The New Orleans crescent. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1866-1869, 1869-04-03
war uroS TAX PAYERS.

If there is, in one aspect something praise
worthy in the vigilance and activity OF
Supervisor Creecy, there Is also, in another
view Of the matter, something extremely
ominous Such functionaries, subdued to
what they work in, unconsciously take
the likeness and acquire the spirit of the sys-
tenn which they are charged to guard ara to
execute. Their whole thought ID now to de-
tect and punish the evasicln, and how to en-
force to the uttermoss. cent the collection and
return, of the Internal revenue taxes To the
instincts and training of stalwart and faith
ful watchdog they add the instincts and train
ing of q tireless and merciless sleuth hound.
The more honest and conscientious they are
in relation TO their trusts, the more suspicious
and ferocious they become with regard to the
tax-paying classes. At length they contract
the habit of looking upon taxpayers Of all
denominations. whisky manufacturers, to-
bacco manufacturers, or what not, as the me-
cessary, predestinate and irreconcilable enc
mics of the government which they repre-
sent-criminal wretches, the whole of them,
either in act or in meditation, whom it is their
duty to harry and badger to the extent of
legal possibility, and perhaps little beyond.
Now see the startling significance of all this.
The bulk of the internal revenue taxes falls
directly upon productive industry. The quar-
rel prosecuted by Mr.. Creepy and other super
vising agents against the taxpayers resolves
tselfnecessarily into a quarrel with the wealth.
producers of the country. These are the
people whom they come insensibly to regard
as actual or moral criminals, as public enc
mics, into whose affairs it is proper to inquire
with secret espionage, and whom it is right
eous, whenever opportunity admits, to hunt
down, worry to exhaustion, and skin, either
dead or alive. Hence the enthusiastic
zeal with which Mr.. Creepy prosecutes
q suspected producer of taxable commodity.
and hence the glorious air of triumph and
with which he confscates the |
goods of a vanquished delinquent. We re-
FER to him simply as an official symbol of the
and portentous relation which |
has arisen between the government and the |
tax-paying and producing community. He |
Is doubtless highly clever and laudable in |
his official capacity. But what must be
thought of the system which in this capacity
he illustrates? As we have seen, it makes
productive industry presumptive crime; it
makes the wealth-producers of the country |
oresumptive enemies to the government 1t
orebodes ultimate bankruptcy for the gov
'rnment not less than general impoverish-
nent for the people. In the nature of things
'nerous taxes must establish conditions of
ntagonism between the producers on whom
hey are imposed and the power which i'm
,oses them. The instinct of self-preserva-
ion suggests their evasion. On the other
land, tolerable taxes can always be collected
Without an army of supervisors, inspectors,
detectives, informers, tipstayes, prosecutors
nd executioners. In an oyertaxed country
his gentry, by the very nature of their vooa-
ion, occupy q position with respect to pro-
uctive industry analogous to that which
be Pretorians or Janizaries of military
espot occupy with respect TO popular liberty.
he sum of their functions is to repress
xtort, overawe and trample down. The
omadic Tartars, when pressed by hunger
n long journey over barren plains. have
een known to subsist on flesh cut from the
wing bodies of their milking cows until
be poor animals, reduced almost to flesh
sss carcasses, would fall dead in their tracks.
his is the kind of economy exemphfed in
be taxation of this country. Not only the
nix, the very flesh is taken from the stag
ering body of the industrial COW but with
ais notable difference, that necessity does
OF compel the cruel and destructive pro-
seding.