Newspaper Page Text
4
THE ATLANTA SEMI-WEEKLY JOURNAL, ATLANTA, GA., TUESDAY, JUNE 3, 1913.
I
THE SEMI-WEEEY JOURNAL
The Rout of the Tariff Lobby.
It was characteristic of President Wilson that
ATLAKTA, GA., S WORTH rOBSTTH ST.
Entered at the Atlanta Postoffice as Mall Matter of
the Second Class.
JAMES R. GRAY,
President and Editor.
SUBSCRIPTION PRICE
Twelve months 75°
Six months
Three months • - 5o
The Semi-Weekly Journal is published on Tuesday
and Friday, and is mailed by the shortest routes for
early delivery.
It contains news from all over the world, brought
by special leased wires into otir office. It has a staf*
of distinguished contributors, with strong department*
of special value to the home and the farm.
Agents war ted at every postoffice. Liberal com*
mission allowed. Outfit free. Write R. R- BRAD
LEY, Circulation Manager. \
The only traveling representatives we have ar*
J. A. Bryan, R. F. Bolton, C. C. Coyle, L. H. Kim
brough-and C. T. Yates. We will be responsible only
for money paid to the above named traveling repre
sentatives.
NOTICE TO SUBSCRIBERS.
The label used for addressing your paper
shows the time your subscription expires. By
renewing at least two weeks before the date on
this label, you insure regular service.
In ordering paper changed, be sure to mention
your old, as well as your new address. If on a
route please give the route number.
We cannot enter subscriptions to begin with
back numbers. Remittances should be sent by
postal order or registered mail.
Address all orders and notices for this de
partment to THE SEMI-WEEKLY JOURNAL,
Atlanta, Ga.
More Crops Mean More Money.
In commenting on the wonderful Variety of crops
that can be profitably grown in Georgia, the Savan
nah Morning News mentions a particularly inter
esting example of a Wilkes county farmer who now
has under cultivation one hundred and twenty-five
acres which include corn, wheat, oats, rye, alfalfa,
turnips, potatoes and other food products. The
prospect for each of these crops is cheering hut.
should any of them prove a failure, the others
would stand ready to hedge the loss, a situation
vastly safer and better than that of the farmer who
stakes his all on a single venture in cotton. The
News adds, in this connection:
“While weather conditions this spring have
not been favorable, there is no evidence that the
farmers have despaired of making money. The
report comes from Tift county that despite all
discouragements, farmers there received one
hundred and twenty-five dollars an acre tor their
cabbages. The repeated warning that there
must be diversification of crops is having
effect.”
No omen in Georgia’s agricultural affairs is'more
assuring than that which points to a breaking away
from the old tyranny of the one-crop idea; nor is
there surer evidence that the principles of scientific
and businesslike farming are at length being ap
plied. The time is fast coming when Georgia will
, f
nc longer depeiid for its prosperity .on cotton or
on any other one product hut when every season, if
not every month, will yield a harvest of its own.
A State whose soil and climate are capable of
producing almost everything needed for man’s sus
tenance should not limit its energy to a single field
of agriculture, and that an uncertain one. Let
the present movement toward wide diversity in
crops continue, and Georgia will be a thousandfold
richer and more independent than ever before.
What Next in Mexico?
Observers of the situation in Mexico are now spec
ulating upon whether the Huerta regime can hold
itself intact until a presidential election is conducted
and a new chief executive is chosen by constitutional
methods. Both houses of the Congress have already
passed a bill fixing October the twenty-sixth next as
the date for such an election and, though Provisional
President Huerta seems in no hurry to issue a decree
to that effect, it is not likely that he will delay much
longer in doing so.
In the meantime, the most that he can hope to
do is to hold the country in comparative peace. If,
as is reported, he and his associates have secured a
large loan from European bankers, this task will
henceforth he easier than it has been for several
months past. His military forces, which of late have
been sadly depleted and demoralized, can be strength
ened, and with an improved treasury he can carry
forward those urgent activities of the government
which had come' almost to a standstill.
