People's voice., 1892-06-17
GRADUATED INCOME TAX.

"A TAX on personal property ana I'M
provements is in the nature of fine on
industry and that class of enterprise
which aims to promote the betterment
of the human race and lift civilization
to higher plane. But as thisis the sys-
TEN of 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
ease 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 a 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 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 a sur
plus fund that he can afford to have
drawn upon. Tax on any other species
of ofpersonal property always works hard
ship.
A graduated income tax takes from
the owners of superhuous wealth and
is not felt
Say we start at an income of $1,000
and exempt all below that amount.
Any party who has $1,000 a 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 a 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 $1,000 annually should yield a por-
tiOn of this surplus wealth to aid their
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 a graduated scale
which exacted higher percentage as
their accumulations 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,
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 tC
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 il,
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 theil
net earnings over a 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 90 to % per cent. or
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 heir
to even up matters in the line of taxa
ton, by taking part of that 50 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
system.
Thirty-one thousand millionaires owl
three-ffths of the property of this coun.
try which is estimated to be SGO, 900, OOO,.
900. The income from that S36, 1000, OOO,
600 of property at per cent. would
amount annually TO 81, 40, 100000 Sup
pose the average tax on that stupendou.
income is 90 per cent, we have a near
revenue of SOS, 100000, to be applied t.
the public needs, and the millionaire
families would have suffered no hard
ship. Not nearly so much as some o.
us who pay s. tax.
The Astor family's incomes are de
rived principally from rents of real
estate-unearned increment-which is
estimated to aggregate $4,000, 900 tc
100000, 600.
What is the system by which the Van
derbilts' fortune has been piled up and i
still accumulating by arithmetical pro
gression, but unjust laws? The New
York Central railroad might be likeneC
to great spout or money conduit with
ends opening in New York and Chica
go, and a man at each end holding Z
bag into which the money poured
in steady stream, drawn from the
travel and traffic of the public all
| they Would hear This vas +ha aarl;a,