The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1896-04-24

Congress directed to enact the will
of the people into law, yet one man,
not even a legislator, has the mon
strous authority and power to null
lily any act of Congress. A bill is
passed after the most careful and
deliberate consideration by the
representatives of the people, yet it
can be vetoed and nullified by the
stroke of a pen in the hand of one
man. This is dangerous power.
When we consider to-day the ire
mendous patronage the President
has with this he can influence legis-
lation, in addition to the veto power
to kill what is passed, it makes him
almost an autocrat. 1t gives him
more power than any crowned head
of England, or we might say than
any monarch in Europe. We saw
here in the last Congress how this
power and the patronage of the
President were used to change the
opinion of Congress and to defeat
the will Of the people. We saw in
the same Congress how the veto
power was used to strike down a
bill that was passed by Congress to
coin the seignorage. Nearly every
administration since the civil war
has used the veto power and the
patronage of the government the
same way. This abuse and danger
grows greater each year"
AN INCOME TAX.
Since the recent decision of the
Supreme Court declaring an income
tax unconstitutional it is necessary
to pass a constitutional amendment
to wipe out this infamous decision
of the Supreme Court. Senator
Butler has introduced such an
amendment. In support of it he
has shown that the present method
of taxation is unjust in that it
raises all of the taxas by method
that is practically equal to a poll
tax; that is, by a method that taxes
the poorest almost as much as the
richest. He showed that every
State in the Union, in order to
equalize taxation, not only has a
poll tax, but also a property tax in
order that the wealth in each State
may bear its just proportion of the
burdens of the government. There
fore, the general government to
equalize taxation must also have a
system of property taxation or sys-
tenn of income taxes, so that the rich
whoget much larger protection from
the government for their property
shall pay their just share, so as to
lift some of the heavy burdens from
the poor and from the productive
industries of the country. Senator
Butler maintained that the two
greatest and most vital questions in
any government are: LIST, To have
a just and equitable monetary sys-
tenn; End, To have just and
equitable system of taxation; and
that therefore no people conld be
prosperous or happy, and that no
government could rest on a solid
foundation unless the great ques-
lions of finance and taxation were
based on just and equitable prin-
ciples. A larger volume of money,
and an income tax are absolutely
necessary to correct some of the
evils from which the body polite
now suffers. and to restore to the
country a fair degree of prosperity.
THE POSTAL TELEGRAPH AND
TELEPHONE SYSTEM.
Last week Senator Butler intro
duced a bill providing for postal
telegraph and telephone system.
The bill makes it the duty of the
Post Office Department to place a
telegraph instrument or a telephone
in every one of the 10000 post
offices in America, and to reduce
the rates on messages so that the
receipts will be just sufficient to
cover the cost of maintaining the
system. In a carefully prepared
argument Senator Butler showed
that it was unconstitutional for the
government to allow private
monopoly to use electricity, which
was heavens gift to humanity for
speeding information with lightning
10 Diditv nc IL waS now dninU tO the