The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1899-03-08
A DIFFER ENCE.
Moonshiners and Millionaires.


We find in the New York Verdict"
Chat paper started by mllionaires. to
preach Populistic doctrnes), the follow
ing interesting and sensible artce:-
Castlereagh once spoke OF 'the ignor-
ant Impotence OF taxation" and seventy
years later Gladstone SO far improved it
as to tell of the ignorant patience of tax
alton" 1t was the other day when The
Verdict read OF the killing of a moon
sinner. The revenue officers put him to
death on his lean hillside somewhere in
the low mountains of Tennessee What
had he done to merit being murdered off
hand! He had taken the corn he couldn't
feed or sell and distilled a primitive,
vile whiskey from it, Then he had pro-
ceeded to- be drunk with his neighbors
thereon. forgetting and failing as pre-
liminary to pay the government tax at SO
much per gallon On its face that doesn't
tell of any horror No crime OF black,
unusual terror seems unfolded. The
moonshiner had neither slain the body
nor appropriated the goods OF another.
He had not burned his neighbor's barns,
poisoned his springs nor hamstrung his
kline. At the felonious most he had done
no more than withhold from the National
terms OF statute rather than the specihca-
ton of any moral law he should have
paid in taxes on the whskey he had
wrung from his corn For that he was
shot down on his poor premises, and if
he'd burned the White House with the
president in it they couldn't have done
more. 1t is not The Verdct's purpose
to defend the moOnshlner. 1t may have
an opinion OF this man-hunting which
goes forward. the length OF Our Ale
gheny hills, all the year round. and which
sends some annual hundreds OF the ignor-
ant poor -whiskey-m making mountaineers
to their long homes, but it won't express
it. The Verdict may hold its views on
these taX-murders in the wilderness, but
it will keep them to itself What it would
hike to ask. however, OF some official
monitor OF taxes, laws and ethics. is this:
What is the difference between some
darkened moonshiner who ConccalS his
still, goes steahhily about his flre-water
and avoids his revenue tax; aud such as
the wealthy men, who by concealment
and pull avoid payment OF personal
taxes on 5000 out OF every ST. 900 that they
possess2 Is tne mountaineer greater
felon than the millionaire? The one
avoids his taxes and the other avoids"
his taxes. The method OF the mountains
has this much in its favor as against the
methods of these city men OF millions:
It does not employ perjury; 1t puts UP no
false oath: the mountain method is mere
ly to hide and dodge and conceal oneself.
Yet the whiskey- constructing noun
taineer who defrauds the people OF doz
en- dollars a year in unpaid taxes is hunt
ed to the death Tax collectors, armed
to the teeth. chase him through his glens
and shoot him down. The Morgans and
the Rockfellers who, by overt wrong in
forty fashions, cheat the public OF hun
dreds OF thousands in taxes. are among
us safe and honored. They are pointed
to as leading citizens. They address
Sunday schools, assemble with vestries
and church boards, and take pious tea
with the dominic afterward. The Nor
gans and the Rockefellers are pointed out
to our boys as examples OF all that is
publicly or privately virtuous; and named
as tall headlands on the coasts of exist
ence for the just-launched youth to steer
by. Why are they not for their tax de-
linquencies hunted like the tax-dodging
wretch of the mountains? Is there one
sauce for the mountain goose and another
for the Wall street gander? Gladstone's
phrase, "the ignorant patience of taxa
tion," may still find that food among us
that should fatten and keep it alive.
It is a curious fact that in this land of
common people where nine-tenths OF the
inhabitants have no claim to be aristo-
Gratis, but do claim to be the most intelli-
gent people i'll the world. millionaire is
substantially above the operation Of the
law, and usually goes scot free for crimes
which would land poor man in the peni-
Tertiary or send him to the scaffold
There Is less respect for wealth, mere
wealth, in monarchial England than there
is in Republican America. l. D.