The Neihart herald. [volume] (Neihart, Mont.) 1890-1901, 1894-04-21
FOR THE INCOME TAX,
From the Knights Journal:

Whatever may be said about Voor-
hees' speech on the tariff bill, his de-
Tense Of the income-tax feature of
the bill will ring out over the land
and find an echo in many hearts. It
was a warning, too, that had well be
needed. He said:
The proposition contained in the
pending bill to levy a tax of 2 per
cent on all net incomes of corpora
lions and of individuals in excess of
s4,OOO per annum Is so Just and
eqltable toward the hard-working
taxpayers of meagre resources
throughout the entire country that
not a word in its defense or explana-
ton would necessary here or
anywhere else. But the narrow and
corroding selfshness of riches has
been aroused by this simple measure
OF justice into fierce resentment and
contention. We hear on all hands
the dictatorial voice of individual
and corporate wealth demanding
that it shall not be disturbed by the
slightest touch of the taxgatherer,
whatever may be the demands of the
toiling masses.
On all the wants and necessaries
OF life the mar of wealth, with a
heavy income, pays less rates of tar
1T tax under existing laws than the
laborlng man or laboring woman
whose wearing apparel is of coarser
material and whose household living
is supplied with cheaper goods bear
ing higher rates of duty. His bonds,
his accumulated riches of all kinds
and all incomes arising from them,
are exempt from all government
burdens, remaining not only undi-
mlnlshed and unmolested amid dark
ened homes and fragrant distress, but
growing %fatter, stronger and more
defiant as the days and years 90 by.
He who has spent his life in making
an amassment of wealth looks out
upon the poor, tired, toiling world as
If from a fortified castle. He feels
himself s%umptuously p~rovisioned
against all wants and amply protect
ed against all contact or concern
with labor-stained millions who
struggle from one ocean to the other
for the means of existence.
Sir, for no earthly consideration
would | paint al un just or over
wrought picture of the dangerous
.pretensions and intolerable arrogance
of accumulated wealth now manifest
in this country, but speaking in the
fear of my Maker, devoutly believe
that the limit of endurance has been
reached; that the time has come for
test between the power of boarded
money and the power of productive
labor; that the people from this time
forward, more than ever before, will
organize and take rapid and heroic
against the continued and
brutal dictation of the plutocracy,
against the paramount influence of
against the rule and suprem-
acy of the rich in shaping the fnanc-
al policy of this government in their
own interests. 1
Let no man imagine, or lay the
1attering junction to his soul, that
party names or party ties will bind
he American people on this question,
'r compel their submission to the
financial servitude sought to be fast {
ned on them by the power TO col f.,
'sal wealth. And when the contest
as it will speedily, and in I
many ways and forms, the bankers, S
noney-changers, Insurers and possess s
RS of millions who have provoked it
will stand aghast at the consequences
their own folly; they will figurat- t
Vely, if not literally, cry out for the :,
ocks and hills to hide them from the =
'rath of an outraged people. A 3 Il
er cent. tax on a portion of their t.
lcomes will appear, in the hour of f,
eckoning, a very small and trifing q
latter compared to others more cerl-
'us. But unto that day, now near =
t hand, | remit the further discus II
on OF what it may bring forth. 81