It is not believed that Huerta has personal ambi
tions for the Immediate future. Any dreams which
he might once have entertained have been shattered
by the severe condemnation which his bloody betrayal
of the late Preside Madero has encountered abroad
as well as at home. There are now strongly organ
ized camps of revolution in both northern and south
ern Mexico to overthrow him forthwith without wait
ing until his successor can be chosen in an orderly
manner.
The only avowed candidate for the Presidency is
Felix Diaz and he, like Huerta, is under a cloud of
public suspicion as a conspirator in the slaying of
Madero. Dispatches say that the tone of a large part
of the Mexican press'and the expressions of the opin
ion of many people, including numerous friends of
Felix Diaz, “indicate that his popularity has waned
and that there is little chance of his election.”
The other probable candidates for the Presidency
are Manuel Calero, formerly Mexican ambassador r.t
Washington, and Francisco de la Barra, now minis
ter of foreign affairs. The latter seemfe to he by far
the stronger of these two men in so far as personal
gifts and attainments are concerned. The younger
Diaz, however, is a figure that xico must reckon
with, whether or not he should he elected. He is ex
tremely ambitious. He has proved his skill and hard
ihood as a soldier; and, if by any turn of popular
sentiment he succeeds in mustering about him a con
siderable force of followers, he can make trouble for
any administration that may be established.
The thing immediately to be desired in Mexico
is a maintenance of peace until the presidential elec
tion can be held. Whoever is chosen in that election
will at least have the advantage of having attained
the office through constitutional means and, if an
able man, he will probably command the support of
a majority of patriotic Mexicans.
he should speak patly and bluntly and straight to
the people concerning the efforts of so’ sh interests
to override or weaken the tariff hill now before the
Senate. It has ever been the Wilson way to talk as
plainly of men as of measures and to keep in direct
touch with the rank and file to whom the govern
ment rightfully belongs. It is thus that he concen
trates the pressure of public opinion on crucial is
sues and produces results.
That the President was sure of his ground when
he declared last week that “a numerc s, indus
trious lobby” was at work in Washington to impede
and, if possible, to defeat the cause of honest tariff
revision, there can be no doubt. Those particular
interests which in the past have controlled the gov
ernment realized this year that the one hope of
gaining their ends lay in the Senate. The House
afforded them little or no opportunity, for it is over
whelmingly Democratic and the majority of its mem
bers are fresh from the people. But in the Senate,
the margin of Democratic powei is extremely nar
row, so that a few votesI changed would accomplish
the purpose of those opposing tariff revision. Hence,
as a correspondent observes, "the sending of the
bill to the Senate was the signal for the rallying of
the practical tariff workers at Wasnington, together
with the great stirring of their principals who sit in
distant cities and direct their operations.”.
Now, there can be no objection to business men
going openly to a Senate committee and presenting
their views or claims with reference to tariff sched
ules. This is their right; and when they come in good
faith and aboveboard they should be welcomed. It is
not against such men that the President warns the
country but against that swarm of special agents em
ployed by protected interests to work covertly and
in concert to sway the mind or the conscience of the
people’s representatives and against the equally per
nicious efforts to manufacture a spurious “public
opinion” through misstatement of the facts concern
ing the tariff bill. Mr. Wilson lays bare the evil of
such activities when he says:
“It is of serious interest to the country that
the people at large should have no lobby, and be
voiceless, in these matters when great bodies of
astute men seek to create an artificial opinion
and to overcome the interests of the public for
their private profit. The Government in all its
branches ought to be relieved from this intol
erable burden and this constant interruption to
the calm progress of debate."
What right has a trust or other organization to
seek influences which the public is denied or to seek
favors which are contrary to the public good? If
this nation is really a democracy, then all men and
all interests must stand on an equal footing in ap
peals to the Government.
The President’s sharp and timely warning has al
ready had the desired effect. For one thing, it has
put the lobbyists on notice that their workings are
under the searchlight of publicity. It has put the
Senate on notice that the people are more keenly
watchful than ever before and that every vote against
genuine tariff revision will he subjected to the closest
scrutiny. And what is perhaps most important of all,
it has put the country on notice that a heavily fi
nanced campaign to create artificial sentiment has
been afoot and that true public sentiment must make
itself heard and felt.
