The Rutland daily globe. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1873-1877, 1876-09-23

hitting perjury. If, on the other hand, IL
was necessary that the fees should be "re-
"ccived" during the year, the governor is
left in the same boat.
But concedng, if you please, that the
explanation "a TO the income return for
1862, is full, perfect and complete, that
the charge Of perjury is satisfactorily an
swered, how does it leave Samuel J. Til
denY The fact still remains that his net
income from 1862 to 1872 was over one
million of dollars, and that he only paid
taxes on some one hundred and fifty thou
sand dollars. 1t may be that he did not
commit perjury, but he defrauded the gov
crnment all the tan ne, did he not OF this,
there is and can be no question. The only
attempt at explanation made by Judge
Sinnot is In these words: "NIr. Tlden
" received no fayOrs from the government
officers and sought none. He did nothing
"but pay all they imposed upon him." In
other words, the government officers knew
nothing of the amount of Tilden's income
simply because Lie would not inform them
about it; and having assessed him for IS
than onc-tenth of his legitimate income, he
was not going to be fool enough to inform
them of their mistake. Human nature
perhaps, but hardly the man to commend
himself to the people as a ''rcfoim candi-
date for the presidency is he? The
st. Lonis platform says that "reform is
"nece ;sary' in the manner and mode of
taxation, that the taxes have not been hon
estly levied and collected and Governor
Tilden reiterates all of this in his letter of
acceptance. Conccdng that "reform is
necessary in these respects, is Samuel
J. Tilden, with his tax record, the man to
he entrusted with bringing about this re-
form?
Judge Sinnot might have explained these
| income tax returns, and neglect to make
returns, in another woy, and in SO doing he
would have, undoubtedly, afforded the
true explanation. lie might have said that
Samuel j. Tilden was good deal like O
great many other mer-neithcr better OF
| woree-and that he didn't think there was
any particular harm IN cheating the gov.
eminent out of more especially whcr
the tax vas imposed for the purpose OF
paying mca for committing acts Of tres
pass that it was hard enough, any way
to pay taxes and, if the government wa!
not smart enough to ascertain how mucl
property, or income, he ought to pay taxeI
on, he wssn't fool enough to tell them an(
that he did Bot consider even little Judi
cous lying, for the purpose of escaping
taxation, Il very hcnious ofTcnse.
This way Of locking OF taxes is, we ar,
sorry to say, very common one. But i
does not justify lying, perjury, or, even, al
evasion OF taxation. The fact that this OBJ
lection has been made to Samuel j. Tilden
the fact that it has attracted wide public
attention, and has seemed, on the part o
his friends, to demand an explanation anl
denial, is hopeful sign of the times.
shows an awakened public conscience.
shows that the people are disposed to re
quire of their highest officers the sam,
| qualifications they require of subordinat,
ones; that they propose TO apply the sam'
tests in the employment of public servant
that they would in the employment OF mel
in their private business affairs. They
would not employ sneak thief as clerl
in a store. They would not select for
tax assessor or tax collector one notorou
for evadng his taxes or for swearing t
false returns; neither will they select 70
president of the United States one who, b,
direct perjury, or through low cunning
Systematically defrauded the government
out of his legitimate taxes tor period o
len years.