Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1894-10-05
A I9EATY BURDEN FOR A CAADE-
DATE

A HEAVY BURDEN FOR A CAADE
DATE.
Ii it he true that only a candidate whose
political teilets are popular with the people
can be chosen by the popular vote. ther
Mr.. OSt's election in the Tenth district
would be little short Of a political miracle
lie carries two OF the heaviest burdens We
coulu imagine candidate to he handicap
ped with. A high tariff. every man mus;
concede, taxes the poor most heavily. II
he does not cDncede it, the marked reduc
ton i'll tile stores of the prices of goods Oh
which the tariff has been reduced must
convince him of it. To this burden of /;
high tariff, to which MI. Y ost s shoulders
are well accustomed. for he is an honest
advocate of it, he has added all opposition
to the income tax. IT Mr.. Tucker had
done nothing else for the people, his vote
for the income tax would be strong argu
inent for his return to congress.
In country where seventy individuals
own wealth aggregating nearly Three
| Thousand Million Dollars; in country OF
70,000.000 people where one hundred ant
ten individuals own Three Thousand Five
| Hundred Millions Of wealth. nearly one
/ seventeenth Of the whole aggregate wealth
OF the nation: in country where fifty
| thousand families own One-half of the
wealth OF a nation OF seventy millions OF
people-there surely must be field fol
an income tax and the highest justice il
imposing it.
If, as MI. Yost claims, you admit al
the theories of anarchists by imposing !;
tax on incomes, then his party in 1870 must
have had strong anarchic tendencies, fol
the Republicans in that year passed a bill
taxing 2! per cent. all incomes over So, 00c
The Democrats more tende1-footed, aid
with less of anarchic tendencies we sup
pose, in 1894 have taxed 2 per cent. all i'll
comes over $4,000. The State Of Virginia
never as yet charged with being aualchic
in It's tendencies, taxes incomes-all ovel
$500
The theory Of taxation is that every maj
according to his means should contribute
to the support of government. In civ
ilization we are al bound together to up
hold every man in the possession of his
property, and to punish all men who at
tempt wrongfully to interfere with him il.
that possession. To pay the expense of this
binding together-in combination called
government-every man is eXpected to coli
tribute according to his means. The poor
est man is required to pay according to his
means and the richest according to his.
There is no anarchy in this; on the contra
ry it is the very essence of law abiding and
property preserving government. The poor
man simply escapes a large tax because he
pay according to his ability to pay-when
he becomes rich, if he ever does, he is re
quired to pay more. Is it class legislation :!
II so, the law that imposes SO much tax Oh
a 500 acre farmer and so much less tax on d
so acre farmer is class legislation.
All taxation is, in that sense, class legisla-
tion, and Mr.. I ost makes d fatal mistake
in not taking the side of the humber and
more helpless class, instead Of the great
and powerful class, who need have li.tle
fear of the damage an income tax will do
them. The tax is only 2 per cent. on ali
over 81 900. A man would have to have
50. 00O income a year before he paid 500 OF
income tax to the government. This does
not seem very onerous does it ?
There is not a single ground on which a
Republican may attack an income tax ex
cept that it is this year Democratic
measure, as it was twenty years ago Il Re
publican measure. Wequestion if there is
a measure, except the lower tariff, of the
Democratic congress which has given more
general satisfaction to the people than the
income tax. All parties agree in legislat
ing against trusts and combinations by
which inoTdinate greed for money gathers
it out OF the peoples earnings into large
private fortunes; why then shall not a law
taxing it after 1t is thus corralled into in
dividual strong boxes, be just and expe-
dent?