As a direct and immediate result of the Presi
dent’s statement, the Senate has ordered a thorough
inquiry into the lobby situation. The judiciary com
mittee has been instructed to ascertain and report
the names and the methods of lobbyists. Senators
will he required to testify as to who has approached
them with reference to particular schedules, what
suggestions have been employed to influence their
vote, and, furthermore, any senators who may be per
sonally or financially interested in protected indus
tries will be required to explain their interest.
The effect of such a procedure cannot be other
wise than wholesome and favorable to the enactment
of the pending tariff bill; for, it will bring the Sen
ate into the full light of public attention. It will re
veal the methods and motives of those who are oppos
ing tariff revision and will draw the line sharply and
decisively between Senators who stand for the coun
try’s common interests and'those who are allied with
the forces of special privilege.
Thus the outlook for the passage of the tariff bill
substantially as it came from the House is brighter
today than at any time since the extra session of
Congress convened. There will doubtless be changes
of detail in the measure as It now stands, but every
indication is that its essential principles will be pre
served unimpaired. The power of the lobby has been
broken; the rights of the people are to be established,
and Democracy’s pledge squarely fulfilled.
This just and fortunate outcome will be due to
those stanch members of the House and the Senate
who have stood uncompromisingly by the party’s
principles and it will be due very largely, too, to
the splendid hardihood with which President Wilson
has kept His faith.
Study This Problem.
A problem that should set every patron and pupil
of -Georgia’s common schools to thinking was im
pressively stated in a recent communication to The
Journal from Mr. C. R. McCrory, of Ellaville. The
people of this State, he said, are now paying a dollar
and seventy-five cents for the first five text books on
reading arithmetic; for five books of the same class,
the people of Ontario pay only fifty-nine cents. He
then asked this interesting and practical question:
If Georgians buy a million dollars' worth of school
books each year, what would the same books cost
the Canadians f
The first of a number of answers is from Mr. H- V.
Casey, of Atlanta, who replies that on the basis given,
Ontario gets for three hundred and thirty-seven thou
sand, one hundred and forty-two dollars and eighty-
six cents the books for which Georgia spends a mil
lion—a fact which means that our people are charged
an excess of nearly two hundred per cent or some
six hundred and sixty-thvee thousand dollars more
than those of Ontario.
Is not this matter worth investigating by the
school patrons of every community and also by the
General Assembly? Is it true, as Mr. McCrory sug
gests, that they are the victims of a school book
trust? Certainly, the people of Georgia are entitled
to know just why .t is they are having to pay a dol
lar and seventy-five cents for books which are bought
elsewhere for fifty-nine cents.
This difference may mean l'ttle to some families
but to others it means a va3t deal. It may mean lit
tle in respect to individual cases but in respect to
the State as a whole it means more than half a mil
lion dollars annually. Let us have all the facts of
this amazing situation.
Effective Treatment
For Window Smashing.
The British government seems at last to have hit
upon a well-considered and determined policy toward
window-smashing suffragettes. Mrs. Emmeline
Pankhurst, who was released from Holloway jail,
where she had starved herself into a serious illness
and whence she was taken to a sanitarium, has re
gained her health. But instead of being permitted
to go free, as others like her have been, she has been
rearrested and taken hack to prison to serve the re
mainder of a sentence for her destructive and an
archistic acts.
It may be that Mrs. Pankhurst will immediately
go on another “hunger Strike,” and again fall ill. If
so, she will again be put under the care of physicians
and upon her recovery returned to prison; and this
interesting process will be repeated as many times
as may be necessa-y until the demands of the law
have been met.
There can be n„ doubt that London’s militant suf
fragettes have thej iron of the old martyrs in their
blood; but it is hardly to be expected that any con
siderable number of them will be willing to spend a
lifetime in making themselves sick merely to be
cured by stupid doctors and taken prosaically back
to jail. They could die for their convictions serenely
enough, but can they stand this sort of ordeal?
