Daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, Va. [W. Va.]) 1859-1865, 1860-05-24

one udIt Ot one per CCuSutn u VIC SSH@AAS
not more than $780, one per centum II
more than $3.50 and not more than $500;
one and one half per centum If the sum
be over $500 and not more than $1,000,
and two per centnm if the sum be more
than $1,000"
To show what the obvious and only
meaning of this law is, we quote the fol-
lowing language from Mr.. Peirpoints letter
to the LntelligeneeT of May 4th:
That there may be no installing the
persons to whom this law refers, we have
only to refer to the old law, which was
in substance as above, with this exception,
which is in the following words:
HExcept where the service is one of labor
in some mechanic art, trade, handicraft,
or manufacture or minister of the gospel"
Looking at the old law with the excep-
ton, there can be no doubt about whom
tho new law embraces, as it has no ex-
ception; save ministers of the gospel. The
new law embraces EdboTers of every de-
scription in the service of any corporation,
eomyGny, firm or PerSOn.."
The law applies to laborers OF every de,
scription, whether in the rolling mill, nail
factory, foundry, glasSwOrks, tannery, wa
eon factory, shoe shop, cabinet, or carpen-
ter shop, the jour tailor, or jour halter,
the man who works on the farm, or who
drives the omnibus, or the miner, the man
who guides the engine on the railroad and
the one who fires it, the man who repairs
the track or the man who superintends
the repairs, greases the wheels or works in
the machine shop. The language of the
law Is plain and broad in its scope, ii is on
the rincome received during the year"
that is the tVdges, and it makes no differ
ence whether it is wages by the day, week,
month or year. It is all nonsense to say
that men who work by the day DO not
come under the provisions OF the :aw:-
We're that the construction, every empty
co would fix his wages by the day, which
would be quibbling evasion of the law
But the low is incapable of that construc-
ton, it is on the "income" wages from any
Corporation, company, fTm or person" re-
ceiyed in the year ending LIST of February
each year. There is no evading 1t unless
the Commissioner of the Revenue per-
lures himself by failing to give in some
amount, for if he only receives $40 he IS
liable to a tax of cents, if $500 he is
taxed on that sum "a.
But still further and in order to show
how this unjust and inadequate bill effects
us here in Wheeling, how it puts its hands
uto our pockets and robs US beyond all
iprecedent, we append a further quotation
from the same letter.
Says Mr.. Peirpoint,
Intelligent gentlemen, connected with
the Iron business in the city of Wheeling,
informed me last week, that when all the
rollineunills and nail factories in that city
were in operation, they employed about
/ 800 hands. at an average salary of $4OO a
wear. One per cent. on this sum is ~ to
the man, or $4,000 per annum, to which
add 80 cents on the head, aud it makea
ST. 200 more, which is a tax of $1,000 on
the operatives of the rolling and nail mills
alone. 1t is n fair estimate that all the
industrial classes of the city of Wheeling
will swell this sum to, $4,000. This is a
tax upon the voluntary labor of the hands
and head of the laboring men ofWheeling
is n tax that they cannot stand many
years.
l will contrast this tax with the tax on
slaves the tax paid by $500 working
meu in Wheeling, whose average wages /:
on 5000 slaves-whOse net wages, afIeI
paying for food, clothing and tax: is al
least $50 dollars each, making an aggre-
gate income of 100000 dollars to the
master, yet his income from the labor Of
the slave is not taxed one cent.
Take another illustration. The mer-
chants clerk, or book-keeper, or any 9TH
er clerk, or head machinist, or foreman in
any other opacity, no difference how much
wear and tear his employment may be to
his constitution, il he receives 81 100 of a
salary, he pays S22,sO to the State as tax.
A STAKEHOLDER may own 10 slaves, all
mechanics, who will bring him in a
net income of $500 each, amounting to
So, 700, he pays $22,s0 on his slaves, and
not one cent on his income of $780,
When the poor clerk is sick or dies, his
wages stop. But when the master dies,
his slaves are an inheritance to his chill
dren. The clerk needs no protection OF
the lnw--he is one of the sovereign body
guards to protect and keep in subordina-
ton the masters slaves. Yet, the income
the labor of his weary hand and aching
head, is taxed two per rent. to buy arms,
erect armories in which to manufacture
the munitions of war, with which to equip
himself to defend the master in the right
of his slaves, while the income of the mas
ter, from the earnings of the slave. is not
taxed one dollar.
might go through the whole catalogue
of this injustice, and inequality, and OPP
pressiye taxation. There are many poor
men in this country getting 75, 80, 80 and
100 cents per day, with families to sup
port, and this tax comes hard on them
They all have to pay in addition for every
thing they own on the face of the earth,
40 cents in 500, while the slavelolder
only pays 10 cents in the $500 worth of
slaves.
Can the laboring white men in Virginia
pay these taxes assessed on the income for
their toll, and support and educate their
children like freemen ought to do | sub-
init SIS, 900 in addition to the tax on the
laboriug class of the city of Wheeling now
pays, is more shan they are able to pay.
GIVE ONE DAYf
WHIGsI AMERICANS REPUBLIcAxs -
ALL!!-Give one day for tpe good of the