The daily morning journal and courier., 1895-05-02

l | densome of all, because 1t is placed in c
 direct not an indirect, proportion to tht
 ability to pay.
 H. Frank Rall of Des Moines, Iowa
 second Yale speaker. He said:
 "The friends of the income tax law base their defence largely upon the fin ancial need. Their argument rests up
 on false assumptions; that the meas
 ure met this need, and that it was the
 best way of meeting. The need was
 an immediate one, but no revenues could come from this tax for ten months
 and the amount even then would be
 uncertain. A better source of aid was
 open, the internal revenue taxes The
 present tax on beer is less than one twentieth of the tax on whisky, reckon
 ed ad valorem. Raise the tax to three
 dollars barrel and 1t will bring sixty
 million more of revenue, without dis
 turbance to trade or increase of cost to consumer. An increased tax on tobac-
 co would bring thirty millions more.
 Here was a source of revenue, three
 times that estimated for this law, cas-
 fly and economically collected, without
 popular friction or disturbance to trade.
 Why did congress neglect it? Because
 populist clamor dinned it's claim in one ear while congress turned the other to
 the gentle suggestions of the beer com
 bine, with It's millions In it's pockets and its thousands of votes at it's com mand. The law is unjustifable be- cause of its radical defects It's mode of collection is that which has made the personal property tax a revenue farce and an outrage upon justice. The spec ial deductions allowed open wide doors of evasion. This and the high rate of exemption will largely destroy its value as a revenue measure. For this reas- on the chief of the bureau of statistics estimated that the private incomes would scarcely pay the cost of collec- ton. It encourages fraud and dis honesty and Is worse than the English law which according to Gladstone, has done more than any other tax to demoralize and corrupt the people,"
 B. l.. Hirshfield of Ohio then con cluded the debate for Princeton. He said that Germany has no stoppage of the source so much talked of by enemies of the income tax measure, and
 
 should our own law not operate likewise. The reform in our tax system must be national and in no other way can this become so except by the income tax. The bill is certainly not sectional, as has been charged, since in congress 1t was upheld by men from all parties. The income tax policy is simply re- versal of the system under which five states have been placing the burden of taxation upon the other thirty-nine and these thirty-nine have now turned the tables. The clause under the cir Is vouched for by the over voice of the people demand ing a lower tax on consumption. It includes greatest of all the condition of the treasury. In 1893 there was a deficit of $70,000,0 900 In the treasury, caused by the decrease of imports, and the comptroller of the treasury was to refuse to call in bonds, because he had no funds, a state of affairs which would not have occurred under well regulated income tax defects in the old system of tariff taxation having been seen, what other more logical way out of the difficulty was there than a direct taxation which could be depended upon. The returns rom the income tax are more constant .han the tariff tax since 1t does not lepend upon the fluctuations of trade Year by year great problems are be- coming more menacing to the treasury md there can be no doubt about the l Income tax being justified.
 Clarence E. Clough of Wilmot Flats, V. H., third speaker for Yale, He aid:
 This tax is an encroachment of na- ional government upon the states. All | he states are extending their taxation O incomes, inheritances and corpora ions. These are fields of taxation | avs Senator Sherman, which should | ever be invaded by the national gov 
 Twenty of our states have already | axes on inheritances, incomes or cor orations, Last year New York, Penn ylvania and New Jersey alone raised yer eleven millions from these sources. you put an additional tax of two per ent, on this same property, and this is that the income tax does, there will 0llow injustice and invasion and the tate law must be repealed. The in- 1me tax law contains three points of njust discrimination. First, savings anks. It exempts six hundred and axes three hundred. Each makes rofits on investments. One class di- Ides it's profits in particular way nd Is taxed; the other In another way nd Is exempt Second, between in- trance companies. Two insurance ,mpanies exist side by side, having lual advantages. The one Is a regu- r stock company and is taxed two per mt. on net income. The other, a mu- laI company, goes free. Third, be- veen kinds of income. This bill ex- npts general incomes of four thousand 1llars. Corporations are taxed two | er cent. on net incomes without ex- ' nption. All corporate stock Is widely :, stributed among persons whose in me is less than $4,000 Thus a man lth an income of $4,O00 derived from is exempt, while a man I lth the same income derived from a rporation Is taxed The spirit of e bill is confiscation. The spirit be- nd it is hatred of capital It's logical
 tcome Is shown by J. c. Garter, who ve. "A triumDhant majority will find l