Delaware gazette. [volume] (Delaware, Ohio) 1855-1886, 1871-03-03

has the effrontry to question its fairness
when he seeks to obtain of private par
ties protection or insurance from loss by
fire, shiPwreck, accident, or death. He
then pays in proportion to the amount
of protection or insurance which he OBJ
tains. Every man who now clalnOrs for
the repeal of this law has in private life
practically recognized and acknowledg-
ed time and again the justice of the
principle on which it is based. And
this outcry which has been raised
against the income tax by the great
newspapers of the country, by the bank
ers and huge corporations, is prompted
simply by a niggardly spirit of selfish
ness. which seeks to put upon other and
weaker shoulders its own proper and
legitimate burden.
Gentlemen call attention to the fact
THAT certain States are required to pay
a much larger income tax than others
4 having more population and greater
| wealth. and from this infer that this tax
bears unequally and heavily upon the
people of these smaller States, but in
cline to the opinion that a closer exami-
| nation of the figures submitted would,
| in every instance, show that the men
/ who pay tax on income, in whatever sec
ton of the country they may be, are
abundantly able to do so, and that no
injustice is done in this regard to any
State or citizen.
We are told, for instance, that Cali
fornia paid in 1870 an income tax of
SI.I8I ,o85 81, while Iowa, with larger
population and greater wealth, paid only
| $2743zI ~. This statement would on
its face seem to indicate that the people
of California bore more than their fair
and Just proportion of the burden of
national taxation. and that the people of
Iowa were particularly favored by being
required to bear less than their share /;
but this, apprehend, is very far from
! the truth.
Iowa is emphatically an agricultural
State. Its population consists mainly
of small farmers. 1t has no mines, no
great banks, no large cities, no great
merchants, and but few wealthy men !;
while California, on the other hand, has
within its borders large and prosperous
cities, importers, Wholesale merchants,
extensive ship-owners, great banks, for
tunate operators in real estate, owners of
rich mines, and immense tracts Of val
liable lands. In short, the figures sub
mitted prove simply that California has
more men of great wealth and large in
come than Iowa-a fact which may also
be established by other evidence.
Turning to pages I84 and I85 of the
report of the Commissioner of Internal
Revenue, find that the tax on banks
and bankers in California for 1870
amounted to Sz47, 200 p, while the tax
on banks and bankers in Iowa was only
S36,2I2 81. On pages At and 48, same
report, find that the tax on bank de-
posits in California was $I72, ,o28 p
Iowa, $I3,7o7 81.
This statement, as well as that first
presented, proves simply that California
has more men of great wealth and large
income than the State of Iowa, and not
that the income tax bears unjustly on
the people of that State.
Gentlemen might with equal force in
sist upon the abolition of the bank tax
because the report shows that California
pays six times more than Iowa. They
might also with equal propriety claim
that Alexander T. Stewart and Corne-
lius Vanderbilt should be relieved from
the tax on incomes because there is or
may be a county in the West having a
population of twenty thousand people
whose aggregated wealth is greater than
that of Stewart and Vanderbilt where
no tax is obtained from incomes.
1t may be asked, should one man
worth $40. .ooo, 900 pay more tax to the
General Government than FIVE thousand
men whose aggregated wealth amounts
to an equal or greater sum Certainly |
not. Our revenue laws as they stand to- !
day do not require him to do so. The
one man representing $40, ,ooo, 900 pays
on his income; the five thousand men /
representing $40, 100000 of property /
make their contributions in another way.
While the former buys one pound Of
tea, and thus pays to the Government |
tax of fifteen cents, the latter consume |
five thousand pounds, on which the to-
tai tax IS $3.50. In short, the FIVE thou |
sand men representing SIC. 900, 600 con-
sumo FIVE thousand times more dutiable /
articles than the one man representing /
a like amount. Congress, therefore, /
very properly says to the man represent
ing twenty millions, " Individuals should, /
in so far as possible, pay in proportion
to their property that is, in proper
ton to the protection which they receive
from the Government" and as the
amount you pay on the dutiable articles
which you consume is so small as to
OCeAL uO SUI VI PAOJOAlA0A " yOul dD4A4-
ty, or to the revenue you enjoy under
the protection of the State, common
honesty and fair-dealing require that
your income shall be taxed. 4"
know, Mr.. Speaker, that men whose
opinions are entitled to great respect
have urged what they deemed serious
objections to laws like the one under
consideration, claiming that taxes on
income, though theoretically just, equal,
and fair, are, in practical operation, un
equal, vexatious, inquisitorial, and de-
moralizing. For instance, McCulloch,
in treating of taxes on property and in
come, says:
" We look uPon any system of taxation
as radically vicious that sets he interest
and the duty of individuals at variance,
tnat tempts them to balance between loss
of property and the commission OF per-
jury"
But 1 fear if the General Government
or the States were to collect no revenue
until they could devise system Of tax
alton which would not tempt men to
balance between loss of property and
the commission of perjury F" there would
be no need of either revenue officers or
vaults to hold public money.
Duties on imported commodities, we
are told by the same writer, tempt men
to engage in smuggling, and often lead
them to become the " hardest and most
violators of the law" They
tempt producers and dealers to offer
bribes, and revenue officers to violate
their oaths, and render necessary the
of spies, informers, and
Taxes on property are
still more Objectionable. McCulloch
says:
0Tt,is 1,ovvavey % the a,,le af,act of
taxes on capital or property. The moment
they are established every one attempts to
elude their pressure by concealing q portion
of his properly or employing II in some un-
manner"
The demoralizing tendency of excise
duties, that is to say, of such taxes as
we place on whisky and tobacco, is well
by every one familiar with
the frauds, robberies, and corruptions
which marked the administration Of
President Johnson. The laws were then
openly violated, and whisky and tobac-