People's voice. [volume] (Wellington, Sumner County, Kansas) 1890-1917, 1892-12-16
THE GRADUATED INCOME TAX.
1t Would Exempt Reasonable Wages to
Labor But Tax Incomes Derived From
ReAt, Interest and Profit.


Labor But Tax Incomes Derived From
Reat, Interest and Profit
Something like two weeks ago the
Globe Democrat published Washing
ton special reading as follows:
Representative Scott Wike, of the Quincl
Gll) district. has arrived He is more thar
ever in favor of an income tax "In 1886" said
Mr. Wike, this government raised 81, 900, O0l
Of revenue from an income tax, and more thar
one-half that amount came from incomes Of
over $500. Ny idea OF an income tax
would practically exempt the masses, as
would not tax incomes below 5000 The great
objection TO an income tax is that it is inquis-
itOrial But to me it seems not more so thar
the ordinary state tax. l like the income tax
system OF England, which has been in vogue
for fifty-one years, and successfully, too II
England the manner Of leVying this tax on cor
porations is to first collect it from the net
earnings Of the company before any dividends
are declared, and let the company in turn ap.
portion it among the stockholders Under an
income tax law, such as l would levy there
would be no multi-millionaires in this country.
Under graduated income tax would raise the
levy so high on large incomes that it would
practically be impossible for man to acquire
more than 81, 900 worth Of wealth at the out.
side"
From the Dallas, TEX. News we clip
the following editorial, which possesses
special significance when it is remem-
bered that Gov elect HOgg and the pop
ulist candidate Nugent, both of whom
stood upon platform containing de.
mand for graduated income tax, re.
ceived a combined vote of more than
2S5, 900. The News says:
II the majority led by INSCRIPTIONS dema-
gOgues or by honest but fanatical crusaders
against an allegorical plutocracy, have a right
to say how much money q thrifty and enterpris-
ing citizen shall be allowed to acquire and keep
above operating and living expenses, rs Con-
gresham Wike, OF Illinois, and other statesmen
OF his stamp contend, then where shall the lin.
1t to accumulated savings be drawn: Mr.. Wike
draws the possible limit, as regards accumula-
tiOn,a sOOJOOO; but he sets the practical limit,
as regards income, at $500 This agrees with
and others OF his school in Texas Their idea
TO day is to begin system Of regulating and re-
trenching incomes and capitals with an unequal
scale OF taxation applied to incomes of over s. OCO
and upward How long will this limit lasti A
majority Of the people consume pretty much all
they make, year after year. 1t is doubtless
safe TO say that on the average with the man
who earns so per month and with the man who
earns five times as much, the balances at the
end OF the year are ABOUT the same Neither Of
them has any visible or accessible income TO be
taxed This class whose spendings run neck
and neck race with their gettings, however
great or small, added to class who are put to
it TO earn bread and meat, will make up, per
maps, nine-tenths of the population. Under iu-
tiammatOry appeals TO their unsatisfled desires
appeals cunningly adapted to infect them
with an epidemic craze of selfpty-such peo-
pie are apt to become envious and impatient to
the verge OF revolutionary eagerness to pull
down all above them in fortune and to revel, at
least for time, in chaos OF ruined estates
In such mood, with the model modern dema.
gogue TO lead them, how long would they feel
Inclined 10 stop at limit OF $1,000 900?
How long would they feel willing to ex-
empt incomes OF 5000: In fact, how
many OF them agree fully today
with Messrs. Wike and Reagan upon the tenn.
pOrary limit which these and other politicians
have taken it upon themselves to suggest?
There is no telling how many people there are
in the country to-day who consider 100000 a
high limit for any man, who earning less than
Sl,OJa year themselves, are quite ready to set
the starting point Of taxation down Just far
enough 10 exempt their own incomes Indeed
the system might very naturally be extended
TO work an equal yearly division all around as
majority might find such general partition
apparently profitable for them. This would be
something like Mr.. Bethany ideal communism
but for one radical difference. Bellamy's plan
is not TO destroy the substance of private cap
itals but to conserve it by massing and admin
istering those capitals under a system of an all.
embracing national industrialism The Reagan
and Wike plan, carried to exhaustion, would
dissolve both capital and civilization into
universal condition Of poverty and sQualor.
Assuming that the world has revolved
upon its axis for six thousand years
since the creation of Adam, and suppos-
ing that Adam had lived until now and
had received every day since his crea-
ton, Sundays included, the sum of five
dollars, every cent of which he had
managed to save, he would have accu-
INFLATED if unaided by the factors rent,
interest and profit, less than eleven
million dollars all told. This being the
case, in view of the fact that 81, 900 in
dividuals within the past thirty years
have accumulated the enormous sum of
thirty-siX billions of dollars, the term
categorical plutoeracy" is, to say the
least, extremely far-fetched
The News either has not the faintest
comprehension of the subject or else
1t displays considerable ingenuity in
the direction of befogging the issue.
The advocates of graduated income
tax occupy something like the follow
ing position. They claim, first, that as
all wealth is the product of labor, if any
other factor besides labor absorbs
wealth, such factor must necessarily rob
labor. Second-They claim that there is
d point at which incomes cease to be the
Legitimate reward of honest labor and
become the results of the factors which
conspire to rob labor. Third-All STAN
dard works upon social and political
economy teach that the factors which
reap without sowing and absorb with
out laboring to produce, are economic
rent with all the term implies); all in
terest above an equitable proportion of
the net product of capital and labor,
and all profit above fair wages for labor
performed and services rendered
Fourth-The advocates of a graduated
tax upon net incomes hold that until
speculation in land is abolished and
land is held by occupancy only; until
the people assume, as public function,
the banking business of the nation. and
money can be obtained at the cost of
such banking system; until one kind
of labor becomes as honorable as an
other and the profits of merchandising
afford no better wages than muscle and