New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1870-07-01
VTSE And UNWTSE TAYATTON.


rise in his place, and gravely propose total
repeal of the duties now levied on the impor-
tation of Sugar, Tea, and Coffee, and pro-
vision instead thereof that every consumer of
those articles should be required to render at
the close of each fiscal year to the Assessor
of Internal Revenue of his district an ae-
count of the quantities of those articles pur-
chased and used by him during that year, and
to pay tax equal to the present duties on
the excess over ten dollars worth in all, / am
confident that no member of either House
would more decidedly and promptly oppose
such proposition than yourself, nor more for
chilly exhibit its vicious tendencies and the
hOllOwness of the pretense of favoring the
poor at the expense of the rich.
How is it that statesman of your shrewd-
ness and experience can fail to see that the
Income Tax is based on the same vicious
principles, and is identical in spirit with the
scheme you would so promptly and vigorously
reprehend9
You say that the Income Tax is popular, be-
cause comparatively few pay it. am sure this
is grave mistake; for in addition to the Three
Hundred Thousand who do actually pay the
whole, or some part, of what the law requires
of them, there cannot be less than Twelve
Hundred Thousand who ought also to pay it
SO long as any do, and who only evade such
payment by skulking, by prevarication, and
by downright perjury. Now, nothing Is more
distasteful to any one who would like to keep
on good terms with his own conscience, than
law which makes him feel and know
that he is a villain. No man likes
to be compelled to look searchingly
into the darker corners of his own character,
if such there be; and law which compels one
to commit actual or virtual perjury in order
to evade the payment of few scores or humid
dreds of dollars, must be, by him, utterly de-
tested am confident that those who ought
to pay an Income Tax, so long as the Law re-
ouires it, vet either pay none or pay but
fraction of what the law exacts, hate it even
more intensely than do those who pay to the
uttermost farthing.
To those who pay in full, this tax is rendered
detestable by the notorious fact that they are
paying not only their own taxes, but others as
well. The citizen, who pays from 800 to
$500 Income Tax, sees his neighbors all
around him who live as he cannot afford to,
board at grand hotels, drive fast horses, and
spend the hot months with their families at
Long Branch, Saratoga, or Newport, yet pay
no Income Tax, or only dimes where he pays
dollars, cannot help execrating a law which
treats him so unjustly.
The Income Tax is in its nature tax on
honesty and truth-a tax so high as to amount,
with most persons, to absolute prohibition.
No one knows or can know how large is
another's income; from the nature of the case,
mans statement must, at least ninety-nine
II 10 fnlrn nnntn civ
In other words, citizen is called upon to say
whether he ought to put and shall put $1,000,
$500, $50, $5, nothing at all, into the Federal
Treasury. There was never more effective
deivce for turning tOlerably honest men into
confirmed rascals.
So long as we were allowed, and virtually
melted, to print lists of the returns of income
made by taxpayers to Assessors, there was
some check on this evil tendency. merchant
who lived in brown-stOne house. or boarded
his family at fashionable hotel, yet returned
an income of $4,000 or less lost in credit and
reputation quite as much as he saved in
pocket by his fraud. But, now that the pub
LEGATION of income returns is forbidden, the
very last Indictment to rOgues to assume a
virtue if they have it not is arbitrarily re-
moved.
The Commissioner has virtually told those
who should pay Income Tax to do so or not
as they may choose, and to pay, if they pay at
all, as much or as little as they find con-
venient. Under this regulation, this tax is
bound to become more and more unequal and
unjust to the last hour of its miserable life.
| hold it the first test of the wisdom or bad
ness of tax, that its payment depends in the
smallest possible degree on the honesty of the
payer. A blackleg, a swindler, thief, who
uses tea, coffee or sugar. pays just as much tax
thereon as the most upright man in the world;
the exceptions are not one in thousand. So
with all our taxes levied on importations. The
importers are comparatively few; they are well
watched, and it is made the personal interest
of our Revenue officers to detect any frauds
they may commit. i do not believe that one
per cent of the products brought into our
country escapes the payment of duties.
On the other hand, am satisfied that the
average payments of Income Tax, apart from
those made by corporations and public officers,
do not exceed one-fOurth of the amounts re-
auired by the law. And the fault is not with
the Revenue officers; its correction is beyond
their power. They cannot make men honest
who are not 10, and they cannot compel knaves
TO tell what it is their interest TO conceal.
Hence the great majority actually pay what
they choose to pay, and nothing more.
The fact that this tax is levied in fragrant def
ance of the Federal Constitution may not amount
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