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not be good enough for the holder of
United States Bonds?
Who doubts that it required the
use of boodle to secure the passage
of laws which thus made one Cur
rency for Bondholders, and another
for the people at large; one currency
for the favored, another for the un
favored ?
Who believes it was right to lend
to these National Bankers, free of
charge, huge sums of the tax money
of the people to be loaned by the
Bankers at high interest to the very
people whose money it was ?
Who believes it was right to pay
these Bankers fifty-odd millions of
dollars of the peoples money in order
to get the privilege of paying Bonds
which were not due ?
When did the world ever see such
finance as that, before?
No wonder we have about us the
rule of a Plutocracy.
GOLDEN CALFISM.
Money rules—insolently, defiantly,
corruptly, ruinously 1
Money is the test of standing, so
cial and political. Money passes
laws, elects candidates, dictates poli
cies. It controls the Press, which at
its bidding must defend the most in
famous laws.
It controls politics, for without
campaign boodle the old party mare
takes the studs and does not go a
step.
It maintains its chosen band of
agents and attorneys in every legis
lature in America; and the United
States Senate, with a few honorable
exceptions, is a mere group of Cor
poration magnates or attorneys,
whose chief duty it is to preserve
the special privileges of the favored
classes which sent them there.
OLD PARTY METHODS.
How do they maintain these privi
leges which no one defends?
By wise, unscrupulous manage
ment.
Some of the National Bankers be
long to one party, some to the other.
Some of the huge Corporations are
Democratic, some Republican. Some
of the Bondholders are of one faith,
some of the other.
The Campaign fund of the Dem
ocrats comes from their Bankers,
Corporations, favored Bondholders
etc., etc.
The Campaign fund of the Repub
licans come from similar sources.
Hence, no matter how the election
goes, the favored classes are on top.
Campaign thunder may roll over
their heads pending the canvass; the
lightning of stump eloquence may
blast many a tree in the backwoods
as the rampant “snollygoster” de
nounces class legislation.
But the Boodle magnates care
nothing for that. The storm is too
far off to hurt. They know perfect
ly well that the law will continue to
be written lust as they want it.
This is precisely the state of things
Mr. Jefferson warned us against.
Would to God, that the party
which pretends to be Jeffersonian,
did not have such a mortal aversion
to all of Jefferson’s doctrines!
Would to God that the Democrat
ic masses would study for themselves
the creed of the founder of their
party, and thus be enabled to see
how far the party bosses, for purely
selfish purposes, have led them from
the old landmarks!
Yes, Jefferson foresaw all these
things, but there is one view of the
case which I trust wai spared him.
I hope that his old age, made gloomy
by loss of fortune, and by seeing the
forces of vicious legislation creeping
steadily and treacherously toward
the citadel of the Republic, was not
made unspeakably wretched by the
knowledge that Hamilton’s legions
would march to victory under Jeffer
son’s flag!
Let us trust that even his keen
eye, scanning the future, caught no
glimpse of the time when the money
kings would bring practical politics
to the perfection of a fine art; when
they would apply, with a success
never dreamed of before, the adage
of “Divide, and Conquer.” When
they would, by a boldness and adri
otness almost incredible, keep their
chosen representatives in control of
the machinery of both political par
ties, thus have the people divid
ed, while the Bosses were united.
He had no data upon which he
could base the belief that the time
would ever come when National
Bankers, Monopolists, untaxed Mil
lionaires, and specially privileged
classes, would not only seize posses
sion of the party of Hamilton but
also of the party of Jefferson.
He could not suspect that a States
man, calling himself a Jeffersonian
Democrat, would act as the partner
of John Sherman in violating the
principle of b-metallism, which he
estaqlished in 1792, anc in thus strik
ing down Silver Money which had
served the people nearly one hun
dred years.
He could not think that a Demo
cratic Prosident, of the year 1893,
would deliberately override the law
of the land, in order to discriminate
against Silver and enhance the ad
vantage of gold!
