Democratic Sentinel, Volume 17, Number 48, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 December 1893 — TO TAX THE INCOMES. [ARTICLE]

TO TAX THE INCOMES.

MR. SHEARMAN’S VERY ATTRACTIVE SYSTEM. He Would Tax All Income* from Bents and from Corporations Having Exclusive and Monopolistic Privileges—New Steel Trust—lnsincere McKinley. A Commendable System. The agitation for an income tax to splice out and supplement our tariff and internal revenue system has made great headway during the past two months. Such a tax would be very popular with the masses, upon whom the burdens of government rest most heavily ; and it is not so certain that it would be unpopular with the rich, who are now practically exempt from taxation for national purposes. In fact, many of them, recognizing the justice of such a system, have declared in its favor. The arguments against an income tax are extremely weak and childish—especially when considered in connection with the fact that without this tax duties must be put upon sugar and perhaps also upon tea and coffee. Not only is an income tax needed to prevent a deficit during the first two years of a new tariff but it is needed as a permanent supplement to our present system of indirect taxation—that is, of taxes on consumption. Rates of indirect taxation cannot be changed to meet requirements for revenue without seriously distubing business. Rates of income taxation can be changed, to preserve an equilibrium between revenue and expenditures, without affecting business interests. It is maintained for this purpose in several European countries—notably in Great Britain. The only objection to an income tax worthy of consideration, at the present time, is that it will be likely to fall mainly upon the honest and the helpless—those who will • not or cannot lie their way out from under it. It is mainly to escape from thiß objection that Mr. Thomas G. Shearman has written a series of articles, printed in the New York World, on a “Just and Collectable Income Tax.” After showing the necessity for a direct tax, and noting that no other direct tax is available (except perhaps one on succession), he proceeds to consider the kind of an income tax that should be adopted. He objects to a graduated income tax because it would open many unnecessary avenues to fraud, and because “it would be a complete failure as appiled to dividends and interest paid by corporations. " He objects to any system which depends for collection upon “private individual returns from the taxpayers.” Experience shows that it leads ’to a “carnival of fraud, perjury and blackmail.” He concludes that the only incomes which can be ascertained correctly are those “received under oircumstances which enable others than the income receiver to know precisely how much he receives.” He finds that “all incomes derived from dividends on the stock or interest on the bonds of corporations, or from the rent of land and houses, can be full; ascertained and fairly taxed.” Ha cites our own experience and that it Great Britain to show that a vast rs?enue could be obtained from th«e two sources of income. He, however, thinks it unnecessary to tax incomes from corporations unites suoh incomes partake of the nature of rent. This would “include all dividends and interest paid by rail read companies, telegraph companies, telephone oompanies, pipe line companies, mines, quarries, gas companies, eleVtric light companies, steam heatinj companies, and in short all corpora, tions having exclusive privileges ol any kind. In other words, we should' tax all the income which is derived from monopolies, whether natural or artificial. “It is not only fair and just that the government should tax every species of monopoly or exclusive franchise; it is a crying shame that such incomes are not now and always taxed. These are in fact the only kinds of property which ought to be taxed, because they are the only valuable things which men do not create by their own industry. The government creates and gives away these franchises. True, it is necessary that it should do so; but none the less it ought to collect just as much of its revenue as possible from this souroe before demanding any from people who have received no favor from the government and have earned every dollar of their income by their independent labor. The principle, in short, which I propose is that monopolies in every form, including exclusive franchises, patent rights and every other form of special privileges, no matter how widely extended, should be ' subjected to the income tax, and that this tax should not be assessed upon and collected from the people who pay to the beneficiaries of such monopolies the income derived therefrom.

Speedy Settlement Demanded. The woolen manufacturing interests of the country, and in fact all commercial interests, are demanding a thoughtful, conservative, but speedy and conclusive settlement of the tariff, that business may thus be afforded additional relief, and that the perplexity and uncertainty which still overshadows the country may, in a large measure at least, be dispelled. The constant agitation of this subject of tariff revision, the uncertainty owing to threatened changes, either for lower or higher duties, has hung like the sword of Damocles over our politicsridden business community until the over-indulgent people of this country are beginning to realize that the commercial welfare of the country should not be imperiled by making the tariff a matter of party politics with the incoming of each succeeding administration. The questions involved require investigation by fair and impartial minds; they are not matters of party politics, but broad, economic problems affecting people of every political creed and the welfare of the whole country. They should therefore be handled in a thoroughly dispassionate manner and 'by men of strong character. While it is probable that this bill as reported by the Ways and Means Committee will not become a law without modifications, it is sincerely hoped that when the measure is presented no dilatory or filibustering tactics will be employed to obstruct legislation, for if this can be evaded there appears no good reason why the bill should not pass both houses of Congress as early as February.—American Wool and Cotton Reporter. Warner’s Tariff UHL Probably no bill that has gone into the hands of the Ways and Means Committee will contain more excellent features than the one introduced by Congressman Warner of New York, and ordered to be printed by the committee. . The bill is brief, clear and easily understood; it is, with slight changes, the Reform Clubs proposed tariff bill wrought into shape for legislative action; it is in principle simi'ar to the Walker tariff of 1840, which silenced all opposition. It contains only

