The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1897-02-23
AN INCOME TAX
Leading Populists Petition the Legis-
lature to Present Memorial

The plan for an income tax has the
support of Chief Justice Doster, Asso-
ciate Justice S. H. Allen, ex-Lieuten-
ant Governor Percy Daniels, David
Overmyer. Captain w. H Nor
ris, state auditor; H. c. Lands, ex-
Senator James Shearer and a number
of other distinguished leaders in the
cause of reform in Kansas
The subject is being agitated by a
number of Populists who desire the leg
1slature to petition congress to so
amend the constitution that the col
lection of such tax may be provided
A lengthy petition accompanied by
series of resolutions was presented to
the legislature today reciting the duty
OF the government to protect it's citi-
zens. The petition says: There are
millions in want, hundreds of thous-
andS upon the verge of starvation, be-
cause the government, while forcing
men to obey it's laws in both letter and
spirit. has failed on its part to keep it's
contract
Because these promises have been
broken the petition says: Ten mill
lions of our most loyal citizens have
lost the most of which they may have
laid by and are now being plundered
of the pittance which they have left at
the rate of over three million dollars
day"
The petition then says: THAT while
aggregate statistics indicate a season of
unparalleled prosperity during the last
quarter of a century, their details tell
q story of appalling injustice. The
widening gulf between the rich and the
poor which these figures show and
which the depression, the mutterings,
the discomfort and the uncertainty
evidences which are seen, heard and
felt by all except by a very few-also
reveal and affirm, is because govern
ment has assumed the authority to
break it's pledge and cancel it's con-
tract with the Drawn and sinew of the
country and has T0nnnRratQ6 with
constantly increasing reward hesharp-
erS and crafty rogueS who have 1ured
it into its treacherous course while
keeping a cOnflding and patient people
deluded by the specious argument or
placated by the hypocritica1 promises
of their Wallets, on whom the people
have showered honors without stint
and whom they have given official
power without question.
That not only these circumstances,
conditions, facts and events point to
coming REIMBURSEMENT of life's oppor-
tunitieS and economic conditions but
the deliberate judgment of many of our
conservative and honored statesmen
concede this is essential to national per-
petuity, while others assert that under
any contingencies it is inevitable"
The resolutions attached are in part
as follows:
Resolved, That the accumulation of
inordinate wealth, which has become
detriment to the masses and a men
ace to our institutions, should be re-
tarded and it's evil influences mitigated
If not wholly dissipated by graduated
taxation.
Resolved, That we approve a prop
os1tlon for that purpose which begins
with L per cent tax on individual
possessions exceeding 81, 900, 900, taxing
only the excess (above a million); in
| creasing the rate 2 per cent at two
million; per cent more at five million.
and 10 per cent more at ten million; a
proposition that has been approved by
aIfNl-i
| ford county, and was Endorsed by the
legislators and state officers of '93.
Resolved, That we favor the levy
ing of such a tax and the appropria-
| ton of the proceeds of it (Which would
| at first reach two thousand million dol
| lars Year,; first, to the payment of