The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1896-03-25

We have learned to trust one another,
and the Christian teaching which incul-
Gates faith in God and his infinite wis
dom and love encourages and develops
mutual regard and affection among
men. To advocate secrecy as essential
20 the conduct of business is to de-
fend the principle of secret combines
and great industrial trusts that work
the works of darkness and do not come
TO the light lest they be reproved. Why
/ is an income tax any more inQuisitorial
than customs duties, or the whisky and
tobacco tax? 1t is not claiming the
right TO manage my property for me,
but it is asking partner in ones bust
ness to make suitable accounting Of his
appropriations of the common stock,
as we'll as his contributions TO it.
Instead of assessing every year the
estimated value of the crops of growing
cane, why not levy tax of 81 per ton
on the amount of sugar produced. Is
one any more inquisitorial than the
other?
The opposition TO any frank and full
and fair statement of ones annual in
come finds strong expression in a de-
cision of the United States Supreme
Court Vol 116, PIP. 631, 632): ANY
compulsory discovery by extorting the
party's oath or compelling the produc-
ton of his private books and papers is
contrary to the principles of a free
government. 1t is abhorrent TO the in
stincts of an Englishman 1t is abhor-
rent 10 the instincts of an American.
1t may suit the purposes of despotic
h1Tr oh r 10
atmosphere of political liberty and per-
sonal freedom
Such language seems to me inconsist-
ent with judicial fairness, and smacks
of the art of the pettifogger, who takes
to abusing the opposing lawyer if he
cannot advocate his own case on its
merits. To denOunce proposed meas
ure on the ground that public senti-
ment will not submit to the execution
of law supposed to be "abhorrent to
the instincts of an American" is to sub
stitute the breath of popular favor for
the demands of truth and righteous
ness. Public sentiment is too apt to be
attributed to what is really the loud
demands of some small coterie. 1t is
the mass of the plain people whom we
must trust in the last extremity rather
than self-appointed leaders; and so far
as the masses have any voice in the
matter, it seems to me that the people
are becoming really clamorous for some
change in the tax law that will not
favor attempts to hide facts and evade
requirements.
1t is objected to progressive taxation
that it may go on to the point of con-
fscation, if the principle is once admit
ted. But this is gToundless fear. Con-
fiScation is out of the question. In the
operation of law there comes in the in
tervention of other laws working as CO.
factors in the same system. There is,
for instance, the law of diminishing re-
turns in agriculture; for we cannot in
crease the productiveness of the soil
in the same ratio that we may increase
fertilizing material. There is the law
of the tolerance of the market, or, as
the Southern Pacific Railroad official
phrased it, Put on the traffic all the
charges it will bear" If the percentage
of taxation be taken in arithmetical
proportion, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, while the in
comes are classified in geometrical pro-
gression, 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, the rate would
not be Is per cent. until the annual in
come had reached $4,000 900.