Kansas agitator. [volume] (Garnett, Kan.) 1890-1905, 1898-01-21
THE PASSING SHOW.
CHANCES AT POLITICS AND
CONDITIONS.
While Many OF Us Are Puzzled to Make
Living the Administration Finds 1t
equally as Hard to Preserve Its
Credit.

The administration is very much
agitated at the deficit in the revenue
Some way of taxing the poor will have
to be contrived, for the idea of an in
come tax cannot be tolerated. Ac-
cordingly, Senator Allison is to the
fore with a scheme for taxing tea, ard
Senator Morrill, is in favor of taxing
coffee. The Populists in the senate
| want to revive the income tax, but the
decision of the Supreme court stands
| In the way. But, whatever is to be
| the outcome, things cannot be long
| delayed, for no man, and no govern
ment either, can go on very long il
| he or it spends more than is receiv-
ed in the shape of income. The idea
| of levying a special tax on the rail-
roads of the country has been sug-
gested but Mr.. McKenna, who is so
soon to go on the bench of the Sa-
| preme court, declares that a national
tax on railroads is unconstitutional,
| and we are inclined to suspect that ne
knows all about it. Taxes on the rich
are not apt to be constitutional,
although taxes on the poor are in
variably so, says the Twentieth Cen
fury. 1t Is a little odd to have men
like Senator Lodge get up and say that
our country is the richest one on
earth and blessed with inexhaustible
natural resources, while at the same
time there is no way of providing taxes
enough to run the government. Sena-
tor Lodge says the talk about the dis
tress Of the poor is quite absurd be-
cause the taxes laid on the poor Yell
so much. This is really very striking
and ingenious argument. If the poor
can pay so much, what can tie rich
pay?
A Fall River, Mass, dispatch under
a December date. said:
"At a general meeting of the Cotton
Manufacturers Association 1t was
unanimously voted to reduce all wages
in the mills of the city, the amount
and time of the reduction being left
to a committee. 1t is understood that
the cut will not be less than 10 per
cent, and that it will go into effect
Jan. l. The cut will effect $4,000 per-
sons. The feeling is prevalent that
there will be a strike, but how large
proportion of the operatives will take
| part in it it is impossible to say Every
effort will be made to avert such ac-
| tion."
| There is a remedy for all this condi-
ton, costing less exertion than all
| these kind Of "strikes"-Vote! Labor
has the electoral strength to make
Strike" at the ballot box that will end
for all time the necessity of strikes
against reduction Of wages, says the
Journal of the knights Of Labor.
Stand together one time at the polls
and victory will perch upon the stan
dard of labor, and the "crown of lib
erty' will be won for the industrial
masses. Let all labor interests combine
now for one great future effort to
throw off industrial serfdom. Will
you do it, and be free and prosperous?
| IL uOW lOOho lihC llC tluCllC
workers will not complete the Grand
Trianon in Paris which they recently
started, according to Pilgrim. This
building was to have cost many mill
lions and would have astonished the
| world by it's magnificence. Perhaps
you are surprised to learn that the
workingmen of the United States have
been engaged upon building of this
nature. Perhaps you never heard of
1t. Well, they have been doing that
very thing, vicariously as it were. You
see, the laboring people Of the United
States annually create and turn over to
the Gould family many million. dollars
in return for which the Gould family
do nothing. But in the direction of
royalty the Gould do bend, and hence
it came about once upon time that
Annie Gould married French count
and the count married Annie and S10,-
100000, which the employees of the
ern Union Telegraph company had
earned and turned over to Annie, be-
cause her father had given her few
little pieces of paper called stocks and
bonds. So Annie and the Count de
Castellene were married and soon af-
forwards the count turned up in Paris.
and since then the eur has flew"
Banquets and yachts, balls and parties
were plentiful, and the count, in
cudgelling his brains for a way to
spend the creation of American labor
faster, hit upon this scheme OF mag
nificent building in Paris-not in
America. But this extravaganza cause1
the countess who, it is said, is now
tired Of her profligate husband to stop
the flow of the golden dollars. Think
of the hardships it takes to keep this
irresponsible animal pleased. 1t has
taken the cold and discomfort of many
thousand railroad men to crafty his
inordinate vanity and more than one
of them are minus limbs in trying to
create wealth for him to throw at the
birds, and many of them have left
widowed women and fatherless chill
dren to face bitter world.