The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-03-20
All Glasses Reached.

one or the strong arguments in favor of
the income tax has been that il only
taxes those who are rich. That argu-
ment cannot be urged now. The income
tax feature of the Wilson bill has been
amended inthe Senate so that it now in
cludes incomes from loan and building
associations. These loan and building
associations are mainly the institutions
of people of small means.
1t is understood that the tax is not on
the dividends that the associations nav
but on the amount paid in. AS it now
stands 1t IS very onerous burden on wage
earners
The Dill also taxes the net incomes of
all corporations. 1t therefore taxes the
incomes Of thousands of small investors.
1t is said that the number of very small
investors i'll the Western Union Tele-
graph Company, for instance, is far
greater than that of the large investors
Many Of the holders of the stock receive
from 500 to $500 year each from their
holdings. 1t is apparent, therefore. that
the argument that the income tax reaches
only the rich is great mistake If the
income tax should be adopted it would
not be surprising if the amount collected
from the poor and those in only moderate
circumstances should be nearly as large
as that collected from the rich. And it
should not be forgotten that an income
tax is not part of the doctrine of demo
cracy. 1t is wholly populistic.
The House is making record on pen.
sion matters that will go a long wav TO-
wards proving the popularity of Mr.
Cleveland S declaration that the pension
roll should be a roll of honor. Notwith
standing the fact that more than 500
private pension bills have been introduced
during the extra session and the current
session only about twenty-five have been
favorably acted upon 1t must be under
stood that in Il great majority of cases
private bills are introduced for the bene-
ht OF persons whose claims have been
rejected by the pension bureau. 1t seems
that, under the pension laws, which were
obviously designed by the republicans to
take in everybody who fought on the
northern side and can find the least ex
cusc for asking for pension. there would
be no room for private pension bills. But
there are numerous old soldiers who are
politicians just as they were patriots. for
revenue only, and they demand pensions
in return for their ''inhooence. " notwltb-
standing theJ have no lawful claim
upon the pension fund. And for
the benefit of these would.ba
pensioners, many Of whom have made an
plIcation to and been rejected by the bu-
reau, the congressman who hope to secure
or retain their backing introduce private
pension bills. There are. Of course.
worthy exceptions among the beneficial
ries of private pension bills but there is
reason to believe the majority of such
bills are introduced for purely political
purposes. The practice of passing priv
ate pension bills became common only
about ten years ago, prior to which time
less than fifty such bills had been passed
since the formation of the government /
From and including the Forty -eighth CON /
gress about 1000 privatep pension bills have /
been passed up to the present. Tom Reeds T.
House passed 400 private pension bills (
Crlsp's first House passed 2ll, and the |
current House has so far passed about 25- |