The workingman's advocate. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1864-1877, 1870-07-09

tax. The preparation for, and the labor
Of collection would not be complicated
or increased perceptably by resorting
to this mode, and tho additional expense
would be but an infnitesimal fraction
Of the enormous amount necessary to
keep up the army Of national officials.
: 1 have no political feeling in regard
to this subject, for l do not know that
any other party, in the place of the one
which has for some time been and now
is in power, would have done much, if
any better, in this respect Party plat
forms and enunciations of principle are
easily gotten up, and are cheap affairs.
Reducing high sounding professions to
practice is quite another and very diff
fcrent matter Next to the demands Of
the general government, we have ou'
State system, with its constantly in
creasing misunderstanding at an
alarming pace, as is shown by the fact
that the taxes payable this year are
double what was demanded last year.
We must contrive some means Of re-
ducing materially, permanently and be-
yond the power of again increasing our
taxes, or ruin and consequent debt, in-
solvency, scrfdom of the laboring class
es, and perhaps starvation of vast
number will be our fate. 1t is singu-
lar, but an invariaDle fact, that in re-
publics, where the nearest approach TO
pure democracy has been made, and
the people govern, taxes are always
rising and never getting lower. IL
would seem to a man of common sense,
that in such country as ours, the peo-
pie who are free, and in fact sovereign
over all, have but to will it and away
rolls the burden from their shoulders.
But this is most certainly not the fact,
for we all know that they groan under
the load, and are most anxious to re-
move it, but there it not only remains
in spite of all their will and their eff
forts, but is constantly growing heavier
That il is SO, there is no doubt. Let
us, before moving in the "a after, recog-
nize this as not only true, but as being
governed by some fixed and regular
cause or law, that has ever las it does
now applied to all free governments.
This is the first thing to be done. Then
let MS disco, er that cause or law and
steadily and untiringly apply our ener-
gies to arrest, counteract and finally
wipe it entirely out. For let me say to
you most emphatically, that liberty,
social as well as political, depends upon
our completely and forever arresting
this system Of increase taxation, for an
overtaxed people has no more hope OF
being free, than one that has fastened
upon it actual iron shackles. Let us
lay this serious and important truth
away down in the bottom Of our hearts,
and res that it shall be the great
incentiv, to action, until the danger
has been met and permanently re-
moved. Then we have when the de-
mands above enumerated have been
paid, our county taxes to meet, and 10
addition our school and our road taxes,
and if in the neighborhoOd of some
levying or drainage scheme, a consid-
cradle tribute to pay r. those who are
managing thl- enterprise and y we
Larper to iivr ~ n nlrrlctpahtT III
som Little "cne-horse incorporates
hamlet, mlscaied CITY, We arc Gained
upon for a sewerage tax, gas tax, land
frequently for heavy assessments fol
street, sidewalk and alley improve
ments, and what is heavier still, if you
happen to own a few articles of perso
nal property and have got so far ahead
by hard work and close economy, as tt
have procured a little home for YOU
family, there is the personal and rea
property tax to pay. There is no enc
to the long tissue Of exactlons, and th'
time and money required to meet then
all, so break in upon your business anC
employment, that it requires consider
able means and great good luck to en-
able man TO make living, and It hal
actually come to such pass even IL
our fourishing State, with enormous
sources of wealth-even in our splen
did county-that men whose meanl
will reach forty or fifty thousand dol
lars in value, are compelled TO actually
borrow money to meet their curren
harvest expenses and to pay their taxes
When in the richest agricultural re
gion in the world, whose illimitable re
sources have hardly as yet been touch
ed, men find their farms, with the ut
most honest exertions Oh their part, un
able TO pay the immense taxes already
exacted from them, what on earth car
we hope from the future? And yet il
the face of all this, the miserable char
Iatan who disgraces the appellation O
statesman, instead Of seeking to lighter
the burden ,blindly or wiIfully continues
to add to its bulk as well as to its
weight, persisting in almost as effect
ual means to enslave his fellow citizens
as if he were 70 put them up at auc
ton on the slave block. And now asl
the shrewd capitalistsand married man
who ultimately pays all these exactIons
and to whose shoulders the load II
shifted at last? When purchasing ;
commodity, you are frequently surpris
ed at the increased price demanded
"Why, how il this you say, "wha
has caused such difference :" ooh,
replies the dealer, "the tariff has JUS
been raised" or "there has to be {
larger stamp put upon it" or ''my i
cense has been increased" SO witt
the tenement owner. His agent taps
you on the shoulder and gives you in
formation that your rent must be higher
You call for the reason why this i
done, and you are at once answered
that ''the State or the county tax hai
been increased, or that perhaps boil
arc higher than they were, and he can
afford to rent at the old figures-iI
other words and in plain English, tina
you and not he must pay the additional
tax. And % il invariably goes, unit
labor and the poor struggling man mus
my all additional pNacilODS