The end of the matter will probably be that these
violent dames of Britain will ..ake better note of the
persuasive methods of their American cousins. They
will learn that tjhere i more power in brains than in
bombs and more power in a fetching smile than in
either. If they do, the British government will face a
far more difficult task than that of protecting windows
and preserving order; even Mr. Asquith would then
be ready to give up the fight.
Here’s to the June bride.
Also here’s to the June graduate.
Hitchcockism Laid Bare.
It was the repeated boast of former Postmaster
General Hitchcock that during his administration a
postal deficit of some seventeen and a half million
dollars was wiped out and a surplus of more than two
hundred thousand dollars attained. This was his
only answer to the public’s protest against the de
moralized and grossly inefficient conditions to which
the sendee sank under his regime. The fact that
mail was delayed for weeks or months and was fre
quently lost, the fact that business interests suffered,
that the department’s employes were overworked and
that the United States postofflee became a national
reproach—these things were of no concern to Hitch
cock who, when confronted with the shame he had
brought upon a great institution would smirkingly
reply that the postal deficit had been elminated and
a surplus established.
And now, as the result of a special investigation
into the affairs of the postoffice as they were left
by the Hitchcock administration, it appears that even
this claim was entirely a false one. The report of
that inquiry as made public yesterday by Post-master
General Burelson shows that the service far from
becoming self-maintaining under Hitchcock actually
sustained a deficit of over seven hundred and fifty
thousand dollars. It was only through unjustifiable
methods of accounting that even a semblance of the
alleged surplus could he made. In this connection
Mr. Burleson declares:
“It is pointed out by the committee that the pub
lished financial reports of the department states the
revenues and the cost of the service on dissimilar, and
therefore, incomparable, bases. Revenues of the postal
service are almost entirely collected in cash and con
sequently relate properly to the fiscal year for which
the report is made. But the committee finds it has
been the practice to compare those only with pay
ments actually made during the fiscal year, regard
less of obligations incurred in that year but not to
be paid until succeeding years.”
It appears furthermore that Hitchcock not only
sacrificed public interests to false economy and dis
torted facts in an effort to bloat his own reputation
but that he also prostituted his power to political
ends. Just before- President Wilson took office, the
investigation shows, Hitchcock filled long-standing
vacancies, made postponed promotions and assumed
commitments to fixed charges for long terms in such
a way “as to saddle the new adinistration with great
ly increased expense during months, if not years to
come. More than one hundred rural mail routes
were authorized in three days.”
Of all the immediate blessings which last Novem
ber’s election vouchsafed the American public, few
were more seasonable or more gratefully received
than thht which rid the government of Hitchcockism.
The small hoy prefers the insane Fourth.
RELIGION
BY DR. PRANK CRANE.
(Copyright, 1913, by Frank Crane.)
There appeared in the newspapers the other day
an account of a man who had invented a new re
ligion; he was rewriting the Bible. God had revealed
certain things to him.
Among the truths he had received by revelation
were these:
There are ten days in the week, instead of seven;
their names are Sabbath, Air. Water, Animals, Units,
Earth, Plants, Birds, Man, and Salvation. Ten; count
’em. Instead of saying you will call next Tuesday or
Friday, you would say next Animals or Birds.
On Salvation he celebrates the Lord’s Supper, which
consists of chocolate drops.
The world is ten million and two years old. The
year, however, is not all what you think it to be. It
is composed of 189 and sorpe odd trillions of minutes.
There are many other items tha,t have been com-
muncated to him from heaven by private wire. He
says: “It is all too complicated to explain till you see
it all—then it is so beautifully simple.” Doesn’t that
sound natural?
The author of this made his money by inventing a
“hair compound’’ and a non-fillable bottle, has now re
tired from business, and is devoting his energies to
the propagation of the faith.
Attention is called to this case, not for the pur
pose of ridiculing this man, for he has a perfect right
to believe the moon is made of green cheese if he
wants to, and that those who hold to the belief that
it is camembert will be eternally lost; but for the
purpose of showing, by this strange ano» marked in
stance, the curious survival, in the popular mind, of
the pagan notion of religion.
Most people still imagine that a man’s religion con
sists in the theories of fancies he entertains • about
the universe, how it was made and hoW will be de
stroyed; also his acceptance of certain facts of history
and his idea of certain facts of the future.
