Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1890-11-13
A Letter From Farmer,

Roger @. Mills said, publicly, within
the present month, that we must b ave
absolute free trade. This is just what
the party has been drifting to ever
since Cleveland wrote his free trade
message and the silent logic of events
has triumphed over protests and policy
till the Democratic party finds itself at
the jumping-0ff place so far as the tariff
is concerned. What next? We must
have a revenue for the general govern
ment; from what shall we derive il?
Mr.. Mills. evidently without due ref &C.
tion, says we should aiopt an income
tax, and make the wealthy support the
government. Mr.. Mills may be pol
itician, but his craftsmanship, judged
by his income tax scheme, is a good
like the astronomical and geograph-
ical knowledge of the aDcients, little
foggy. They hold that the world was
modelled after a pancake, and that it
lay Oh the back of big turtle, or rest
ed on the shoulders of a gigantic man,
hoIL lhCS At1aS. buG In6V
never ventured to say upon what the
turtle or the giant stood. So with
Mr.. NJ; he is going to have the gov
ernment supported by the wealthy,
but does not say who is to support the
wealthy. Wouldn't it be nice to have
the right to vote without the task of
paying taxes? For we'uns it would be
representation without taxation; but
the trouble is it would be taxation
without adequate representation for
they'uns. 1t would be nice, so nice
that it would be too nice to keep. The
rich would want to run the govern
ment in their own interests, as they
would certainly have moral right to
do, if they were the only taxpayers;
or they would forswear their incomes,
as they used to do, and, for that mat
ter, as they do to-day. Heaven may
be worth all the sacrifices Christ re-
quired of the rich young man, but your
gold-bows, over in the amen corner to-
day. is not going to risk d very large
part of substantial bank account for
the promise Of white night-gowD,
with a golden pucker cord at the neck,
harp with a thousand strings and a
seat on ID damp cloud, and all these
emoluments in prospective paradise.
Biz is biz and that would not be busi-
ness like, you know. No, socialistic
MI of h L i'm 1 no fhnurlt
being seriously proposed, and it does
not take much thinking to find it wrong
in principle and therefore to be shuDn-
ed. a man ought to spurn a country
and providence; while the man who
would want to pat his share of the COM
mon burden on the shoulders of some
body else, whom he thought better off,
riolism would be poorer than that of
A rthemes Wards who was willing to
sacrifice all his first wife's relation in
the war to preserve the Union.
Democrats don't wear socks, nor read
the dictionary; so We may conclude
that this is a mistake in word only.
Mr.. Mills meant increment tax. not in
come tax. The ST. Louis Republic is
of that opinion and what it don't know
is not worth enquiring after. The
unearned increment is the only just re-
source of government" That's good. |
That will do to tie to. Two columns
of single tax is telling if it is only plate
matter. What next? Why, single
tax, of course. Its Hobson's choice |
with us as party.
1t is very dry here just now. We
are sadly 10 need of rain, and wells are
giving out; in fact everything is dry
except Democratic speeches on the tar
lf. They are kinder garten lectures.
Or object lessons, in which the speak er
has stock of dry goods, hardware and
groceries on the table, and it tells.
When a man holds cotton handker-
chief up in one hand, and in voice
like that that sounded on the hills OF
Bashan proclaims the tariff put upon
it, and in the other hand displays a
crimson damask, while he screams out
that it comes in free of duty, it creates
quite a sensation, especially among
those who would like to sport the da
mask handkerchief; but it gets home
sll the same to many who fail to catch
that is not concrete.
The last man I heard answered the
DO we not buy cheap enough any
way?' by showing his black wool hat,
saying he had Just bought it for seven
.y-five cents and thought 1t remarka-
oly cheap; but the merchant frankly
old him it was not; for it weighed but
Two ounces; the material could not
nave cost more than three cents; while
and improved process had
'educed the labor in making and fin
shing to five cents; so that all over
welve or fifteen cents was an outrag-
,ous gouge on somebody.
FARMER.
Til not 1900