The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1892-12-20

GL0S IOF all men, ana the aOOlIGIOl
of all monopolies, whether of land or
special privileges, that exclude compe-
tition and exercise a public function
controlled by private individuals or
corporations, with power to tax the
people for private gain is made the
fundamental rule of political action.
The Peoples party, as we'll as the
the Democratic party, and many in
the Republican party, see the truth in
this question just as clearly as they
saw in the decade before 1860, with re-
gard to slavery in the United States;
but now, as then, they seek to compro-
mise, to be expedient and careful Yur
| grant that the result may not be now
proportionate to the evilfor our present
Industrial slavery is ten-fold worse
and more extended than was black
slavery in 1860, for it now embraces
the whole laboring population of the
| United States, black and white
The main device by which it is sought
to avoid the real issue and provide for
the anticipated deficit in the public
revenue is an "income tax" and this
| is incorporated in platforms and dis
cussed in the newspapers and speeches
as a means of evening things up"
and quieting the laborers since they
are awakening to the appalling fact
that few thousand corporation indi-
viduals and land and city lot specula
tors are rapidly absorbing the created
| wealth of this country.
To meet the monopoly evil, it is pro
posed to limit the lifetime of these
soulless monsters. As to this, it is
enough to say that it makes little diff
ference as to how long rattlesnakes live
90 long as there are plenty of them.
The right of a corporation exercising a
public function proper to the govern
ment to be created or have an existence
at all, is most emphatically denied.
The government, State, political or
municipal, has no right to farm out in
this way its taxing power as old Rome
did to the governors of the provinces.
The power to tax is a perogative of
sovereignty, and in this country be,
longs to the whole people, acting
through Congress, legislatures and
executives elected by the people.
The tax defined in the Ocala and st.
Louis platforms as a graduated in
come tax" is liable to very serious OBJ
iections. If it is made uniform, equal
and just, it must tax all incomes in
proportion to their amount. The man
whose income is $500 must pay as much
in proportion as the man whose income
is $3, 900, 600. If you make exemptions
and destinations, you are unjust and
partial Again, tax on wealth is
direct tax upon labor, of which wealth
is the product, and will be returned and
in the end come out of the pocket of
the laborer.
Besides this, the difficulties in the
way of ascertainment and collection
are insuperable. If you leave it to the
man himself under oath, there is a fer
tile field for fraud and perjury, of which
the personal property tax in the several
States furnishes a suggestive and
frightful object lesson. If the facts
are determined by the assessor, he
must make such an examination and
expose of the private business of indi-
viduals as will never be tolerated by
American citizens. They would not
submit to the methods used in England,
France and Prussia, and even there
the law is evaded and is in its results
unsatisfactory.
Al the objection that lie against the
taxation Of personal property are solid
against an income tax. An income
tax is in fact only a tax on personal
property of particular kind. Wealth
is personal property. An "income "
is personal property.
Now, Mr.. Editor, there is a fund
sufficient to meet this deficit. 1t IS a
fund brought into existence by the
united and joint labor Of the whole
body of the peoples in their commercial
organization and assemblage in town
shops, States cisies and nation. The
laoorer Is worthy of his hire" Give
the people what belongs to them as
people. Take the land value they have
created by their labor and put it into
our public treasures instead of into the
pockets OF landlords, land spectators
ana monopolistic corporations, and we
can have free men, free trade, free
land and free opportunity for all men.
10 this it must come, and it is hoped
tne Third party and the Alliance will
get there if Cleveland and the Demo