I will say nothing of the popular “beliefs” of peo
ple, because they are unusually sensitive on that point,
so sensitive indeed that it is not considered good
form even to mention them.
But at least I may be allowed to call attention to
what religijn is.
It is a PASSION FOR RI^aITEOUSNESS. As
Beecher used to say, it is morality touched with emo
tion.
The man w-~ does right because he loves it is re
ligious* Whoev-r does wrong because he loves it is
irreligious. And whoso does right, not because he
likes to, out because it pays, is non-religious.
That is the core of the matter, the substance; all
the rest is trimmings.
TV hen one loves to do what he ought to do, when
Ought and Love melt into one thing, he is truly re
ligious.
What he thinks about creation, ancient history, and
the millennium is not the gist of the thing.
People never quarrel over their religion, they quar
rel .ver their fancies. “All good men are of one re
ligion.” said the philosopher.
That religion is the Love of Right, and the Hate
of Wrong. The only “damnable heretic” is the man
that has not this Love and Hate.
WATCH YOUR STEP!
"Where you goln’ this cummer? You ain’t? Why
ain’t you? Everybody else is. That’s th’ only rea
eon I knot, of. It’s th’ summer panic. You don’t
want to let your wife and children think you can't
run as fast as th’ neighbors.
I know a fellow that clerks for th’ gas company.
He’s got four kids an’ *90 a month. Every time hot
weather comes you can see him weaken. I ask him
last week which it was, the seashore or the mountains
for him. He says: ‘I tell you, Jerry, it’s just this
way: They’re all doin’ it, an’ you got to go if you
don’t want your kids to feel ’shamed of their daddy
an’ th’ old woman stay on the ice wagon for life. I
don’t mind payin’ fare to th’ country, but I don’t see
where th’ joy comes in. They put up at th’ worst
joint you ever see. If that summer boardin’ house
was in our block my wife wouldn’t speak to anybody
that went to ih I got a week off last year an’ joined
’em. They lived on canned tomatoes an’ meat that
tasted like a boiled Derby hat. Th’ cookin’ was fierce.
Had roast hen on Sunday. You’d thought it was
pickled buzzard. It was too hot to go out any day I
was there. Mosquitos worked day an’ night. My wife
broke her ankle failin’ off j. chair. She was killin’
spiders on the ceilin’ with her shoe. Had to do it
every night. But my folks had to stay. We let on
that it’s fine. ‘Where you gain’ this summer, Jerry?”
“I told him th’ company don’t hand out vacations
to us fellows. If I had to chase off an’ spend all I
got just to prove I didn’t dare stay at home, I’m glad
I can’t. Every married man I know has got this vaca
tion bug. Most of ’em ain’t afraid of nothing’, but
they will fall for this summer misery. Some day,
when their neighbors go ’way for the summer, they’ll
be tickled to death and live cooler, have more fun and
sleep sounder than they i, winter.
“Look out for that other car, mister! ,
"Look where you goin’!
"Watch your step!”
Watch Insurgent Senators
(Collier’s Weekly.)
There are in the United States senate seven men
who, as Republicans four yea,rs ago, broke away from
their party and voted against the Payne-Aldrich tar
iff bill. They are:
Joseph L. Bristow, Kansas.
Moses E. Clapp, Minnesota.
•We should say that the grape juice market should
be looking up.
The Progress of Reclamation.
Georgians who are interested in the reclamation
of swamp and overflow lands should be encouraged
by the fact that such enterprises are being dis
cussed and pressed forward throughout the South.
In Florida there is a well supported movement for
a State bond issue of millions of dohars to drain
the Everglades and in Kentucky far-reaching plans
are now afoot to reclaim great areas of farm land
which are rendered useless by unregulated streams.
The Louisville Courier-Journal cites an instate
which is noteworthy for the reason -iat it illus
trates conditions in many counties of Georgia.
