The weekly Ottumwa courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1857-1872, 1870-07-21
The Income Tax.

Ono OF the wisest things done by
the Forty-first Congress-, was the
retention of the income tax. And
when we consider that the provision
was retained against the clamor Of
the New York Tribune, which has
come to be the well-establishcd and
universally recognised organ of the
high protective tariff thieves, mono
polists, o: d special legislation plum
derers, it may well be considered one
of the pluckiest acts also of the late
Congress.
The Tribune and its tribe are now,
and have been tho special champions
of a systom of legislation which has
tended to the enrichment of tho
manufacturers and capitalists Of the
monied centres, and to the Empower
ishment of the agricultural and
producing classes; in other words, to
making the rich richer, and the poor
poorer, until now, as that paper says,
the Eighth District of New York
pays 81, 457, 212 income tax, which is
more than the entire amount paid by
sixty other congressional districts,
whose representatives wisely and in
accordance with the wishes of their
constituents, voted to retain this just
and equitable system Of taxation.
Heretofore, the hardest argument we
have had to meet from our oppo-
nents was. that $1,50o,0oO,OOO of
government bonds; property of the
country as much as hogs or sheep,
entirely escaped taxation, but to this
plausible and superficial stat ement,
we have in our papers, and on the
stump, constantly rejoined, that it
was SO nominated in the bond: that
we paid less interest than we should
have done had the bonds been liable
to taxation, and that thus the gov
eminent creditor had the prospective
taxation allowed at the start by tho
low rate Of interest paid, and that
moreover, the bondholder had to pay
his income tax on his bonds just the
same as on any othor kind of pro-
perty; that is to say that it he had
bonds in bis possession whose cou.
pons annually amounted to more
than one thousand dollars, that on
that excess he paid an income tax to
the government proportionate to the
amount.
Suppose now, that Mr.. Horace
Greeley'simportunate demand for the
repeal Of the tax had been complied
with, and one of his bloated manu-.
featuring pets, to whom we have
been paying from seven to twelve
dollars q ton for his iron more than
We could have bought it for else.
where, chad We been permltted) after
having become an Iron Baron unde,
the fostering and protecting care o.
this special class legislation, had
concluded to rest from his labors
and retire to enjoy the proceeds o.
the governments bounty and NUM-
ficence, and in doing 60 had invested
his accumulations in government
bonds, and had moved to Mr.
Greeley's Eighth New York
District, could you make that chap
pay one single cent for national,
state, county, or municipal taxation,
bad the income tax boon repealed?
Tho Tribune, and its kidney of
journalists. politicians and legislators,
may call this justice and statesman
ship, but It is just exactly that kind
of a policy which is revolu tionizing
the sentiment of the country, and if
persisted in, will eventually send
mon to Congress, who will tear to
tatters all the high protective tariffs
in the statute books of the country,
and who will enact that as the pro-
ductive and agricultural classes of
the people must have the whole
world to compete with for the sale
of their products, 80 they shall also
be allowed to buy everything they
consume whore they can get it the
cheapest.
And, we may add. further, that If
the bondholders who seek by the
repeal Of the income tax to avoid all
the burdens of supporting the gov.
eminent, desire to see both houses of
Congress uncomfortably full of Brick
Pomeroys, who would not only
repudiate the interest, but every
cent Of the principal Of the bonds
their wealth is based upon, then just
let them keep right along in the same
course their organ the New York
Tribune, is pursuing, and 1t will not
be long until their wishes in this
regard, are fully accomplished.
Judge Day.