People's party paper. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1891-1898, 1893-05-12

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social function of such nature as to
make free competition impossible
such as telegraph, railroad, water, gas
and other like companies and corpor-
ations-should pay into the public
treasures Of the nation, state, county
and city an income tax equal to their
gross receipts after deducting : per
cent annually on the actual cost OF
their construction, eliminating all
fraudulent and watered stock, and
adding thereto the actual cost OF OPP
Grating and stopping all supertiuous
salaries and Offices.
Putting one for all Of this class OF
corporations, take as an example
railroad corporation. The presence
of the people on its line of operation,
the products of their labor in agri-
culture, manufactures, travel, trade,
etc, make up the whole of the in
come of the road. If there were no
people, no labor, and no interchange
of commodities, there would be no
income. Now, why should it not be
obligatory on the railroad that thus
derives its income from the public to
properly remunerate the public in re-
turn for the exclusive privilege the
people have conferred, by putting
into the public treasury fair pro-
norton of it's income :? For over and
above the fair cost Of construction
and operation, the whole product is
due alone to the peoples labor and
should go into the public pocket IN
stead of the private pocket OF Jay
Gould, Vanderbilt and other million
aires in ease or in expectancy. So
cialism or State ownership is not in
this question. We can do justice to
all the people and to labor by simply
changing our present mode Of taxa
ton, and taxing out of the pockets
of the monopolies that portion OF
their income that is clearly earned by
the labor of the people. The immense
value Of all these monopolies is only
fully realized when we take into con-
sideration the fact that seventy men
in the United States own more than
$20,000,000 each, an aggregate of
$2,700,000,00O. There are in the
United States to- day ten men whose
wealth averages $100,000,000 each.
Thomas G. Shearman, after statis-
teal and exhaustive examination,
concludes that %, 900 persons own one
half the wealth of the United States,
and that the whole wealth of the
country is practically owned by $780,,
900 persons, or one IN sixty of the
adult male population, and he pre-
diets from the rapid recent concen-
tration of wealth, that under present
conditions $4,000 persons will prac-
tically own all the wealth of the
country in thirty years-or less than
one in 500 Of the adult male popu-
lation.
Now, nearly all this immense body
of wealth has been earned by the
people, and has been flched out Of
their pockets by the cunning devices
concealed in the charters of the mo-
nopolies that hold and exercise special
privileges in taxing the products of
the farmer and manufacturer, the
traveller and the trader. Take their
income at its source, and divert the
stream of gold that has been running
into the private vaults of Rockefeller,
Lorillard, Plant, and others of that
ilk, and turn the net income they
have enjoyed and not earned into the
public treasury, and add to it the in
come of the land and city lot specu-
lators, and the ground rents of the
landlord, all of which are likewise
wholly earned by the people, and
there will be no further need for
tariffs, internal revenue, imports,
taxes on personal property, or taxes
on private and personal privileges
and Occupations.
In addition to all this, take the
power of coming or making money
and controlling its volume out of the
hands Of the goldbugs and silverbugs
and the banks and money spectators
of Wall street, and put that power
where the constitution places it, in
the hands of the whole people acting
through Congress, and let them de-
termine how much money shall be
made and of what commodity
whether it be nickel, copper, silver,
paper, gold or aluminium, and the
proportions of each, if any of them
are used, and there may be safely
predicted to follow an era of peace
and general prosperity.
j. DENNIS WOLFE.
Pensacola, Fla.