The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1898-02-23

orator "Plutocrats a smaller audience
chamber would have suficed for them and
| perhaps the orator should have been of the
| guild. l want to speak of the obligations
of the well-to-do people, the forehanded, pros
| porous and women of our communities,
| whether their estates are reckoned by thou
| sands or by millions.
Clash of Thoughts.
| We live In a time of great agitation, of a
| war of clashing thoughts and interests. Men,
| no longer satisfied with what appears above
| ground, are uncovering roots. There Is a
| feeling that some men are handicapped, that
| the race is sold; that the old and much
Wanted equality of opportunity and of right
has been submerged. More bitter and threat
ening things are being said and written
against accumulated property and corporate
power than ever before. 1t seems to many
that, more and more, small men, small
stores and small factories are being thrown
upon the shore as financial drift or wreckage;
that the pursuit of cheapness has reached a
stage where only enormous combinations Of
capital, doing an enormous business, are sure
of returns.
The seams which mar the face of the So
cial landscape seem to be widening chasms,
and If these CULTS are to be filled we must
establish dumps both sides of them. 1t
will aid the work if those on either side use
the bridges to get view of it from the
other side. Wealth should neither be the
consideration The indiscriminate denuncia-
ton of the rich is mschievous. 1t perverts
the mind, poisons the heart and furnishes an
excuse for crime. No poor man was ever made
richer or happier by it, 1t is quite as il
logical to despise a man because he is
rich as because he is poor. Not what
man has, but what he is, settles his class.
In the discussion of all these social ques-
lions good temper is essential. Men must
get together and use facts, not rhetoric.
The special purpose of my address today
is to press home this thought upon the pros
porous, we'll do people of our community
and especially of our great cities; that one
is proportionate and full contribution to
the expenses of the state and local govern
ments. 1t is not only wrong, but 1t is I'M
safe to make a show In our homes and on
the street that is not made in the tax re-
turns
Equality is the golden thread that runs
all through the fabric OF our civil fnStltu-
tions-the dominating note in the swelling
symphony of liberty. Equality, not of condi-
TONS not of natural endowment but of rights.
is the foundation stone of our governmental
structure And as corollary, necessary and
imperative, to this doctrine Of an equality
of rights. is the doctrine of a proportonate
and ratable contribution to the cost of ad-
ministering the government. The duty OF the
state to protect life, liberty and property is
conditioned upon a fair contribution to the
cost of government A full and consclen-
tious discharge OF that duty by the citizen
is one of the tests Of good citizenship. To
evade that duty is moral delinquency, an
unpatrotic act.
If we do not hold by this rule of proportion,
which. l think is an essential part OF the
definition of taxes. then everything becomes
subject to the within OF the legislature The
whole revenue of state may be derived from
contributions exacted from very small min
ority of its population, the majority going
free To allow such system is not only
to rob the minority thus unduly burdened,
but it to rob the state of that which is es
sential to its healthy existence, and indeed,
to the life of republican institutions. Hon
esty and carelessness in public expenditure
will have no effective watchers. The watch
of the minority will be Intellectual and the
majority will be careless to the use Of
funds, to the accumulation Of which it has
not contributed
Unequal Taxation.
For very many years opinion has been
prevalent that the great bulk Of the personal
property of the states, especially of the class
denominated securities, including stocks,
bonds, notes, mortgages and such like, has
escaped taxation. With a very few exceptions
the great fortunes in this country are in
vested in such securities The delinquency ap-
pears to be located largely in our great
cities. Recent Investigations of students of
political science and recent tables prepared
by state officials have disclosed appalling
condition of things. The evil seems to have
been progressing until, in some of our great