The great West. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1889-18??, 1892-08-05
GRADUATED INCOME TAX.

I
GRADUATED INCOME TAX.
| ono OF the Most Important OF the Peo-
| pies Demands-It ShouId he Fully Dis
| eussed.
A tax on personal property and inn
| provements is in the nature of a fine on
industry and that class of enterprise
which Amps to promote the betterment
| of the human race and lift civilization
to a higher plane. But as this is the sys-
temof taxation personal property taxi
which is at present always has been
and is likely to be in vogue for some
time to come, income should be includ-
ed, for of all species of personal proper
| ty income is the best able to bear taxa
| ton without distressing owners
The tax on much personal property
can be shifted from the party who pays
| the tax to the consumer; notably in the
case of merchants where the consu mer
has the tax to pay along with other ex-
penses which are added to the price of
the goods he buys
The tax on incomes is tax which the
party paying cannot shift onto others.
The receiver Of income does not pass
it over to another person, and any tax
coming out of it goes direct to the state.
The beneficiary of income is. better
able to pay a tax on that species of
property than on any other, and pays
the tax without being distressed there
by, because such tax comes out of sur
plus fund that he can afford to have
drawn upon. Tax on any other species
of personal property always works hard
ship
A graduated income tax takes from
the owners of superfuous wealth and
is not felt.
Say we start at an income of S., 900
and exempt all below that amount
Any party who has $1,000 year of un-
taxed revenue to support family on is
in no danger of suffering for want Of
means, and really would not feel tax
on sums above that amount.
The persons who are compelled to
subsist whole family on $500 or less a
year, pay the larger portion of the taxes
for the support of government, and it
is only fair that those who roll in
wealth and rake in of this worlds goods
over $4,000 annually should yield por-
less fortunate fellow beings, by tighten
ing the taxes taken out of the fund
which supplies their daily bread.
We should not only tax natural per-
sons incomes by graduated scale
which exacted a higher percentage as
their accommodations increased, reaching
| up toward the million point, but also
| every artificial person created by the
state, which embraces every corpora
tion-railroad companies, telegraph
companies, manufacturing corpora
tions, trusts, syndicates, banking cor
porations, etc. Nor should the income les
Of these concerns, these artificial per-
sons, be first divided and apportioned
among the several companies of which
the combines are composed, but tax the
revenue, the net income, of the great
octopus, allowing but one exemption.
The law creating the income tax to
support the war allowed the tax on in
comes derived from stocks, dividends,
ETC., to be exempted in the hands Of the
shareholders, which was manifestly un-
just. The artificial persons income
should be taxed without regard to it's
future distributions, and the natural
persons income without regard to what
source derived from.
The Jay Goulds, Russell Sages,
Vanderbilts, Astors, Rockefelers, ct:
al, should not only be taxed individual
ly on their immense incomes, but the
artificial persons they make use Of
to rob the public-the great corpora,
tons which they control-should
all have an income tax laid on their
net earnings over specified amount,
which, for the purpose of illustration,
we have placed at $1,000, before any
dividends are declared, or any fund set
aside for other purposes.
An income tax of 30 to 25 per cent. on
these millionaires as well as on the net
earnings of their corporations which, by
virtue of unjust legislation they operate
to rob the public, would materially hel p
to even up matters in the line of taxa
ton, by taking part of that 80 per
cent which the agricultural class now
pays from the farmers backs and plac-
ing it on the shoulders abundantly able
to bear it.
Such tax would be a just and
righteous tax under our present tax
ystem.
Thirty-one thousand millionaires own
three-ffths of the property of this coun-
ry which is estimated to be $50, 900, OOO,-
600. The income from that $50, 900, OOO,-
90 Of property at 4, per cent. would
amount annually to 81, 44O, 100000 Sup
pose the average tax on that stupendous
income is 20 per cent, we have neat
revenue of s22s, 900, 900, to be applied to
the public needs, and the millionaire
families would have suffered no hard
ship. Not nearly so much as some of
us who pay IS tax.
The Aston family's incomes are de-
rived principally from rents of real
estate-unearned increment-which is
estimated to aggregate 100000 900 to
500, 200, 900.
What is the system by which the Van
derbilts' fortune has been piled up and is
still accommodating by arithmetical pro-
gression, but unjust laws? The New
York Central railroad might be likened
to a.great spout or money conduit with
ends opening in New York and Chica-
| go, .and a man at each end holding a
/