“A survey is now being made," says that
paper, “for the purpose of determining the best
plan for straightening and deepening Black
ford creek and a smaller stream known as
Caney creek. The question has been agitated
for the past four years by the land owners. It
is estimated that the work would benefit
some fifteen thousand to eighteen thousand acres
of land, lying along the two streams, land which
is subject to overflows and much of which is
not now available for agricultural purposes. The
present value of his land is less than twenty-
five dollars an acre."
Little wonder that the owners of this property
are interested in the drainage question when they
realize through proper engineering methods the
value of their acres can be raised from 'twenty-five
to one hundred dollars each. In the course of a sin
gle year, these creeks destroy or damage much prop
erty and keep much more from cultivation. The
loss thus entailed is far greater than the cost of
drainage would be. It behooves good farmers and
good business men in all Southern States, and par
ticularly in Georgia, to encourage in every way pos
sible, the drainage movement.
Coe I. ^awford, South Dakota.
Albert Cummins, Iowa.
Robert M. La Follette, Wisconsin.
Knute Nelson, Minnesota.
Miles Poindexter, Washington.
These compose the senators who are left of the
original Insurgents. Their vote against the Payne-
Aldrich tariff bill in 1909 elevated them high in pub
lic esteem. One of the most interesting problems of
the present moment is whether in the year 1913 they
will vote for or against the Payne-Aldrich tariff bill.
The problem before them cannot be stated otherwise.
The final vote in the present tariff session will be
either to perpetuate the Payne-Aldrich bill or to sub
stitute another.
BY JOHN W. CAREY.
Wno early copped him out a pick to dig for coal
with same and dug himself a tunnel to the well known
Hall of Fame?
Who got so solid
with the gang
they’d wait for
him to say if it
should be a walk
out or “thereTl be
no strike today?’
Who mixed it
with the nabobs
when they slipped
the boyo a lime
always got
on the hip
and made them
come to time?
Who pulled a
Democratic plum
from Sulzer, o:
New York, al
though if you'l]
recall he bears the
Grand Old Party’s
mark? Who seems
to stand ace high
with all—c.p.’s and
p.c.’s, too .-except His Honor, Justice Wright)? John
Mitchell, E-S-Q.
THE INCOME TAX
VIII.—Effect Upon Other Taxes.
BY FREDERIC J. HASKIN.
One of the principal objections to the imposition
of an income tax in the United States has come from
the advocates of protection, the ground being that the
collection of such a tax would
lessen the demand of the treas
ury for income from customs
collections, and, therefore, it
would be a blow at the princi
ple of protection. Upon the
present basis of expenditures
in the United States the amount
of money needed from customs
ranges around $325,000,000, and
nything that tends to reduce
this amount, of course, tends to
weaken one of the favorite ar
guments of the protectionists
against a lowering of the tar
iff—that the government needs
the money. Their opponents
contend tnat this is no argu
ment in favor of protection at
all, since prohibitive duties do
not add anything directly to
the public treasury, but serve
only to keep out foreign goods. On the other hand,
it is to be said that not all protectionists agree that
an income tax is necessarily an assault/upon protec
tion. Those who held that it is not, declare that un
der our rapidly expanding governmental activities ad
ditional appropriations are needed, and to meet them
aditional revenues must be forthcoming—additional
revenues that can best be supplied by an income tax.
• * *
It is probable that no one will deny that as pro
posed by the Democrats an income tax is an assault
upon protection. They propose to use it as a means
of revenue raising that not only will permit them to
cut out prohibitive duties entirely, but to lower some
revenue-producing duties as well. Without this tax
the Democrats could not cut tariff duties below a
point where they would yield an annual revenue of
over $300,000,000. With this income tax they can
probably cut them to a point where they will yield
$100,000,000 less.
The great expansion of the national demands for
revenue »that has taken place, shows that if any kind
of tax which we choose to levy is kept at even an
approximately normal rate, from time to time new
methods must be found of raising such revenues. In
the early Jay3 of the republic, when there was an
especial pinch in government finances, a direct tatx
apportioned among the states, was levied. For nearly
a half century before the Civil war the customs re
ceipts wer e about the only form of taxes that the
United States needed to carry on the affairs of the
government. Then came the great war, and every
thing in sight had to be taxed, with the result that
the internal revenue taxes were created. After the
war f hese taxes on production were retained for the
purpose of meeting the interest on the national debt,
and they have been continued so long that everybody
seems now to take them as a matter of courses Now
the country has. come to a pass where even these two
forms of taxation do not yield enough to meet the
expenditures of the government in lean years, and
Uncle Sam seeks something that will save him from
putting up the ordinary internal revenue taxes and
the revenue-producing clauses of the tariff law.
