The National tribune., 1886-10-14
PENSIONS AND TAXEs.

OF course comrades who are urging the
adoption of the National Pension Commit
tees recommendations are continually met
with objections that such legislation will
increase the burdens of taxation.
Even if this were true the argument would
have no force. The Nation is solemnly
bound 10 take care Of its disabled defenders,
and it must do il, no matter what the cost.
1t cannot evade or repudiate this duty with
out dishOnor
But it is not true. To pass the recon-
mendations would not add cent to the
taxes that people now pay. Itwould rather
take of a considerable portion, by relieving
the oyerburdened local treasures of the duty
Of supporting the dependent veterans and
placing this on the overlowing National
Treasury.
The reason is easy to see by any man who
viii take the trouble TO study up the matter.
The money from which pensions and all
other expenses Of the Government are paid
is gathered by duties collected ut the Gus
tom houses, and by internal revenue taxes
on beer, whisky and tobacco. Every year
the Government gets many millions more
than it has any present use for, and the dis
position Of this surplus is a question that is
being earnestly debated. One set of states
men insist that the surplus shall be divided
among the States according to populations as
was done some 80 years ago. Another class
insists with equal earnestness that it shall
be devoted TO fortiiying our seacoasts and
building navy of first-class power. Still
others think that it should be used for i'm
proving the Mississippi River and preventing
the devastation caused by the awful floods.
So the schemes multiply. THE NATIONAL
TRIBUNE is unfalteringly of the opinion
that every dollar of that surplus is sacredly
pledged TO the disabled soldiers of the Ma
tion, and not one should be expended for
anything but works of pressing necessity
until every soldier who is now in the poor
house or is in sore want is given enough to
relieve his needs and provide him with a
comfortable support during the rest of his
life. The surplus in the Treasury is abund-
antly sufficient to do this, and if it were so
used not a man or woman in the Nation
would have just cause for grumbling or dis
content
1t viii be observed that few counsel get
ting rid of the surplus by reducing the in
come of the Government. The reason of
this is that the income system has become
so well perfected by long experience, it bears
so easily on all classes and interests, and
every branch of production and business in
the whole country has become SO well ad-
justed to it that any interference with it
now would produce a disturbance vastly
more harmful than any good that would be
likely to result from it. So generally has
the country accepted this view that we saw
last Spring the extraordinary spectacle of a
South Carolinian, bearing historic name
and speaking for the men whose fathers tried
10 precipitate rebellion in 1882 because of
their opposition to tariff, appearing before
Congress TO urge that the duties on rice be
made higher, if any change was made at all
The attempt TO reduce the duty on any other
import will be as sharply contested as that
of rice, and that, too, by men who may talk
very glibly about the necessity of reducing
taxation" and cutting down the revenues"
The same is equally true of the internal
revenue taxes on spirits, beer and tobacco.
Nobody wants them reduced, except the
comparatively few men who are getting rich
out Of the manufacture and sale of these
articles.
Any comrade who has the taxation argu-
ment thrust at him can respond by asking
his opponents what United States taxes they
would have reduced in their own neighbOr-
hood. Would they have the saloon licenses
lowered or more profits given the manufac-
turers Of cigars and cigarets? These are all
the taxes with which they have any direct
personal interest.
WHAT To DO.