How could he dream that Demo
crats would aid in destroying the
value of Silver by law; and then,
while those unjust laws were still
upon the statute books, complain that
Silker sank beneath such legislative
attacks ?
What would he have thought of
Democratic editors, who complain of
the 65-cent dollar, and who yet de
cline to help us repeal the adverse
and stealthy legislation which crip
pled its value ?
It was left for later times, when
Wall street should produpe a class of
Democrats, the like of which the
PEOPLE’S PARTY PAPER. ATLANTA. GEORGIA, FRIDAY, JULY 7, 1893.
world never saw before; Democrats
who believe that the Government does
a wise thing when it issues one paper
promise-to-pay-a-thousand- dollars,
calling it a Bond, but does a most in
jurious and foolish thing when it is
sues one hundred paper-promises-to
pay-ten-dollars, calling them Treas
ury notes.
Only a few capitalists can get hold
of the bonds and make them a basis
for Bank-paper-money; hence they
are good things.
Every citizen can get hold of the
Treasury notes and they afford no
more privileges to the rich man than
to the poor one; hence they are bad
things and must not under any cir
cumstances be tolerated.
Both silver and gold are the fun
damental money coins of the Repub
lic ; so made by our organic law.
The equality of each in business, upon
the’ ratio which experience demon
strated to be the true one, is a car
dinal doctrine of Jeffersonian Dem
ocracy. We now find that al! the in
fluence of Presidential position and
patronage is being used to perpetuate
the effects of “the crime of 1873,”
which, while out of power, Demo
cratic politicians and newspapers so
vigorously denounced.
In the Platform of 1884 we find a
demand for “ the gold and silver coin
age of the Constitution.”
In the Platform of 1888 we find a
distinct reaflirmnnce of the Platform
of 1884.
The “ silver coinage of the Consti
tution ” was the free and unlimited
turning into standard silver dollars
at the ratio of 1 to 15 of all the silver
brought to the mints—just as was
done with gold.
The Sherman law of 1890 was de
nounced in the last Democratic Plat
form as a makeshift, because it evad
ed free coinage, and limited the
amount to be coined. Previous to
the election the Sherman law was a
guilty thing because too unfriendly
to Free Silver. Since the election it
is a criminal because too friendly to
“Free Silver.”
Only a close student of Americah
politics can realize the infinite impu
dence of such a position.
By the terms of the Sherman law
the silver bullion purchased was, after
July, 1891, to be coined into standard
silver dollars and in sufficient quan
tities to redeem the Treasury notes
issued for the purchase of the bullion.
Previous to July; 1891, it was op
tional with the Secretary of the
Treasury to pay either silver or gold
in redemption of these Treasury notes.
It was thought, of course, that- he
would at least use some of the silver,
and direction was given him to coin
2,000,000 ounces of it for the purpose.
But on July Ist, 1891, all discretion
ceased.
The explicit words of the law are
that the bidlion must be coined and
used to redeem these notes.
The statute has been shamefully
violated. None of the silver bullion
is coined ; none of it is used. It has
been bulked up in the vaults, a use
less commodity, while the Govern
ment has lent its helping hand to the
Wall Streeters in their raid for gold.
To prove my correctness on this
important subject, I will quote the
words of the act:
Sec. 3. That the Secretary of the Treas
ury shall each month coin 2,000,000
ounces of the silver bullion, purchased
under the provisions of this act, into
standard silver dollars until the Ist July,
1891. And after that time he shall
COIN, OF THE SILVER BULLION PURCHASED
UNDER THE PROVISIONS OF THIS ACT, AS
MUCH AS MAY BE NECESSARY TO PROVIDE
FOR THE REDEMPTION OF THE TREASURY
NOTES HEREIN PROVIDED FOR.
I Submit it to any legal mind in
Georgia whether that statute does not
mean this: upto July 1, 1891, the
Secretary is compelled to coin the
arbitrary amount of 2,000,000 ounces
of that silver, for the special purpose
of taking up those Treasury notes.
After July 1,1891, no arbitrary limit
is fixed to the coinage. But the man
date is specific: “ Coin enough to re
deem those notes as they are pre
sented.”
