The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1883-07-05
DEMOCR OBLIGATION.

monopolists = ,ented by Mr.. Whar-
ton Baker i, .Eer favoring high
tariff duties presenting device
for distributing among the states the
surplus fund accumulating therefrom
in the federal treasury. This plan re-
solves itself into this sort of a propo-
sition: With one hand the govern
ment would surreptitiously gather
coin out of the pockets of the tax
payers, while with the other it would
pass its money over to the states. 1t
applies alone to the taxes that go into
the hands of the government in the
form of revenue, while taxes levied
on the increased price of taxed pro-
ducts, from which no revenue
is derived are still shoveled
in great heaps into the Golfers of the
nonopolists. Theirs is revenue de-
rived from protection, twenty times
greater than the incidental revenue
thus coming to the government, and
thus pay, nothing to the g vernment,
nothing to states, nothing to people
Mr.. Bakers conception is but another
piece of mechanism proposed to be
added to the never ending, perpetual
motion protection machine. The i'm
positions practiced upon the people
in favor of the lnonopolists are rami-
Tying they belong to almost every
necessity of the populace, and are not
paid to the government. but to the
monopolist who holds all the govern
ment allows him, and, who will hold it
though the people go unclothed
and unfed in consequence. Talk
about reimburSing the states from
the surplus derived from high tariffs.
1t is intended more as a delusien, a
snare to catch the Endorsement of
those who are either ignorant or do
not reflect. The taxes on iron and
steel are paid by every one who uses
Il railway, or tool. or machine, or
anything made with tools or machi-
merry. The taxes on wool and wool
ems are paid by every one who wears
wooden clothing, or who has a carpet
in his house, or sleeps under blankets.
The tax on copper is paid by every
one who uses brass, or anything made
of brass. The tax on linen is paid
by every one who wears white
shirt. The tax on floor canvas is
paid by every one who buys yard of
cloth and so on. There are no taxes
in the world that spread so surely and
widely as taxes on the materials of
clothing, of tools, of transportation,
or what is used in house building.
Congress has no right to eX-
tract money from the pockets
of the people, not for definite and
limited purposes of government, but
for the benefit, for the enrichment of
monopolists who pay nothing back to
the people, who invest their enor-
nous gains in non-taxable govern
ment bonds, and who enjoy thereon
the right to issue money, the value of
which is fixed by the necessities of
the borrowing masses. This PROPOSE
ton of returning to the states the
surplus of revenue is a reversal of the
order of common sense and of COM
mon prudence, an invention for
spending the proceeds of taxation
in order to avoid reducing it, in
antagonism to the time-honored rule
that taxation shall be confined to the
amount needed for meeting certain
authorized expenses of government.
Effort after effort will be made by the
monopolists to mislead the people,
deceptive schemes will be resorted to,
and the power of government be held
for their greedy designs, but this serf-
dom of the masses will not last for
ever. Even if the Democratic party
prove recreant to the promise it has
made and remade, still the day for
their emancipation will come; and
parties that fail to lead the revolution
of the people against mOnopolies will
go down and be forever repudiated.