The Coconino weekly sun., 1894-02-08
A FLASH LIGHT.

fLAo1 Il11i
 Illuminating the Responsibility for the
 Income Tax Disaster.
 Whether the income tax supplement to the Wilson tariff bill passes the house or fails to pass, the effect upon the fortunes of the democracy will be disastrous.
 In one case, the party will have taken up and put through populistic meas ure strange to the democratic platform, repugnant to every democratic prin- ciple and incomparably odious to the country. In the other case, the party will have incurred all of the odium of the attempt, with the additional humil- iation of failure.
 Upon which horn of the dilemma the democracy is presently to be impaled, depends largely upon the course adopted by the republicans of the house, under the smart leadership of MT. Reed. The disposition of the republicans just now seems to be to assist the majority in every possible way to commit suicide by the more violent method.
 Are the bowling populists responsi- ble for the present ignominious posi- tion and dismal prospects of the de- mocracy? Not bit of it If all the populistic and socialistic voters in the United States had marched in mob upon Washington, waving their red banners, they could not have forced the democratic party to tear up its own Chicago platform and to adopt the Omaha platform of the so-called peo- ple's party.
 Is the responsibility with the section alist democrats, like McMillin, of Ten nessee, who want to pile their own share of the burden of taxation upon other peoples shoulders, no matter by what trick? No. They have merely taken advantage of the opportunity thrust under their eyes and noses by the Cleveland administration, and its agent in the house committee on ways and means.
 The supporters of the administra- tion are now pretending to regret the imminent prospect of income tax lcgis- latiou, and to disclaim responsibility on the part of Mir. Cleveland and Prot Wilson.
 Let us sec how this immeasurable blunder has been fastened upon the democracy, and who fastened it.
 When Mir. Cleveland and Prof. Wilson 'conspired to defeat the tariff pro- gramme announced in the platform which they were elected to carry out; when they abandoned the fundamental democratic principle of tariff for reve- nue only, and undertook to make a tariff for protection and for an eighty million dollar deficiency, to be supplied somehow, but not by the custom houses, they opened the way for the in come tax. If they had done their plain duty as democrats and honest men, there would have been no more pros pect to-day of an income tax than of a tax on dwelling houses according to the number of windows.
 When Mir Cleveland in his annnal message to congress recommended the enactment of tax upon incomes de- rived from corporate investments, he gave tremendous impetus to the prof ,ects of the disguised populists within the democratic party. There is no diff ference in principle between a direct and unconstitutional tax upon the in- comes of individuals from corporate as sociations, and q direct tax upon the incomes of individuals ns individuals
 Mir. Cleveland declared for one and has therefore encouraged and precipi- tated the other. He has even put it out of his own power to veto an in- ,dividual income tax law upon the plain and Sinn1n conStitutiOnal nrol1pdS otherwise at his disposal for effective use in such Q public emergency.
 Incompetcncy, cowardice, treachery and inconceivable folly-that is the whole story of democratic leadership in this tariff business And the prin- cipal responsibility for the income tax disaster is about equally divided be- tween Grover Cleveland and William Lightweight Wilson.-N. Y. Sun (Dem. ].