Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1892-11-09
A Plea For the Income Tax.


ment, we have tried it IN this country
IL has always proved paying Investment
for the people, always paid handsome
dividends. After the late war We col
lected three hundred million dollars
from this source, because it is a tax up
on profits. 1t does not tax man upon
his losses upon his disbursements.
We do not propose to tax man upon
his board bill or upon bad horse trade.
We propose to tax him upon his gains.
upon his earnings, upon his dividends.
The income tax was enacted by patriot
ism, by the same patriotism that earned
the stars and stripes through the tenn
pest Of war, through the screeching shot
and bursting shell through heroic agony
and death, to the serene and glorified
heights of victory. 1t was repealed by
plutocracy, by the stayers at home. by
the hirers of substitutes, by the Clippers
of bonds, by the waterers of stocks.by
the contractors of currency, by the cor
nerers of dread. by the pigeon-hearte
fellows who remained at home while.
and because. the minni8-balls were VIII
lstling over the sunny fields of Dixie.
1t is not an unjust law. It is the fri
end of the poor man; it is the friend of
the widow with her babe to feed and
dress, and her home to keep out OF the
relentless clintch of usury e is one Of
the champions of the just cause CT hon
est muscle and conscientious brain. It
is compeller of equity. 1t compels the
to chip in more literally
when thegovernment coDtributionbox is
passed around. 1t compels the fellows
who eat their bread b. the sweat of an
other fellows brow to pay the other fell
low for sweating. 1t compels those that
do the most dancing to help square ac-
counts with the fiddler. 1t makes those
whose eXchquers were replen;shed bv
the triumphs of the soldiers, to assist liz
paying the pensions. The man that
held the bonds has never done the fair
thing by the man that held the musket.
lie never will do it upon his own mo-
ton. He must be moved and the in
come tax is one of the levers that will
move him. Come and lend a hand
boys.
1t will convert the rich to the cause a.
national economy. Those that nov
urge Uncle Sam to spend his borrowed
cash with lavish hand, would then ad-
wise him to save his dimes and dollars,
and not allow his outgo to exceed his
income. They would then be eager to
help him tighten the national purse
strings. When tie millionaire is called
upon to foot the bills of Carnegie he
will not see so immediate necessity to
the number of American war
ships. he will not be so profoundly
ready to appropriate $4,000 to bury
dead millionaire senator when he is call
ed upon to settle with the undertaken.
The enactment of this law is, of
course, opposed by the opulent. 1t is
safe to predict that neither
Gould nor Huntington will vote for its
passage during the present year. They
can conscientiously help the poor man
only where tue rendering of such assist
ance does not. entail a diminution of
the semi-annual dividends. What their
conduct suggests is this: Honest toll
in constant quest of employment may
trudge in rags through chilling snow
and pelting rain, gnaw the meagre crust
of hunger and sleep upon the cold, in
couch of misery, of pain. of
sickness and disease, but nothing must
be done which will IN any wise inter-
fere with the continuous enhancement
of New York Central railroad stock.
Pure and tender women whose lips of
love have kissed farewell to a husband
bead, must beg with bIoodless cheeks
and trembling hands, for work and
bread where idle wealth and luxury in
happy revels speed the golden hours:but
our great national banks must continue
to make healthier showing every year.
The former is sentiment; the latter is
business. To plead the cause ofhonest
and industrious men who are compelled
to live in poverty and die in want is
sentimental; to loan money to a poor
fellow at criminal rate of interest. to
secure this loan by chattel mortgage
upon the cradle in which sleeps his
sweet-faced blue-eyed dimpled bady
darling-this, men call business. And
the men who plead the cause OF this
poor fellow. and this broken hearted
woman, and this sinless babe. these
men are heartlessly stigmatlZed as
howlers of calamity; while, on the 9TH
er hand, the men who prey upon the
necessities of their fellow men, who fat
ten upon the very calamities which thew
so pathetically bemoan, who commit
the crime of usury to glut them Suitable
stomach of ayerice, they are termed
capitalists, they are known as gentle
men, as the elite of society, as the cream
upon the milk of gentility. They are
quick to detect the ring of pure gold or
unalloyed silver, but their able financial
ears were not born 20 hear the wall of
human distress.
Nor IS the income tax extinct. 1t
still exists in Europe. Thereit is strong
and strengthing. 1t pays England $50,
100000 a year; Austria, 1000 ,000;-
Italy, S45,0O0,000; Prussia. $50 ,O00.-
600. These countries have tried it, and
they like it. 1t fills one of the requisites
of a national bill-of-fare. They see
no reason to expnnge s from the page
of law. No wise and hearted voice is
raised for It's repeal.
The income tax should be advocated
by the man that holds the plow and
sows the wheat, by the man that beats
the anvil and shoes the hoof, by the
man that moulds the bright and liquid
iron, by the man that picks and shoyels