The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1893-03-21
AN INCOME TAX

and many who sympathize deeply with
them although not yet called by their
name, the Populists, who in the last
election won so many victories, is a
party which the nation must now
gravely reckon as an actual existing
political force, and a factor entering
into the solution Of all political ques
lions. Thousands Of men voted for
Cleveland who did it tentatively and
without any strong faith in OF adher.
ence to the Democratic party as one
that would right the wrongs Of which
the masses of the people complain.
The farmers, the laborers in the coun-
try and the wage workers in the cities
are equally disconnected with existing
conditions, and will before another cleo
tion. if the Democrats do not meet
their demands and give relief, form a
new party that cannot be ignored in
practical politics any longer.
Now, on whatlines can these reforms
be effected2 Edmund Burke never
made q truer or more important state
ment than he did when he said, THAT
the lines of liberty and equal rights
were laid on the lines Of taxation, and
that every battle of freedom had been
fought out on that parallel. History
shows that our own independence and
the constitutional right of the people
of England in the days of Charles l.
and James II were fought on ques-
tions of taxation md revenue.
The question, the main and in fact
the only important question that now
presses for solution by the people of
the United States is the question of
taxation. I makes no difference as to
the principle whether that tax on the
people comes in the shape Of a tariff, a
license tax or internal revenue tax, a
tax on transportation, a tax on money,
or in connection with special privileges
of chartered public corporations OF
monopolieg Of land, All these 7 one
in principle and effect. The few pocket
the money that the many are made to
pay by the force and operation of ex-
listing laws. All the products of labor
ing men and the pressure Of rapidly IN
creasing population go to swell the
profits of the ~mOnOpolist and the land
s]peculator and add to the number and
wealth Of the ~milliouaires, ten of whom
now own So, 600, 900, 600 of the nations
wealth, more than enough to pay the
national debt, and %, 900 persons own
United States. If our present laws are
kept in force the next fifty years will
see the whole wealth Of this country in
the hands of so, 900 men, while the 65
or Is millions of our population are
serfs, renters and wage. workers with
out a foot of land they can call their
own and absolutely dependent on the
owners of the wealth that these labor,
ers have produced. The picture is not
overdrawn and is amply sustained by
statistics.
How has this state of things been
brought about9 No single individual,
ny LII O"h 70 SO14d4 1oOO1 III o4y II
dustrial pursuit or legitimate trade,
profession or calling, can, to use q
sporting phrase, win "off his own bat
more than twenty, thir5y Or at the out
side, fifty thousand dollars in a single
lifetime.
What, then, are the sources of those
streams of wealth that are pouring into
the treasure vaults of our m~illionaires,
and who is it that has, by hard labor,
industry and economy, earned all this
wealth8 How, for instance, have the
Astors, Of New York, got their mil,
lions7 They are land and city lot
ndlords-fatteni like
those of Ireland on rents and relentless
ly evicting when these rents are not
promptly paid. These rents are
charged not only on the houses and i'm
provements put upon the property by
the Astors, but upon the ground rents,
the location and value, the increment
unearned by the Astors, either by labor
or expended capital, but created by
the labor and association together in a
civic capacity of all the people who
have settled, built houses and estab-
lished trade and commerce and manu-
features upon Manhattan Island and
its near vicinity. This bare ground
rental or location value, earned by the
whole people of New York, largely ex-
ceeds the rents fairly and honestly due
the Astors, but becomes a part of their
income through our present laws which
permit them to pocket the peoples
~hard-earned money and to pose as mil
~lionaires. Why not take this income
OF the Astors that is represented by the