Carson daily appeal. [volume] (Carson City, Nev.) 1873-1877, 1876-09-23
THE CASE OF TlLDEN VS.. THE
REVENUE.

vice could be aecertained, 1t would De
discov cred that the rich men OF the
Unite Il States, as class. have evaaed
lust return of their incomes and shIrked
the payment Of a Justly proportionate
tax. Rich men are able to employ fret
rate lawyers to give them advice and in
vent schemes for helping them to cir
cumvent the laws. The probability is.
that if rich men had paid taxes upon
their real incomes as honestly as poor
men. the national debt would have been
a good deal smaller than it is. The
assessors of this State have never hat
any trouble about the laying of taxe~
upon people of small properties ami
moderate incomes. They who have con
tested their assessments are such wealthy
corporations as the Central Pacific Rail
way Company and the Bonanza mining
capitalists. Samuel j. Tiiden is one OF
the rich men of this country. He made
himself rich in a very few years by over
sharp, almost rascally manipulaiions of
railway stocks. He Is a lawyer and n
Wall street sharper. He has known
enough of law and been greedy enough,
and is enough of quibbler to dodge the
Internal Revenue assessor of his dis
trict and put him of. year by year. with
a p,ttance. Now the exigencies of his
candidacy bring him up with round
turn, and be stands before the country a
party defendant. He set himself up for
a Re.orn,er. He is obliged to plead to
charge of constructive if not actual per-
iury and technical cheating. He has
avoided the payment of what was justly
due upon his income, by tricks OF state
ment and inventions OF excuses. Ii he
has been merely technically knavish,
then is if also to be said that be has
been bnt technically honest. He has
wrapped his conscience in the cnop
logic of the law shops and lodged the
sharp points of actual perjury by mas
terly evasions. The Tribune says. He
could not be sent to the penitentiary,
but he contIived to keep the Govern
ment from getting out of him money to
which il was entitled" The CONNER
ciai Advertiser treats the matter with
great effectiveness and energy Of denun-
citation. 1t says:
The popular sight is exceedingly keen
in this Presidential year and nothing
less than straightforward explanations
will be received. But look at Iilden :
reply: In 1852 be returned his income
at =. rs and subsequently he allowed
the return to go by default. leaving his
income to be estimated by the Govern
mcnt at Sl5, coo year during the whole
neriod the tax was levied. Now there Is
not business man in the city who Is
,ctuainted with Tilden but knows that
his income was from six to twelve times
that sum during those years, reaching
sometimes to al snnual income of a
Quarter of a million. His home ex-
penditures. railroad receipts and West
ern mining investments prove this ln-
con,estably. Coming down to items,
Tllden has curious way of disposing
of them. He alleges that three-fourths
of his receipts in 1862 were earned
prior to that year. Granting that this
might possibly be true, what b. comes OF
the money he actually earned in 1862:
1t does not appear in the record of sub
S. auent years. or it certainly never paid
taxes, when he acknowledges receiving
l..lO L. {oa yS mr. 1.
Die that a sharp railroad lawyer, who
had half dozen wrecks in tow. only
| earned Ills, or even SIS 900, IN the
hight of his renown as wrecker. Why
does not Tilden clean his skirts at once
| bv an exact statement of his receipts and
. ez nenditures? Clearly; he dare not at
| tempt it. If he were to 60 down on
VII street and say that his income was
less than 500, 900 all the time he was
| paying g tax by default on $4,000 he
| would be booted ont OF the street. One
single sentence shows the whole value OF
the confidential law clerk reply. lie
saws in regard to the fee Of 50, 900, Il
anTthing was received it must have beer
in settlement of an old account and MOI
taxable. The rest is of piece with this
contemplate evasion. Sinnat' plea to'
his client Is in effect. Not guilty viii
ey.enna,ins circumstances. and it seal:
the nged pettifogger' fate. Iilden''
frauds and perjury have merited the con
tempt of all honest men. and they vii
show it in his overwhelming defeat q
the polls.
Is this the timber out of which IRE
formers are made? Here is mai
worth his millions returning as his in
come less than the State of Nevada pay
Zach of its Supreme Judges. Will any
body believe Tilden's explanation to b.
ANYTHING else than an ingenious device
to hide the magnitude of his swindlin|
operations and screen his contemplate
money saving perjories? He had airead.
denounced the war for the Union uncon
| st,trtioral. Is it to be supposed that b
would cheerfully pay o tax to bell
quidate the debt accrued in the perse
cution Of that war? In the light of re