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Editorial and City Life Section Hearst’s Sunday American, Atlanta, Sunday, August 17, 1913 taxation—he paid a little something occasionally out of good nature in a joking sort of way. And while the elephant’s foot still is felt, with its heavy weight, every man, woman and child in this country has cause for congratulation. For at least we know the truth, we see it, can utter it, AND THE TRUTH WILL SET US FREE. It is the poor man in our country who has felt the weight. He has carried the heavy load to keep his children in school. He has paid the big taxes that the trust laid upon the food that he ate, from the meat of the ox to the milk in his baby’s bottle. « # « Our American elephant of taxation, although Invisible and not always understood, has been just as REAL as any elephant that ever lumbered out of his richly carved stable in the rajah’s court to crush a miserable creature’s skull. Our farmers, feeding the people, actually pro ducing the wealth, have been forced to borrow money and forced to pay more than eight per cent for it on the average. And the little business man has been crushed by the competition and the brutal conspiracies of the big capitalistic combination. He has felt the elephant’s foot. Young women in tens of thousands have been employed on a basis of under-payment and under feeding that meant ruined health or worse. Children have been ground up into dividends in mills, factories and mines—they have all felt the elephant’s foot and Its full weight. * * * But improvement has been steady In this coun- which Is a beginning at least And that means progress. We have discovered that public opinion and public investigation can cope witty private con spiracies and combinations, and that means progress. * * ♦ We have broken away as a nation from the stupid system of subserviency and submission. PROTESTS ARE HEARD IN EVERY HOUSE, IN EVERY CITY, TOWN AND VILLAGE—AND THAT MEANS PROGRESS. Remember that the human race as a whole has been able to read for less than a century. And printing is a new art, and telling the truth with print still newer. The business of conquering and cultivating this continent has kept the nation busy. To a few dishonest men and to dishonest law yers has been left the business of law making, law interpreting and gouging through the laws. « « * We should be encouraged when we realize how much has been done in this land. Only one hundred and thirty-seven years ago a nation smaller than the population of New York City is to-day decided to set up in the governing business independent of England. In that short time we have built all our rail roads, developed our nation, created the great States, and DEVELOPED PUBLIC EDUCATION FREE FROM INTERFERENCE OF GOVERN- MENT OR RELIGION. We have done wonders, indeed, in a few gen erations. Copyright. 101S. by th* Stax. Compaay. Groat Britain Righto Reoorrod. HIS picture is intended to fix your mind on our “civilized” system of taxation, and also to make you know that the world is get ting better steadily and rapidly. When the rajahs, gaekw r ars and other curiously named rulers controlled India the elephant was the princes’ toy and pleasure. Sometimes elephants were put to fighting each other for the amusement of a prince. Constantly the elephant’s great bulk and power were used to crush out the lives of those that re belled against the princes. Many a miserable creature felt the weight of the elephant’s heavy foot upon his chest—and never felt anything else In this world. Such executions were shocking to look upon. The helpless criminal, often a man who had failed in slavish obedience to his betters, was stretched upon the ground. The elephant was / brought out, guided by his mahout. Coldly and indifferently, without hatred, simply obeying orders, the powerful beast raised his heavy foot, brought it down with all his weight upon the victim’s chest or head. There was a crunching of bones, one more life was snuffed out, and the dignity and power of princes again demonstrated. * « « The miserable subject sentenced to die under the elephant’s foot rarely protested. He did not scream or struggle, but lay still, waiting for the weight to settle upon him. He probably thought that it was inevitable and natural Rajahs always HAD used elephants to kill the disobedient, and they probably always WOULD do so. But the days of crushing rebellion with the foot of an elephant have gone in India. The rajahs and be other rulers are under the power of Eng land, which is at least a semi-clvilized nation. Widows are no longer burned alive to honor their husbands. Elephants do not crush the heads of rebellious peasants. Even the ancient custom of marrying little girls eight years old and younger to men of forty is dying out. India, that has so long lain stagnant under the curse of caste, under the curse of a religion that taught obedience to superiors and preached stupid obedience; India, land of famines, poison ous snakes, stupid religion and needless brutality —EVEN INDIA SEES IMPROVEMENT. The elephant that used to crush men now works for a living, lending his strength to the peasant in the hardest labor. The girls of India are taught to read and think, to rely upon themselves and to mistrust the brutal priests of Buddha. They no longer ask to be buried alive when their husbands die. They know better—they go and get another husband. * * * When you realize how conditions have im proved in India, the land of stagnation, you feel sure that in this country, where improvement is also needed, every problem will be solved and every abuse will be wiped out with time. We have never had heavy elephants stepping on the chests of Bull Moosers or other rebels. We haven’t the blazing sut tee, we never threw girl babies to the crocodiles, and we don’t die of famine by the millions. But there Is plenty of room for Improvement, and It will come. « « « We have in America, for instance, a system of taxation which is in Itself an excellent imitation of that elephant’s foot In the picture. Our taxing system Is a sys tem of crushing the small man with the power and weight of monstrous injustice and discrimination. Every man struggling to take care of his home and provide for his children feels the weight of our elephant system of taxation. That system presses down on the little man’s chest in this country, Just as the elephant’s foot used to press on the chest of the peasant in India. The rajah never felt the elephant’s foot, and our American rajahs of money have not until now felt the foot of the elephant of taxation. Our tax is laid on the little man’s house, on the little man’s property, on the silk dress that his wife wears—when she cnn get it—on the worker’s glass of beer or his pipeful of tobacco. * * * THE ELEPHANT’S FOOT HAS BEEN ON THE LITTLE MAN FOR A LONG TIME. The big man has not felt it. His property escaped. His hundreds of millions went free of try. And the man able to recognize conditions and changes sees clearly an ending of the system by which the weight of power and the weight of taxes and the weight of sorrow have always been upon the chest of the weak. We have started our system of taxing incomes, And while the elephant’s foot still is felt, with its heavy weight, every man, woman and child in this country has cause for congratulation. For at least we know the truth, we see it, can utter it, AND THE TRUTH W'tUL SjET US FPKK. <« a Until Recently the Rulers of India Used the Power of the Elephant to Crush Out the Life of Rebellious Subjects. Now the Ele phants That Were Executioners Are Laborers and Helpers. With Us the System of Taxation Crushes the Poor at the Command of the Rich Rulers. Some Day the Tax System Will Work for the People Instead of Crushing Them. The Elephant’s Foot and Heavy Taxes