The Daily state journal. [volume] (Alexandria, Va.) 1868-1874, 1872-03-25
THE TAX BILL,

THE TAX BILL.
The objections we have urged against the
tax bill are not mere technical ones, but
are based on what may be called first prin-
ciples. A tax is pecuniary burden laid
on polls or property, for the support of the
State, and it is laid in consideration of the
protection which is given to life and pro-
perty by the State. A tax on incomes has
always been considered more or less odious,
if not in the nature of bounty to idleness
and unthrift. 1t is inquistorial, and may
be made an instrument of extreme oppres-
sion and hardship in the hands of exacting
and INSCRIPTIONS tax-leveyors and collec-
tors. The object of the law should be to
protect labor, and extend to it all the en-
enlargement possible by legislation. The
tax on labor arising out of the lending of
money on interest at six, eight, and ten
per cent. is all it should be required
in any event to bear. All
experience shows that even a six per cent.
tax of this description is more than labor
can successfully compete with in the long
run. That legislature would have an imper-
ishable fame as its just inheritance which
should successfully devise a law lifting even
this burdensome weight from the shoulders
of labor. In the production and distribution
of wealth, or all that accumulation of the
products of labor which is comprised with
in the circle of human wants, it is manifest
that very unequal share goes to the capi-
tai engaged in such production, while labor
is turned off with mere tythe of the ac-
tual profit. This inequality of profit ought
not to exist, for capital Of itself produces
nothing, and is entirely dependent on labor
for the very first fruits of its increase.
The objection to taxing money loaned on
bond and mortgage is, that the tax comes
out of the borrower (who in nine cases in
ten is the laborer or producer) and not out
Of the lender. We care not how rigid the
laws may be against usury, those who lend
money will exact, in one way or another,
sum sufficient to cover the tax imposed,
together with the legal rate of interest al
lowed. This, we undertake to say, is the
general rule. When, therefore, a farm
or, who is taxed on ten thousand dollar
estate, is obliged to borrow five thousand
dollars to successfully work it, or more
fully develope its productiveness, his very
necessity is made the burden of taxation,
which is the refinement of cruelty in legis-
lation. "
The money thus loaned to labor has no
intrinsic value of its own. 1t is made by
law the medium of exchanging values, and,
as such, has simply representative value
and nothing more. To tax it as money
loaned is, therefore, to tax that which has
nothing but mere fictitious existence. 1t
does not even measure the value of labor !;
for the natural price of labor, of any speci-
fic kind, is evidently measured by the
amount of such other labor as shall pro-
duce, with an equal amount Of expenditure
in toll, the varied necessities of life required
by the first named laborer. The money he
receives is nothing but the artificial medi-
UNI by which this exchange of products is
effected. Had it not this artificial value it
would be entirely worthless to him.
When money, however, is capitalized,
as in the stocks of banks, corporations,
and companies Of various kinds, and is
made the basis of specific industry and
profit, it becomes a legitimate subject Of
taxation, as much so as when invested in
real estate Or any other proper. 1t then
parts with its fictitious or representative
value, and assumes an actual, substantial
form as capital. Here it can be taxed, and
should be taxed for it then demands pro-
lection from the State, and, receiving it,
should bear its just proportion of the pub
lie burden.
The trouble with the tax bill now before
the Legislature is, that it seeks 10 imporerish
The people for the purpose Of eadaaci,ag he
Oa'ue Of The State bonds IN speculative
hands, and does this by the most unscru-
pulous methods ever resorted to for OPP
pressing taX-ridden people.
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IT would be interesting to know the rea-
son Whv tho ogapt of tha ccooioio1 ID,,.,,