Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1895-09-07
Bill Arp Gets New Light.
I from Atlanta Constitution

I have just finished reading Coins
last book, up to Date II some
body doesn't answer it and prove it q
lie it will shake this country from
center to circumference. The bank
ers and spectators and money kings
will be overthrown and the danger is
that the masses will go too far in
revepginG their wrongs and, like
Samson, pull down the temple and
crush all alike. When he shows up
the inequalities Of taxation and how
the rich escape, it makes the blood
boil with Indignation. Aside from
the silver question, he gives GER
tifcate of David Gore, the auditor of
public accounts for the state of
Illinois, which shows that all that
the bankers and brokers OF Chicago
had assessed for taxation was only
$44 200 of money, while farmers OF
that county were assessed $4,000 for
agricultural tools and implements.
Think of it, The farmers tools are
assessed nearly twice as much as all
the money credits and securities of
all the banks, bankers and brokers
of that great city. And ali the
diamonds and jewelry in Chicago
were assessed at $17.750, when it is
known that single families live there
who own diamonds and jewelry ten
times that sum in value. The money
OF these banks amounts to hundreds
of millions, but through the man
ipulation of municipal politics the
rich control the assessors and escape
taxation. Can this be true? If it is
false, why doesn't Eli Perkins say so.
| see that he has taken the field
against Coin, but I can't tell exactly
from his last piece whether he is lying
or Joking. He closes it by saying
that after he had shown Coin his
errors and lallacies Coin gave it up
and the tears rolled down his cheeks
he dismissed his school and declared
he wasn't gwine to teach any more.
! like Ell. like any lie that is funny
snd harmless. | used to like to read
Baron Munchausen, and like TO
read Eli now. confess that it strains
my credulity to believe What Coin
writes about the Chicago bankers
tax, but There is the certificate of the
state auditor. Surely there is some
explanation OF all this. We know
what Solomon and Paul and the
Savior said about rich men, but l
never believed that our rich men
were that bad. We poor folks whose
income was under the mark, believed
that to tax large incomes was the
right thing to do, but 1t seems that
we can't do it. We are taxed all the
time on the outgo through the opera
/ tions of the tariffs tariff for revenue
( only with incidental protection. It
is the incidental that gets us. An
American sewing machine or a mower
or reaper can be bought in London
or Brazil 30 per cent cheaper than we
can buy one here. There comes ia
the incidental. 1t is protected here
from foreign competition and the
profit is so great that Mr.. Singer or
Mr.. Mccormick can pay the freight
across the ocean and then sell it for
less than lie will sell'to us. Isn't that
funny? Harpers Magazine sells all
over this country for thirty five
cents, but sells all over England for
twenty-five cents. An American
cedar pencil OF the best quality sells
here for nickel, but you can buy
the very same in London for cop.
per And inst so it Is with hundreds
OF other things that are made in this
country This incidental is not
accidental, but was done on purpose
at Washington and our law makers
say we must stand it,
Boys, let's fight. No, l don't mean
that exactly, bat let's meet and pass
some resolutions-let's do something.
Now, the Chicago gold bugs have
called q meeting to see if they can't
stop al this rumpus about silver, bat
they might as well try to stop a tor
nado. I wasn't taking much stock in
these financial affairs, for l had read
so much on both sides that it made
my head swim, and SO when friend
sent Inc Coins first book took it up
with prejudice against it, for sup
posed that Mr.. Harvey was Chicago
Yankee and was paid by the Inter
Ocean to write on that side, and SO |
fortified myself against being seduced
by his book. read it rather hur-
riedly, watching for traps and trig.
gers, but didn't find them, and !
found so much information that was
news to me that l read it more care
fully the second time, and came to
the conclusion that Coin was very
smart man, or was very great fool
-one or the other. His last book is
better than the first, and if these two
little books are made up Of fallacies
the gold bugs had better get some
body else beside Eli to expose them
Ellis forte is fun, not finance
though III bet a dollar he was OPP
posed to the income tax.