Then I submit further, to any fair
minded man, whether lawyer or not,
whether the President and his Sec
retary nre not violating the laws of
the land, both in letter and spirit,
when they refuse to coin any of that
silver bullion at all, but insist on
pleasing the gold conspirators by pay
ing nothing but gold!
A more alarming state of affairs
never faced a people.
The Chief Magistrate overriding
the law and marshalling under the
flag of the administration the dread
legions of Bankruptcy and Panic!
Shrinking values appeal for sup
port ; trembling prices seek a point
at which they may rally; agriculture,
almost despairing over its own trou
bles, looks on with wonder to see
commerce vainly trying to steady its
wavering lines. Banks topple and
stern disaster shakes its warning
fingers at every industry in America;
yet the President of the United States
is chiefly concerned because the des
potism of the single gold standard
has not been completely established.
He hungers for peace of the Warsaw
kind—“ they make a desert and call
it peace.” He grudges the slender
footing which its enemies have left
to silver, and, utterly forgetting the
McKinley bill and its robbery of
“ the poor, down-trodden tax-payers,”
bends all his mighty energies to the
absolute and final destruction of bi
metalism—which John Sherman and
Thomas F. Bayard so grievously
wounded in 1873.
And ill this time we are told that
the administration is a friend to sil
ver. We are asked to believe that
they honestly think they maintain
the “ parity of the two metals ” by
giving all the turkey to gold, and the
buzzard to silver; all of the rose to
gold, and all of the thorns to silver:
all the favors to gold, and all the
kicks to silver.
This is no mere declamation. It
is the literal fact. For both Mr. Car
lisle and Mr. Cleveland announce that
the true way to maintain silver on
equality with gold is to pay out gold
in preference to silver. The true way
to prevent discrimination, is to dis
criminate ; the orthodox way to keep
silver up, is to fling it down and sit
on it.
The Judas kiss* never had a more
elaborate ceremonial and more stu
pendous success than it is now show
ing in all the phases of this financial
question.
Let us hope that these coming
events threw none of their baleful
shadows upon Jefferson’s declining
years. -»
Let us believe that no such night
mares disturbed the night of his old
age, and that he died in the conviction
that whenever a citizen claimed to
be a Jeffersonian Democrat, he would
have some slight regard for Jeffer
son’s principles.
JEFFERSON OPPOSED THE TARIFF.
At the same time that Hamilton
brought forward his plans of Fund
ing and National Banks, he, formu
lated his Protective System.
His Report on Manufactures is the
foundation stone upon which or Tar
iff rests.
Mr. Jefferson protested against it,
contending that there was no warrant
whatever in the Constitution for us
ing the taxing power to foster any
special branch of Industry.
He opposed it at a time when its
proportions, Compared to its present
colossal magnitude, were utterly in
significant.
Hamilton only demanded that a
few leading articles should be put
upon the dutiable list: nor did his
wildest conception take in the possi
bility that Qustom Houses would be
erected anywhere except upon the
coasts.
Surely he never imagined that his
8 per cent rate of duty would swell
until upon some articles of prime
necessity it would reach the shame
less extortion of more than 100 per
cent. Surely his dreams were never
haunted by the thought that selfish
Manufacturers would walk inso
lently into the room of the Com
mittee on Ways and Means, at the
Capitol, and absolutely dictate the
amount of “ Protection” they de
manded.
Bold as Hamilton was, much as he
loved a wealthy class, strongly as he
believed in favored industries, he
was yet an honest man and a patriot,
and he would have shrunk with hor
ror from the prostitution of his ideas
of statesmanship to the sordid pur
poses of the privileged, i who seek to
plunder the* unprotected.
CU'S'TGM’ KL T N l ArAr>. I
Even Hamilton would have been
shocked at the waste of public mon
ey in the erection of Custom houses
at interior towns, hundreds, and
even thousands of miles from the
coasts ; and the filling of them with
useless employees, whose only duties
consist in “ drawing their salaries
and their breath.”