ad valorem duties; it is planned to produce revenue and not to grant special pavors to any industry; Its free ust is large, and embraces all raw materials, iucluding sugars of all kinds; it places duties of from 30 to 50 per cent, on luxuries; its 25 per cent, schedule includes woolens, glass, gloves, earthenware, nearly all manufactures of metals, manufactures of cotton, linen, and furs; it regards the consumer as more important than the manufacturer, though with free raw materials no industry worth saving will leave the country when protected from foreign competition by a duty of 25 per cent.; it would make work more plentiful and lower the cost of living; its good effects would be so marked that it would become popular with laborers and housewives; it would guarantee a Democratic administration for the rest of this century.

Insincere McKinley. Gov. McKinley gave new proof before the Home Market Club of Boston that he is one of the most disingenuous, not to say dishonest, public speakers in the country. He pleaded for stability in the tariff as a condition of certainty in business calculations, although the high protectionists have tinkered the tariff twenty times in thirty years. He argued that “free trade”—meaning a freer trade—“cannot increase our production at home,” and said that nobody advocates it with any such view. The truth is, and McKinley has heard it a thousand times, that tariff reduction is advocated lor precisely this reason. The best way to increase our production at home is to cheapen raw materials and extend our markets. The Governor bewailed, with his most sanctimonious air, the lack of confidence, when unmistakable signs of restored confidence are seen on every side. He had the assurance to deny that the people voted against McKinleyisin in 1890 and 1892, though this was everywhere the main issue in the canvass. Gov. McKinley has a very low opinion of the intelligence of the people. The New Steel Trust. The great steelmakers have formed a new trust. The breaking up of the dd one was followed by a natural fall ih the price of steel rails. For many months the old trust maintained the price at $29 a ton, notwithstanding the met that there was no demand for its Eroduct. In other words, the tariff laintained the price when it would laturally fall. As soon as the trust Went to pieces the price did fall to below $22. The new trust, so it is announced, has fixed the price at $24. This price could not be obtained if it were not for a tariff duty that is high enough to give the trust control of the market and the opportunity to tax consigners. Every one who is affected by thf cost of transportation is interested in the tax on rails. It is a burden hot only on the railroads, but on the farmers whose grains are carried to market by rail. Under the McKinley ta-iff the new trust is making at least JO per cent, profit.

Tax the Big Incomes. In justice to the masses the rich cannot be allowed to longer escape a reasonable proportion of Federal taxation. The income tax will come to stay.—St. Louis Republic. The income tax will be met, when it is announced next week, by a universal condemnation in the East; but it will not be reported to please the East.— —Philadelphia Press. The majority of Democratic members of the Ways and Means Committee are firm in support of such a proposition, and it probably will be incorporated in a separate bill.—Yonkers Statesman.

We presume there will be a great outcry against this tax, as the people who will be called on to pay it are of a class who have a great deal of influence in molding public opinion. But when it is fully understood we think it will be a popular tax with the great mass of the people.—Pittsburg Post. \ The income tax that was imposed by i Republican administration in war imes was a very different sort of thing rom what the Democrats propose. The war tax reached all classes. The >ne now proposed is calculated to reach inly those who are rich and who do lot now pay a fair, just and proportion<e amount of taxation. — freeman’s Journal. Death from a Sedlitz Powder. A sedlitz powder as the cause of diath is an almost unheard-of thing in nodical circles, yet Christine Kroys, a Gtrman domestic, of Brooklyn, perished by that means a few days ago. Sfc was found by her mistress lying unionscious on the floor, her lips covert! with blood. All efforts to resuscitate her proved vain, and she died wi<>in a few hours. On a table near by (ere found two glasses, in which the blrnand white papers of a sedlitz powder bad been dissolved. Apparently the grl had drunk first one glass and then the other. The two packages, when mixed together, effervesce and geneite carbonic gas. This was forma in the girl’s stomach and chokd her. While endeavoring to gain ler breath, she burst an arterv whiclicaused her death.