St. Landry clarion. (Opelousas, La.) 1890-1921, 1895-05-11
THE INCOME TAX.
Causes That Havs Placed Itson tho StsAa
uto Books.

Il -
Many of those who are repining boz
cause an income tax has been imposed
by the national government are prone
| to object 1t because Of the lack OF
/ any necessity for such an impost
They attribute it TO the democratic
party, and they blame that party Tor q
gratuitous levying Of taxation which
might have been spared those who arc
to gay it. It is true that the demo-
cratic party is responsible fer the law.
| but 1t is not at all 80 plain either that
it is unnecessary, or that this party is
responsible for the state of facts that
ledanp to 1t. That state of facts may
be concisely said to be. increased ex-
| penditures of the government and
diminished sources of revenue. Con-
sciously or unconscionsly, those who
have controlled public affairs for the
last Twenty-Five years have been SO
conducting them as to make an income
tax d logical, Ii not an inevitable, ont
come of their action. To charge the
responsibility for the levying OF the In
the immediate agents in bringing II
Unto law Is to take but d superficial
view Of the situation. We must go
| further back to account for its appear
| ance. It must be traced In the policy
of the government for d long period.
There are those now living who can
| remember when the expenditures OF
the American. government amounted
| to but Sl3, ,Doo, 900 per annum. This was
the annual outlay during John Quincy
Adams' administra tion, and one Of the
| charges made against his adninistra-
| ton was that it was extravagant. In
less than twenty years this sum had
trebled In. amopnt. It. steadily rose
thereafter till the days Of the war OF
the rebellion. The expenditures of
| that period and the war debt that re-
suited gave It enormous additional pro-
| PORTIONS The country had increased
greatly at the same time In area, and
| more in wealth. !, We had imposed q
heavy taxation which enabled us to
pay Of much Of the debt, AID brought
surplus into the treasury. Asnrplus
did, what.a surplus always docs, II I'M
fsduced habits of extravagance. There
lswas a period under It when Ii seemed
as IL Our Legislators sought 70 devise
means for spending money. This habit
had It's inevitable effect. IL sent the
Iinatfpnal expenditure constantly high
er, Until they reached the enormous
amount of $500, COO 600 year. We had
begun with s1ssoo0, oOa; we ended With
! $50o, 900, 900. Il. s.t4 ss /,
Our national Legislators, Il they had
stopped TO reflect, would have realized
that no nation In the world had 8 yer
spent anything hke the sum of S5Qo,=
/ GOO, 900 per year without resorting to an
| income tax to meet the outlay. But It
may be said, and with some truth, that
| our nation is not like most other na-
! tions OF. the world in the extent of Its
| resources for taxation. Admitting
this, and the fact still remained that II
was necessary to prudently employ the
resources for taxation aside from in-l
comes, If income taxation was to be
avoided. This is exactly what we
failed TO do We had q tremendous
mint. to draw upon IN onr customs dur
lies, and, If we had used this in q busi-
ness spirit for purposes Of revenue, 1t
might have been that we could have
lsz,ostpnned. II not have avoided. the
levy of an income tax But VIC entered
upon the policy of fixing our rate Of
duties primarily with a view TO what
was called protection rather than for.
revenue. Long ago this was begun by
repeal Of the duties on tea and cor
fee, which, cut Off many millions from
our national income. The friends Of
| protection, on the one hand, thought
that the repeal would give more room
| for protective duties on other articles,
| and others who were not In agreement
with them feared the charge that they
! were taxing the poor mans breakfast
| table So these duties were abolished.
This was followed later by the taking
Iiof duties from sugar In this way
s10o, 00o, 600. If not more, was removed
from our revenue IL is not difficult
| to find the geHesisSof the income tan
| right there. 3 tsss G
Take the two together the unthink-
| ing and unscrupulous increase OF gov
ernlnent expenditures and the failure
to adopt ordinary prudent methods for
the raising of revenue7and we -ac-
count fully for the income tax. It was
inevitable If that policy was to be pur-
sued It must come sooner or later.
The republicans, when they went to
the extent of running up the expendi-
| lures of the government to $500, ,0O0, coo
a year and at the same time took s60,-
900, 600 from the revenue by the repeal
of the sugar duties, besides paying out
| SO, 600, 600 OF bounty to sugar pro-
ducers, hastened the time of its appear
ance. They were more responsible for
| 1t than were the democrats, who were
the immediate agents to place iton the
statute book. The former created the
necessity for revenue to meet defcien-
cies, and this, coming just at the time
when the populise feeling Of the coun-
l try was aroused against the possession
of great wealth in comparatively few
hands, was provocative to the passage
OF the measure, which only blindness
could failto see was sure 10 result as it
| has resulted. ss szxf9
| We have not discussed above the right
sor the wrong Of this measure. We have
sonly brought to mind THE causes that
have placed. 1t on the statute book.
They are nnch too plain to be mis-
taken or disregarded Boston Herald.
/ The speculation !. as to whether
Hawaii viii send us another minister
| To succeed Thurston, or whether she
| will allow the post TO remain vacant
and give Minister Willis his passports,
Is not very Interesting ONE. III Is
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