Scores of “Ports of Entry” have
been established off the sea-coast.
They are run st a yearly expense of
millions of dollars, to say nothing of
the enormous sums of money which
have been spert in building the Cus
tom Houses.
Every dollar of that money is ab
solutely thrown awav. The duties
which are oolbcted at the interior
ports, would hive been collected on
the coast at noadditional cost to the
Government. The establishment of
the interior Nations accomplishes
only two purpses: they give that
particular cityi handsome building
at the public expense, and they fur
nish shady plices for importunate
office seekers.
This particulr branch of the Tar
iff question-has been so completely
overlooked, thatperhaps you will al
low me to give x>u a few samples of
the ludicrous ad preposterous and
outrageous systtn.
In the State f Virginia the Cus
toms Duties arounted in 1890 to
$22,000. How much do you sup
pose it cost to cllect it ?
Thirty tnousad Dollars!
At.the town ci Alexandria, a dried
up interior villag, they have a Cus
tom House outt which costs the
tax-payers $1,20 i! per year.
How much duy do they collect ?
One hundred ad twenty-five dol
lars !
At Cherrystc n Virginia, the Cus
tom House outfi costs the people
$1,950 per year.
How much dut do they collect?
Not One Cen!
What on earthbose office holders
do to keep up the self esteem, God,
in His majestic wdom only knows!
In West Virgin, the entire Cus
tom House collect ns were $294.
This modest sui is gathered into
the treasury, painilly and conscien
tiously, at a modete annual cost of
$1,159.00.
In Florida, the rce grows even
merrier.
Apalachicola theyollected SI,OOO
and they spent $2,4) to do it !
At Fernandina ey spent some
$2,500 in the frenzit toil of collect
ing thirty-odd hundd.
At bt. Augustine a tropical cli
max is reached: a imax of the
warmest color and thdchest foliage.
They arduously toil 11 the year:
they spend SI,BOO othe people’s
taxes, and they collec\fteen cents !
At St. Marks they llect $24.00.
Twenty-four actual, 'ma fide, ro
bust, palpitating dollarr
They spend $3,500 i4oing so!
At Annapolis, Maiand, they
spent in 1890, the modest total of
8952. They collected absolutely
nothing.
In 1891, however, business was
brisk and the collector undoubtedly
perspired; for he collected 843.50 at
a cost to the tax-payers of only
$952.50.
In Saquina, Oregon, they spend
81,100 in salaries, and collect SSO in
duties.
At Great Egg Harbor, N. J., the
office holders get $B3l, and the
treasury gets sl7.
At Sagg Harbor, the collector has
a nice snug salary of $684, and he
collects nothing at all.
In the State of Georgia $75,000
was collected in 1890 at a cost of
$25,000.
At Savannah $58,000 was collected
at a cost of $15,000.
At Brunswick, $7,000; ata cost
of $5,000.
At Atlanta, they collected $7,000
at a cost of $2,000.
At St. Mary’s they raked in $69,
on tonnage duties, at the moderate
expense of $1,400.
In 1891 this booming seaport
spread herself. She spent SI,BOO.
Collecting SSO!
At Chattanooga (1891) they col
lected nothing, and drew a salary of
SSOO for doing it.
At Beaufort, North Carolina, they
collected nothing, and drew salaries
of $1,134 for doing it.
At Beaufort, South Carolina, the
office holders determined to make
the Nortn Carolina town ashamed of
itself.
So they collected $1,900, and
charged the “poor, down trodden
tax-payer” $5,000 for doing it!
At Georgetown, S. C., they whirl
ed in and harvested S3O as the gross
result of twelve months’ official toil.
Their charges to the tax-payer
footed up $l,lOO.
At Vicksburg, Miss., the weary
office holder had to collect 82.00.
The weary tax-payer paid him
$533 for doing so.
Comment upon such a state of
things would only weaken the force
of the facts.
It is safe to say that of the $7,000,-
000 now paid every year to collect
the Tariff Taxes, at least $2,000,000
are absolutely thrown away in erect
ing Custom Houses at places where
the only demand for them comes
from those who want to get within
the genial atmosphere of a govern
ment appropriation.