• • •
Taxing authorities generally agree that the United
States taxes, its people less heavily than any other
principal country in the world. If the American peo
ple were willing to bear the same burdens of taxation
that are cheerfully borne by the British, the German,
the French and the other nations of Europe, a simple
system of internal revenue taxation would yield a bll- f
lion where now it yields a few hundred million dollars.
• • •
The one plain lesson of the history of American
taxation is that in these latter days, when so much
revenue is needed, that no one tax will meet all of the
purposes and emergencies of the country, and that
supplemental taxation must be rendered possible if
national life is to be assured. A national land tkx
as the engine of raising the national revenues would
be outrageously high; a national customs tax to meet
them all would demand a tarilf wall higher than the
highest of all the high priests of protection would en
act; and an internal revenue tax to keep the treasury
solvent would force the price of drinks andsmokea
up so high or else compel the extension of the tax to
so many commonplace subjects, that the people would
rise in protest. It is by supplementing one tax with
another and understudying them both with a third
that sufficient revenue can be raised and the objec
tions of the people forestalled.
...
The national? government has the advantage o% the
state governments In the matter of taxation—nearly
all of Its taxes-are “unconscious” taxes. The man
who buys a suit of clothes made of cfoth of English
weave cannot tell how much h e has contributed to the
United States treasury by the transaction. Likewise,
the man who smokes a box of Havana cigars knows
nothing of what Uncle Sam gets out of the price he
paid for them. Perhaps no man in America could
calculate within 40 per cent or Just how much tax he
pays Uncle Sam each year through the customs
houses. Not knowing what his burden is, and indeed
in many instances ignorant of the fact that he is bur
dened at all. such taxes do not arouse opposition. No
one thinks of objecting to the internal revenue taxes,
and the objection made to the tariff taxes are not
based upon the amount th e government exacts, but
upon the alleged fact that home manufacturers use
these rates as a shelter from competition.
• • *
With the income tax it is different. There a man
calculates it in dollars and cents. He knows exactly
what his burden is, and that knowledge makes it seem
the heavier. It follows that there is more dissatis
faction and often an effort to dodge the burden. It
is plain that only a long process of education could
lead the American people to stand and be taxed as
they are, if they coul4 tell just how much that is. If
an income tax were the sole source of raising revenues
the rates would have to be so high or the exemption
so low that there would be serious trouble.
* * *
It has been suggested in some quarters that the
American inci me tax ought to be levied in the same
way that th e inheritance tax in England is levied—
the general government Imposing and collecting it and
turning a specified part of it over to the states for
their use. It is pointed out that the general property
tax, to a large degree, - has had the word failure writ
ten across its face. With personal property becoming
mor e and more intangible every year, dodging taxes
upon it has become correspondingly easy. The story
is told of a former United States senator generally
rated as ’rorth a half million dollars in personal
property. When the assessor came around that man
was so poor in this world’s goods that he could find
only a watch and a saddle horse to assess. If this
idea of making the income tax for the joint use of
the state and the nation should ever be adopted it
would probably do away entirely with the personal
property tax.
* * *
Lnder the political situation as it stands today
the income tax law. which the next few months prom
ise to plac e upon the federal statute books, will differ
from the corporation tax in its effect upon other
sources of federal revenue, while it will not Inter
fere in any particular with the internal taxes or rates,
it will result in the lowering of many tariff ’duties.
When the corporation tax was created it was not for
the purpose of enabling congress to lower the then
existing tariff but rather to supplement the income
from the customs houses in order to prevent a continu
ing deficit in the treasury. The income tax levied by
the Democrats will make the latter end their second
ary aim and the lowering of the tariff their primary
object.