like the way one state
government was managing its affairs, he could move across the border;
that threat of competition would keep each state from going too far in
making changes or in intervening in the lives of the citizens.

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