THE INTERNAL REVENUE SYSTEM
DENOUNCED.
Mr. Jefferson also denounced Ham
ilton “ Excise”—the parent of our
Internal Revenue System.
The great expounder of Demo
cratic doctrine described it as an
“ Infernal” System.
He opposed it during the adminis-
I trations of Washington and Adams.
Wh Ju Ko, K hima«if r was elected
President he swept the entire sys
tem with its horde of spies, inform
ers and pap-suckers, off the face of
the earth!
It was one of the achievements of
his administration in which he most
gloried, that he had utterly destroy
ed that much of Hamilton’s bad
work. He supposed he had uprooted
it permanently.
To-day it is fastened upon us more
heavily than ever before conceived
of.
It supports an army of officials,
fortifies the power of the terrible
Whisky Trust, and exerts a control
over legislation which a stranger to
our laws could not believe.
The fact that the Government has
created the system, and demands a
tax of 90 cents per gallon upon dis
tilled spirits, does no harm to the
distiller, because his customer pays
the tax. But he uses this 00 cents
tax as a leverage to extort favors.
He compels the law-makers to estab
lish for his benefit a Sub-Treasury,
or Warehouse System, to the loss of
the tax-payer and the gain of the
Whisky Trust.
No Legislative body ever passed a
more indefensible act than that which
allows the Distillers to put their
“ fire-water” in a Bonded Ware
house, and obtain a Certificate of De
posit, and a loan of the Tax for three
years at 4 per cent interest.
From the Official Report of 1891,
I find that the enormous quantity of
112,000,000 gallons were thus left
on deposit for that year. At 90
cents per gallon, the tax would have
been $100,800,000. This amount
was due, then and there.
But the Government steps in by
special legislation and agrees to
lend them that sum of the people’s
taxes at 4 per cent interest.
Corn juice can get its Warehouse,
its Sub-Treasury, its certificate, its
loan: but the corn itself cannot!
SUB-TREASURY FOB WHISKY.
In the hands of the Farmer, it is
the staff of life—necessary to man
kind. The rich must have it, the
poor mnst have it. Destroy it, and
the cheek of the world pales at the
fear of famine. Preserve it and the
health and strength of all men and
beasts are assured.
In the hands of the Distiller, it is
the weapon of death—a pestilence
to the universe. It goes among the
children of men hissing malice to
the murderer, carrying rags to the
wife and her children, filling the
squalid home with vice and crime,
staining the streets with bloody riot,
But when the Farmer pleads, as
an escape from the grievous wrongs
which the Government has done him
through class laws,that they allow Aim
Warehouse and a Loan, he is scoffed
at, abused, ridiculed, insulted and ig
nominiously driven away.
“Equal and exact justice to all
men,” said the' great apostle of dem
ocratic principle.
“ Special Favors to Corn Whisky
but none to Corn itself,” say the mod
ern political bosses who wear the
name of Democracy and trample
upon its principles!
JEFFERSON ON TAXATION.
Mr. Jefferson’s theory of taxation
was altogether different.
He knew that Hamilton’s system
would concentrate wealth in the
hands of a favored class, thus making
the rich richer and the poor poorer.
His idea was that taxation was a
public burden, and should be laid
upon the shoulders of those who
were able to bear it.
It was no part of his democracy
to put the heaviest burden upon the
weakest shoulders.
It was no part of his dream of
“equal and exact justice to all men”
that a few thousand manufacturers
should so frame the law that sixty
millions of consumers would be com
pelled to buy from them, whether
the price was reasonable or not, a re
sult of which lovely system would
be that the manufacturer would
fleece the consumer $700,000,000
while the government was collecting
s2oo,ooo,mtax.
No count* can be far from des
potism or revolution when the tax
ing power is given over to a favored
class, in order that they may levy
tribute balance of the peo
ple !
Mr. Jefferson saw this. He re
alized the gangers of concentrated
weolth. He dreaded the advent of
the millionaire.
