The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1886-12-11
EseessiHe Taxation.
[rxrRAcr FROM THE PRESIDENTS MESSAGE

nublic necessities. The application OF the
surplus to the payment Of such portion OF the
public debt as is now at our option subject to
extinguishment, if continued at the rate which
has lately prevailed, would retire that class
of Indebtedness within less than one year from
this date. Thus a continuation OF our present
revenue system would soon result in the re-
CENT of an annual income much greater than
necessary to meet government expenses, with
no Indebtedness upon which it could be ap-
plied. We should then be confronted with
vast quantity ofmoney, the circulating medium
of the people, boarded in the treasury when
it should be in their hands, or we should be
drawn into wasteful public extravaganza with
all the corrupting national decentralization
which follows in its train.
But it is not the simple existence of this
surplus and its threatened attendant evils
which furnish the strongest argument against
our present scale of federal taxation. Its
worst phase is the exaction of such q surplus
through a perversion of the relations between
the people and their government, and dan
gerous departure from the rules which limit
the right of federal taxation.
Good government. and especially the gov
eminent of which every American citizen
boasts, has for its objects the protection of
every person within its care in the greatest
liberty consistent with the good order of
society and his perfect security in the enjoy
ment of his earnings, with the least possible
diminution for public needs. When more
of the peoples substance is exacted through
the form of taxation than is necessary to meet
the Just obligations of the government and
the expense of its economical administration,
such exaction becomes ruthless extortion
and violation of the fundamental principles
of a free government.
The indirect manner in which these eXac-
tions are made has tendency to conceal
their true character and their extent. But
we have arrived at a stage of. superhuous
revenue which has aroused the people to
realization of the fact that the amount raised
professedly for the support of the government
is paid by them as absolutely, if added to the
price of the things which supply their daily
wants, as if it was paid at fixed periods into the
hand of the tax gatherer.
Those who toll for daily wages are begin
ming to understand that capital, though some
times Wanting its importance and clamoring
for the protection and favor of the govern
ment, is dull and sluggish till, touched by the
magical hand of labor, it springs into activity,
furnishing an occasion for federal taxation
and gaining the value which enables it to bear
its burden. And the laboring man is thought
fully inquiring whether in these circumstances,
and considering the tribute he constantly
pays into the public treasury as he supplies
his daily wants, he receives his fair share of
advantages.
There is also a suspicion abroad that the
surplus of our revenues indicates abnormal
and exceptional business profits, which, under
the system which produces such surplus, IN
crease, without corresponding benefit to the
people at large, the vast accumulations of a
few among our citizens whose fortunes, rival
ing the wealth of the most favored in anti
Democratic nations, are not the natural
growth of steady, plain and industrious re-
public
Oar farmers too, and those engaged directly
and indirectly in supplying the products of
agriculture, see that day by day, and as often
as the daily wants of their households recur,
they are forced to pay excessive and needless
taxation, while their products struggle in for
eign markets with the competition of nations,
which by allowing a freer exchange of pro-
auctions than we permit, enable their people
to sell for prices which distress the American
farmer.
As every patriotic citizen rejoices in the
constantly increasing pride of our people in
American citizenship and in the glory of our
national achievements and progress, senti-
ment prevailes that the leading strings useful
to a nation in its infancy may well be to a
great extent discarded in the present stage of
American ingenuity, courage and fearless
self-reliapce. And for the privilege of indulg-
ing this sentiment with true American enthu-
siasm, our citizens are quite willing to forego
an idle surplus in the public treasury.
And all the people know that the average
rate of federal taxation upon imports is to-day,
in time of peace, but little less, while upon
some articles of necessary consumption it is
Al H.
ons burdens willingly borne at Il time when
! the government needed millions to maintain
by war the safety and integrity of the Union
1t has been the policy of the government to
collect the principal part of its revenues by q
/ tax llnon imports. and -5ne -ahaape ssia fhls
policy is desirable. But the present condf-
ton Of affairs constrains our people to demand
that by revision of our revenue laws the
receipts of the government shall be reduced
to the necessary expense of its economical
administration, and the demand should be
recognized and obeyed by the peoples repre-
sentatves in the legislative branch of the
government
REIMBURSEMENT OF THE BURDENS.
In readiusting the burdens of federal taxa
ton a sound public policy requires that such
of our citizens as have built up large and i'm
portant industries under present conditions
should not be suddenly, and to their injury,
deprived of advantages to which they have
adapted their business; but if the public good
requires it they should be content with such
consideration as shall deal fairly and eau
tiously with their interests, while the just de-
mand of the people for relief from needless
taxation is honestly answered.
A reasonable and timely submission to such
a demand should certainly be possible with
out disastrous shock to any interest, and a
cheerful concession sometimes averts abrupt
and needless action, often the outgrowth of
impotence and delayed justice.
Due regard should be also accorded in any
proposed readjustment to the interests of
American labor so far as they are involved.
We congratulate ourselves that there is among
us no laboring class, fixed within unyielding
bounds and doomed under all conditions to
the memorable fate of daily toll. We recog-
nize in labor chief factor in the wealth of
the republic, and we treat those who have it
in their keeping as citizens entitled to the
most careful regard and thoughtful attention.
This regard and attention should be awarded
them, not only because labor is the capital of
our worklngmen, justly entitled to its share OF
government favor, but for the further and not
less important reason, that the laboring man
surrounded by his family in his humble home,
as consumer is vitality interested in all that
CuedpCuo INC SOSb Vi liflhS anu ShaulCo MN
to bring within his domestic circle additional
comforts and advantages.
This relation of the workingman to the
revenue laws of the country, and the manner
in which it palpably influences the question.
of wages, should not be forgotten in the justi-
fable prominence given to the proper main
tenance of the supply and protection of we'll
paid labor. And these considerations sug-
gest such an arrangement of government
revenues as shall reduce the expense of liv-
ing, while it does not curtail the opportunity
for work nor reduce the compensation of
American labor and injuriously affect its con-
dition and the digniied place it holds in the
estimation of our people. s-2- -
But oar farmers and agriculturists- those
who from the soil produce the things con-
sumed by all-are perhaps more directly and
plainly concerned than any other of our citi
zens in just and careful system of federal
taxation Those actually engaged in and
more remotely connected with this kind of
work number nearly one-half of our popula
ton None labor harder or more continu
ously than they. No enactments limit their
hours of toll, and no interposition of the
government enhances to any great extent the
value of their products. And yet for many
of the necessaries and comforts of (which
the most scrupulous economy enables them