The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1898-09-11
PIETY AND TAX Sinking.


while other men have to pay war he has found
means OF cvading them. He may even feel so
upllfted in his concet of this matter that he will drop
an extra nickel in the collection box and rejoice that
the Lord has provided him means OF getting 1t
back again by making the patrons of his express
company pay it.
Such may be the devotions of the pious tax shrker
this Sunday, but other Sundays are coming when he
will not be SO grateful-when he may even be heard
complaining that the Lord has forsaken him and
left him in his old age subject to taxes just as any
ordinary citizen whose piety is not ostentaous
enough to be conspicuous through the city
The reason why this change is likely to over
the devotions of the prayeru preyer upon the public
that Wells, Fargo & Co. may have to pay their taxes
after all. AS will be by local columns this
morning suit has been begun by w. E. Costey to
compel the express company to accept freight for
shipment from him without his paying the revenue
duties This suit raises issue for the courts, and
with its decision will come end to the petty rob-
berry which the company and its psalm singing pres
dent have been practcing upon the people.
1t is to be noted that the position taken by Mr..
Costey exactly that taken by The Call and other
newspapers of the city. Wells, Fargo & Co. not
long ago declared the newspapers must pay the cost
OF revenue stamps packages of papers shipped by
them through the company's express, and the pious
papers could cheat the Government and ship whole
wagonload. of papers as package The Call and
other newspapers OF the city refused. They main
tanned that it the duty of the express company
to pay the tax, and after some buster the company
yielded
Every citizen has the same right to ship packages
by Wells Fargo & Co. without paying the revenue
duties, that newspapers have. The express company
demands the cost of the stamps from the ordinary
shipper simply because the officers of the company
believe the shipper will not fight The suit begun
by Mr.. Costey is therefore battle for the public
good 1t is notice to the corporation that the
people, more than the press, will submit to extor-
ton the part of unpatriotc tax shirkers.
The company has recently issued pamphlet de-
Tending its attempt to rob the public and cheat the
Government. This production is prefaced with the
statement: at is of the essential nature of docu
mentary stamp tax that the burden falls upon the
beneficiary" This queer sentence, whose curious
construction could have been the result only of
most prayerfu consideration means that whoever is
to get the benefit of taxed article transaction is
pay the tax; that is to say if purchaser of patent
pills gets any benefit from them he pay the
if not then the seller must pay the tax. By this
reasoning the who draws check ought not to
pay the tax, because the to whom 1t is payable
gets the benefit.
axiom not to be disputed argue from it that their
company is public benefactor and that all who pat
ronize it are the recipients of benefits. Mr. John J.
Valentine, it will be seen, is determined to pose as
a phianthropist as we'll steady church goer The
general public, however, even If they accept the
axiom, will not accept the conclusion They will
hold that the company is the beneficiary, the ship
pers the benefactors, and that by the rule laid
down the company should pay the tax
refutation. The express company is capitalized at
100000, and the earnings last year amounted 10
per cent on that Of the capital only
100000 represents money paid in. The rest is fct
tous. With capital that has largely expanded
and with an income large it is clear that Wells
Fargo & Co. have been very extensive benefciaries
of the trade OF the public and are, by their
oning in duty bound to pay the tax the Government
imposed upon them.
This pamphlet, like all the other arguments and
bluffs of the express company, is simply to
gain time, trick to get the people to wait. When
the merchants of San Francisco began take steps
to bring about decision the right of the COM
pany exact the revenue tax from its patrons, the
officials persuaded them to abandon the project by
sertng that the issue be raised in the East
and would be speedily heard and settled there Time
has passed, but decision has come from the East
The merchants tricked
When the combined express companies of the
country, by collision which itself unlawful de-
cded to unite for the purpose OF Sinking the tax
opinion obtained the question from Attorney
General Griggs to the effect that the companies must
pay. Some time afterward the attorney for the ex-
press companies John J. McCook, of New York,
eminent at the bar in politics and in the church.
and having three several kinds of pulls, induced the
Attorney General to far change his original declar
alton to declare that to the issue between the
shippers and the express companies the Government
Indifferent. In other words, so long as the
Government derives the required revenue matters
not who pays it.
In that condition the controversy stands now and
the action brought by Mr. Costey is veritable gain
for the people. 1t brings the issue to point where
neither the company, by its tricks and Its blufng nor
the president, by his prayers his pamphlets, can
keep it from determination by the courts II now
the be forced to a speedy hearing and de-