His conception was that the earth
was a common stock, given to us all
by the Creator, and from which we
had the right to demand a living in
return for labor. The right to work
and to bg paid a fair price for it, he
designated as “a fundamental right.”
Therefore he was bound to see
that in proportion as a few men
seized upon the lands and the pro
ducts of the earth, there would be
scarcity and suffering and oppression
to the many.
According to his belief, the earth
and all it contained Tyas God’s pro-
for his children. That all had
a right, by labor, to eat, to wear, and
to live.
Hence when a million dollars was
accumulated in the hands of one
fortunate individual, the common
stock of all men was to that extent
lessened. The opportunity of all
others to labor and to live was to
that extent diminished.
Great fortunes accumulated in the
hands of a few, meant great proverty
to the many. Thus class distinctions
would arise, inequalities would be
come unjust and dangerous, man
ners would be corrupted, morals de
praved, politics debauched, and
money would become more impor
tant than the man.
He had observed in France K the
evifls attending such a System. He
had seen the Princes of the State
and the Princes of the Church in
possession of almost the entire wealth
of France. He had seen how arro
gantly they overrode the common
people of the State and the poorer
priests in the Church. He had seen
among the favored few, reckless ex
travagance, riotous living, shameless
morals, godless lives. He had seen
among the unprivileged, squalied
misery, wretched huts, fields stripped
to barreness by exhorbitant taxes,
labor robbed of its right to reward,
bent and starved by the rigorous
cruelty of undeserved poverty.
The poor paid all the taxes and
got none of the blessings of Govern
ment.
The rich paid none of the taxes,
and got all the benefits of Govern
ment.
Go read these letters of Jefferson
written from France previous to her
bloody Revolution !
You young men into whose hands
are speedily coming the destinies of
this Republic—go read these letters
and ponder them well!
And then remember that suffering
humanity, having appealed in vain
for redress, up in
mighty wrath and swept that foul
tyrrany of Church and State, off the
face of the earth, in the red fires of
Revolution.
THE DAY OF THE PLUTOCRAT.
Just as cleanly as he foresaw the
terrors of the Slavery question, Jef
ferson’s vision behold the horrors of
Plutocracy.
Among the shadows of the uncer
tain future of his country, he saw
the tremendous inequalities of
wealth, the rise of the untaxed mil
lionaire, the colossal fortune of the
Notional Banker, and the “Pro
tected” manufacturer.
His prophetic eyes saw the vision,
of which we have made a reality—
the regal splendors of Fifth Avenue
and the abject misery of Five Points;
the splendid hospital for pet dogs,
and the pestilential tenement rattle
traps for ragged, hungry, outcast
humanity; the gorgeous yacht and
parlor car for successful plunderers
like Gould and Huntingdon and
Stanford and Rockefeller; and the
rock pile, the coal mine, the ball and
the chain of horrible convict life fcr
the awkward rascals who steal a loaf
to eat, a coat to wear, or a cup of
milk to drink. The upper terrace of
life where vicious laws, like roving
Corsairs, have stored all the fruits of
modern legalized piracy, and where
the gilded rascals of high society
enjoy ajl the spoils of special privi
lege : The lower plane where the
struggle of existence goes on like a
terrific battle every day with its
thousands of killed, wounded and
missing : with its dreadful choice be
tween hunger and crime, between
virtue and vice.
Upon the one hand a charmed
region where all is light and music
and festivity; where the banquet
board rivals the splendid waste of a
Roman Emperor; where the gor
geous apparel, flashing with gems,
represents the spoliation of a thous
and homes, and where every note of
joy. rising as it does from the pride
of ill-gotten gains, has its deep coun
terpart in the groans of the wretched,
from whom their subsistence was
taken that it might be squandered in
plutocratic debauchery.
On the other hand, what have we ?
