The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-02-23


down, and we should send ours up.
! GOOD TEMPER ESSENTIAL.
! In the discussion of all these social ques-
| tons good temper is essential. Men must
! get together and use facts. not rhetoric.
! We do not want crusaders or crusade.
| The crusader was an ignorant fellow who
| counted the empty sepulcher of our Lord
| of more value than His precepts. In So
! cial and political movements he is de-
struetionist not builder. When the house
IS so rotten that it is beyond repair, there
Is call for him to clear the ground But
(! II the foundation and walls are strong and
pump ana 1t is only a question of a
| roof, or of improved interior arrangements,
| the men of destructive tendencies should be
ciuDbeu on the premises. But the leaky
/ ROOF ana unSan1tary interior must have at
tention, and the architect and his workmen
must get to work with zeal and plan The
tenants will stand together against the de-
| structionists and the firebugs: but have a
| care, for II repairs are not promptly and
| wisely made, If the jewellers on the first
i1Oor cut or the heat and water from the
| dwellers in the attic. things may become SO
| intOlerable that the tenants of the attic will
| open the doors to the firebugs. Those who
occupy the flrSt floor and the commodious
ana elegant middle stories must pay their
share of the gas and water bills. The great
| middle class of our people has never failed
! 10 respond to the fire alarm though they
have only small properties at risk and
these not Immediately threatened. But
| zeal as firemen if those i'm whose apart
ments the fire has been kindied do not pay
their proportionate share of the cost of the
| llre department. There must be a search
| ing inquiry into the distribution of the heat
and water supplies, conducted not by a
tip-taking janitor, but by a committee of
the whole house. If there has been any
monOpolizing of these things, or any fail
ure TO pay for them proportionateiy, we
must be as active TO stamp out the monop-
oily and the injustice as we are TO extin-
guish a fire. To stamp out a fire is a much
! simpler process than 10 correct unjust social
or legal relations. The cry of fire arouses
everybody and stiTs the most sluggish to
instant action; but to ferret out a wrong is
tedious, and the work neither attracts nor
| arouses us very much, unless the sting is
under our own skin.
The great bulk of our people are lovers of
Justice. They do not believe that poverty
IS a virtue or property a crime. They be-
lieve in an equality of opportunity and not
OF dollars. But there must be no handi-
Gaping of the dull brother and no chican-
cry or fraud Sinking. If our plan of
taxation includes notes and bonds and
stocks they must be listed. The plea of
business privacy has been driven too hard.
Ii Tor mere statistical purposes we may ask
the head of the family whether there are
any ldlots III MS household and enforce the
answer by court process, we may surely,
Tor revenue purposes, require a detailed
list Of his securities. The men who have
wealth must not hide it from the tax
Satherer and flaunt it on the street Such
Things breed great discomfort All other
men are hurt They bear disproportion-
knapsack OF a crippled comrade but he will
not permit a robust shirk to add so much
as ms TIN cup to the burden. The special
purpose of my address to-day is to press
nome this thought upon the prosperous
Wel-to-do people of our communities and
especially of our great cities; that one of
the conditions of the security of wealth is
proportionate and full contribution TO the
expenses of the state and local govern
mentS. 1T IS not only wrong but il is I'M
sale to make show in our homes and on
me streets that is not made in the tax re-
Turns, l only allude casually to the senti-
mental SIDE OF this question, to the I'M
patriotic character of these American citi-
zens, who are filching the great privileges
OF American citizenship
THE BASIS OF LIBERTY
Equality is the golden thread that runs
all through the fabric of our civil institu
ticns-the dominating note in the swelling
symphony of liberty. The favoritisms and
class distinctions which characterized the
governments and administrations of Europe
We're destroyed with the establishment of
government under the American Constitu-
ton AT the polls, before the courts in all
assemblies of the people, in all legislation,
there was to be, not class peerage but a
universal peerage. And as corollary, nee
esSary and imperative to this, an equality
or right, is the doctrine of a proportionate
doctrine of and ratable contribution to the
cost of administering the government In
deed, this principle of a propOrtionate bur-
herent part of the doctrine of equal rights
For one whose right to acquire and accu-
mulate is dispToportionately burdened is de-
nleu equal rights. " favored classes may
not be created, neither may any class be
disseminated against. In all of the early
constitutions of the States careful provi-
sion was made that the burdens of taxation
should be prOpOrtiOned, each man paving
ratably upon what he possessed. The
state was to gather from al and to dis
pense for the benefit of all. Whims and ia
voritism were excluded Imposition and
grace, in q free republican State, must be
without discrimination.
1T Is q part of our Individual covenant as
citizens with the State that will. honest
ly and fully. in the rate or proportion fixed
from time to time by law. contribute our
just share to all public expenses. full
and conscientious discharge of that duty
by the citizen is one of the tests of good
citizenship. TO evade that duty is a moral
delinquency, an unpatriotic act The tax
paying conscience is dulled in times of
peace. When ravaging foe threatens a
population with fire and sword men appre-
clate the defense which the government in
terposes between them and danger. | want
to emphasize; if | can the thought that
the preservation of this principle of a pro-
portiOnate contribution, according to the
true value of what each man has, to the
public expenditures, is essential to the
maintenance of our free institutions, and of
peace and good order in our communities.
| do not say that every tax must be uni
verSal and touch all property of every kind.
| The general property tax must 90 so, but l
recognize the fact that excise taxes and
franchise taxes, and such like may be lev
led in addition TO the general property tax,
and that the requirement as TO such. taxes
is only that they shall be uniform in the
class which Is subjected to them, and that
the classification shall be natural and not
arbitrary.
If we do not hold to this rule of proper
tion and uniformity, everything becomes
subject to the within of the Legislature.
The whole revenue of State may be de-
rived from contributions exacted from a
very small minority of its population the
majority going free. To allow such "a sys-
tenn is not only 10 rob the minority thus
unduly burdened, but is 10 rob the State of
that which is essential TO its healthy exist
ence. and, indeed, to the life of republican
institutions. Honesty and carefulness in
public expenditure will then have no effec-
will be Intellectual, and the majority will
be careless unless as to the use OF funds,
to the accumulation of which 1t has not
| contributed.
WASHINGTON'S VIEW.
In his second annual address to Congress,
delivered in December. 1890, President
Washington spoke with qualification of the
state of the public revenues, and said that
the prompt payment of the public dues was
| q quote IAN honorable testimony TO the
| patriotism and integrity of the mercantile
and marine part of our citizens" The
! House of Representatives in responding TO
| this address said: Nor can we learn with
out an additional qualification that the en-
! ergy of the laws for providing adequate
/ revenues have been hOn0rably seconded
| by those classes of citizens whose patriot
! ism and probity We're more immediately