Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1895-03-14

A Graduated Bachelor Tax.
Julian of Kansas City is one OF most
eminent members of the present very
eminent House of Representatives OF
Missouri. He is unmarried, and ap-
parently through his fault rather than
his misfortune, for he wants to fine
himself for it. Also others in the
same incomplete condition. As u
statesman he venerates the married
life, and fears to see celibacy laying
Missouri low as it laid old Rome. This
repentant celibate has therefore
brought in bill directing that bach
elors shall be subject to graduated
tax, as follows:
Between the ages of 80 and 35 years,
$40; between the ages of 35 and 40
years. SIS; between 40 and 45 years,
$50; between As and so years. $50; be-
tween so aud 55 years, $75. Over 60,
25 per cent of their taxable wealth" +"
Julian of Kansas City would begin
mildly with the unmarried youth be-
tween thirty and ,hirty-fve, merely
reminding them every year by little
bill for ten dollars that their solitari-
ness is watched anxionsly by the State,
which expects them to do their duty
to it, and that time has already been
called and is flying. At 35 the admon-
ition is made so per cent. sharper.
At 40 the thing is beginning to get
serious. 1t is no time for fooling. Up
goes the fine 100 per cent. So. after
successive ralsings OF the impost. the
callous celibate, who has endured for
thirty years the fiscal rebuke of the
State, and has seen most of his COM,
rades warmed of heart or frightened of
Then MIR. Julian regards him as hope
less. He has been fined gently and
fined severely. The terror of the tax
and the good example of most of his
coevals have been lost upon him. He
has not seen the error of his ways, or
if he has, he has refused to acknowl-
edge it, and has persisted in his erroc.
He will not take unto himself half.
Therefore he shall lose a quarter. says
the practical Julian.
Aud now mark with what providence
and wisdom the proceeds OF the taxes
wrung from these basalt- bosomed lm-
penitents are to be bestowed. Those
proceeds are not to be spent upon re-
pairing roads and hedges or shingling
schoolhouses or any other common and
prosaic purpose. With finer sense
poses that the money be put into the
hands of the Probate Judges in the
various counties and devoted to the
benefit of such spinsters as will de-
clare and prove that they are not spin
sters by their own volltion, but have
been and still are willing to marry.
Among this class the money is to be
distributed with the same graduation
that applies to the imposition of the
tax.
A bill of this sort should be consti-
tutional, if the income tax is. although
it would have been we'll if Mr.. Julian
had inserted into the preamble of his
bill declaration of hostility to the
income tax as an obstacle. to marriage.
To tax a class for the benefit of anoth-
er class is form of taxation highly
approved by many Missouri statesmen,
and there should be no objection in
the Legislature of that State to the
passage of the Julian Bachelor tax.
Still. there may be just a little doubt,
however unworthy, about Julian's mo-
tives in bringing the bill forward. He
is vouched for as medieval bachelor.
but statesmen are not in the habit of
rushing up to the clerks desk with
bills to tax themselves. Not even
statesmen in Missouri. Can it be that
Julian is going to get married, and is
grinning in anticipation of the afflic-
ton in which be will leave his present
comrades in celibacy if his bill becomes
a lawP-N Y Sun.