Numberless unhappy mortals, broth
ers and sisters to us, crowded like
brutes in stifling huts and cellars
and garrets—almost unclothed, well
nigh unfed; their gaunt fingers al
ways outstretched in the mute plea
of want; their bed a stone in the
street, or a corner in the alley;
knowing the law only as their ene
my ; knowing the government only
as the partner of victorious robbers
who despoiled them; knowing the
church principally by its dignified
ministry and magnificent temples—a
ministry which shuns the contamina
tion of their touch, and a church
whose velvet pews they are not ex
pected to soil—these are the people
and these are the human slums
which are the legitimate offsprings of
our infamous system. These are the
quarters we make for crime. These
are the citadels we furnish vice.
Couched in these lairs are all the
evils civilization abhors and creates !
It is here that the rum shop finds
a stability nothing can shake; im
morality an impulse nothing can
check ; crime a seed-bed nothing can
sterilize; pestilence a source which
nothing can exhaust; religion a bar
rier which nothing can level!
All honor to such men as Booth,
and his Salvation Army; all honor
to the Sisters of Mercy of the Cath
olic church; all honor to the Mission
work of the Protestantt; all honor
to Evangelists like Sam Jones, and
Sam Small, and Moody, and Park
burst I
But I venture, here, this deliberate
prediction: Emanuel’s Kingdom
will never float its standards, in
complete triumph, over the lives of
men until some of the glorious doc
trines in behalf of common hu
manity, soma of the warm-hearted
democracy of Jesus Christ, finds a
place in the laws of his professed
disciples!
What was the remedy which Jef
ferson proposed for this threatened
evil ?
First, and most essential, to have
no class legislation.
Second, to have a system of taxa
tion which would exempt, altogether,
the small property, while it taxed
the large fortune, on a graduated
scale, which was to make the tax in
creasingly heavy as tho fortune grew
increasingly large.
These are his words * K
“Another means of silently lessen
ing the inequalities of property is to
exempt all from taxation below a
certain point, and to tax the higher
portions of property in geometrical
progression aa they rise.”
The Atlanta Constitution quotes
this paragraph approvingly, in its
editorial columns to support its de
mand for an Income Tax. The posi
tion is quite correct as far as it goes.
It certainly does not go far enough.
Mr. Jefferson was speaking of the
excessive accumulation of property
and of taxing that excessive accumu
lation. His idea was that a man who
had only a beggarly million should
not pay as high a tax, even in pro
portion, as George Gould, but that
as we went up the ladder, the tax
should be increasingly heavy for each
million.
The theory was to discourage ex
cessive concentration—a concentra
tion which can bring no happiness to
the individual who accumulates it,
but which must do enormous harm
to the mass of the people from which
it is taken.
In other words he desired to create
a means to prevent any one man
from taking from the common stock
so much more than his share:—so
much more than his legitimate indus
try had earned or his legitimate needs
required.
LISTEN TO THESE WORDS.
“I am not one of those who fear
the people They, and not the rich,
are oui dependence for continued
freedom. And, to preserve our in
dependence, we must not let our
rulers load us with a perpetual debt.
We must make our election between
economy and liberty* or profusion
and servitude. If we run into such
debts as that we must be taxed in
our meat and in our drink, in our
necessaries and our comforts, in our
labors and amusements, for our call
ings and our creeds, as the people of
England are, our people, like them,
must come to labor sixteen hours in
the twenty-four, give the earnings of
fifteen of these to the government
for their debts and daily .expenses;
and the sixteenth being insufficient to
afford us bread, * * We must
be contented with penury, obscurity,
exile and the “glory” of the nation.”
JEFFERSON OPPOSES MONOPOLIES.
Writing from Paris to Mr. Madi
son, in 1787, Mr. Jefferson said that
one of his chief objections to our
present Constitution, was that it did
not more strongly provide for the
restriction of monopolies.”
The Corporation is dangerous
enough, Heaven knows ! But when
you allow the resistless power of the
Corporation to unite itself to the evil
spirit of Monopoly, the issue of the
foul cohabitation is Tyranny of th«
most ruinous sort.
Take, every one of the colossal
estates which are today a menace to
the'Republic, and you will see that
Monopoly created it. And Rail