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depression of their standard of living, or the forfeiture of their property, or both, as is abundantly evidenced by conditions in eastern Oklahoma. A cardinal principle of taxation is violated, namely, that taxation must not exceed the capacity to pay.

The effect of taxing Indian property is of course to force the Indians off their lands and to put the territory into the hands of whites, generally able to secure credit. Thus they can buy implements, and generally their experience, persistence, and superior training enable them both to make a living and to pay taxes, thus adding to the revenues of the state. Although this movement appears for the moment to be an advantage to the state, the fact must ever be borne in mind that it leaves the state with the problem of the unadjusted Indian, deprived of any resources of his own which may be applied to his advancement.

In this connection it should be noted that frequently the steps taken by the shrewder, more experienced whites to deprive the Indians of their lands are unethical if not actually criminal. They get the Indian property at a fraction of its true value. They can well afford to pay taxes, considering how little capital they had to invest to get possession of the natural resources that belonged to the Indian. These not over scrupulous whites are aided in their exploitation of the Indian by the fact that the Indian is finding it difficult to pay taxes and make a living. A sum of unearned ready money, the value and use of which he does not very well understand, seems an easy way out of having to work and pay taxes and affords an immediate way of satisfying his very pressing wants. With little or no means of determining the real value of his property and with a very real sense of immediate need of food and clothing, he falls an easy victim.

Those states which have a considerable number of Indians who have already lost their lands and have not been developed to a reasonable standard of efficiency, will ultimately realize the price they paid for taxes on Indian property. The price is a body of Indian citizens, unassimilated, poverty stricken, and diseased; a liability to the community, not an asset. The resources which these Indians once possessed, which might have furnished the means for a solution of their problem, have been converted, often improperly, to the private use and advantage of white citizens. The state is left to hold the bag. It will ultimately be under obligation to meet the