Virginia free press. (Charlestown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1832-1916, 1891-06-03
Hon. Wnr. L. WtIsOn in San Francisco.

I
To an immense audience Mr. Wilson
said:
have found that the chief difficulty in
getting the people to deal intelligently
with the question of Federal taxation has
been that Federal taxes are hidden from
them. You know how much taxes you
pay TO the State of California, aud your
county and your municipality, but there
is no man in this audience, intelligent As
/ it is, that can get down tonight and fig
ure out how much taxes he pays the
Unitod States Government The Con-
gress which died on the 4th day of last
March appropriated during its existence
little more than one billion dollars.
There are in circulation in this country
gold, silver and paper money Of every
kind-about Il billion and a-half Of dol
lars. Here, then, you have single Con
gress that takes up 50 out of every SO of
the circulating medium Of this country
and expends it by lis appropriation. A
billion of dollars expended in single
Congress
Where does the United States Treasury
get the money?
Mr.. Wilson continued
"You impose your taxes as rule upon
that property which man has accnmu-
lated, stored up and put behind him, 50
to speak, and YOU mercifully spare that
battle which every man has to fight every
day with hunger and cold for the neces-
saries of life. Into that fight the State
mercifully declines to enter. 1t is exact
ly in that fight on the necessaries Of life
and labor and on the tools with which
YOU labor that the United States filings
the chief burden Of taxation, while it
exempts all the accumulated property
which man has stored behind him.
When you come to examine the details
of our tariff system you will find that the
United States throws It's heaviest burdens
where they should be lightest, and its
lightest burdens where they should be
heaviest. More than one-tenth part Of
this billion Of dollars appropriated by
Mr. Reeds Congress came into the Treas
ury as the tax imposed by the United
States on the single article wool and the
fabrics of clothing made from wool. This
necessary article Of life-necessary toyou
who live in tho equaLle climate of Cali
fornia necessary more TO us who live in a
colder climate, supplies to the Treasury
of the United States more than one-tenth
of its ordinary expenditures.
This is not the worst Of it. When you
come to tax this particular article of con-
sumption you place a tax heaviest where
il should be lightest, and you make your
taxes lightest where they ought to be the
heaviest. Before the Mckinley bill went
into operation-and it is worse since-the
amount which the Government Of the
United States exacted in taxes on SIC
worth of broadcloth was something over
So. The amount which it exacted on SIC
worth of common blue or wool cheviOI
cloth was 5000. The amount which II
exacted in tariff taxes upon the common.
est and cheapest of all fabrics made from
wool, cotton warp, reversible stuff, that
the poor man was obliged to be content
with. was over S1S on so worth of it
The men that come to Washington and
dictate the taxes that are imposed upor
the people of this country upon the
things they make, understand that taking
the country through, one man in thou
sand wears broadcloth and the other 99S
wear the chevot or the cotton warp.
They are pursuing the 800, and they care
not for the thousandth man. Wherever
you levy taxes with the idea of protecting
some people, and not under the idea Of
getting money for the Government, you
are always forced to levy them in such a
way as to catch the great mass Of th'
people and let the weallhier escape.