Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1899-01-10
RECKLESS ExTRAvAGANCE.
Remarkable Tendency OF Those in Author
ity to Make Wasteful and Extravagant
Expenditures

To the Editor of the Register.
Clarksburg, w. Va, January Cit is
true that all wars breed extravaganza
and recklesshess in public expendi-
lures, but our war with Spain has had
an extraordinary tendency in that re-
spect. The reckless manner in which
money is spent, and is proposed to be
spent, demands immediate attention
and radical reformation, or this coun-
try Will be taxed into condition of
utter helplessness and serfdom. Now
that West Virginia is about to elect a
United States Senator who will have
something to say, and may be in
position to have good deal to say,
on the subject of taxation, our people
may well look into the matter and see
to it that their Senator is sound on
that subject to whatever party he may
belong, for, after ALL that is the real
issue in our politics to-day and it
should not be altogether party issue.
1t should not be forgotten in this
connection that the federal treasury is
now doing business on borrowed CAPT
tai, that it's income does not meet it's
expenditures. Yet, notwithstanding
this, from official and other sources
CANT propositions imaginable for the
expenditure Of money. A colonial, or,
as it is generally called, an imperial
policy, is proposed. and being rapidly
advanced, that involves an estimated
expenditure of $150,000000 per annum
over our ordinary expenses. A propo-
sition to build a canal in Central Amer
lea involving the expenditure of $125,-
100000 for the work alone, saying moth
ing about. what international compli-
cation and sustaining our position as
owner of the canal may cost, is also
being forwarded with peculiar energy.
The building of fifteen new warshipS
at cost of over $4,000, 900 is also
on the programme. Again, we have
seriously proposed, with fair chances
of success, a costly subsidy to private
owners or builders of ships under the
preteXt that such policy is necessary
to build up the large merchant marine.
Next comes proposition to purchase
islands, a commodity in which we are
now overstocked. Then the people are
asked to put their hands into their
pockets and pay Spain $20,000,000 for
the Philippines, which are already ours
as the victor of the war with Spain. If
We need them, or it is legal that we
should have them. Then 1T is pro-
posed that we pay the Cuban soldiers,
q presume for liberating them from
the Spanish yoke, and that we spend
large sums of money to govern that
gem of an island and to feed about
everything in it, all to be paid out of
our public treasury which is another
strange piece of constitutional law. In
fact, increased expenditures are pro-
posed in about every department of
the government, and for all manner of
schemes, legal and illegal, constitu-
tional and unconstitutional, and that,
too, without any regard for the legiti-
mate functions Of taxation and the
right sof the taxpayers, who have it
all to pay. And as it comes out of the
soil, for the reason that man can have
nothing that does not originate in the
ground from which he, himself, came;
as he can neither create wealth or get
bread to eat without getting down to
the soil, it is a wonder that Mother
Earth does not herself groan under
the burdens that are being placed on
her.
But / must be brief on this subject,
as my object in writing is to try and
call attention to the legitimate pur-
poses of taxation, and about the best
way to do that is to eschew politics
and butt at the subject from a judicial
point of view.
Taxes are the enforced proportional
contribution of each citizen and of his
estate, levied by the authority of the
State for the support of government
and for all public needs. They are the
property of the citizen taken by the
government, and are to be disposed of
by it. See opinion of Justices, So Me-,
591. The object of taxation is the
raising of revenue for governmental
purposes. when it is prostituted to
objects in no way connected with the
public interests or welfare it ceases to
be taxation and becomes plumber" says
the court, in Sharpless VS.. Mayor Of
Philadelphia. q Pa. ST., 147; People
VS.. Salem, 20 Mich, 40.
There are but two ways by which
private property may be constitution
ally taken for public use: by taxation
and by the right of eminent domain
In the former case the compensation
comes in the way of the protection af-
forded by the government to it's citizens
and the preservation of their individ-
ual rights under the constitution and
the laws; in the latter case compensa-
ton is made in money or its equivalent.
In the matter of taxation the Su-
preme Court of the United States has
decided in United States vs. Fisher. 2
Cranch, 53S; United States vs. Mari
gold, 8 How. sos; the Legal Tender
cases, II Wall, 500 and in other cases.
that while taxation is the strongest and
most pervading of all the powers of
government and is sacred right essen
tial to the existence of government. yet
the taxes and all laws imposing them,
like all other laws. must be necessary
and proper and within the perview of
the constitution. and that the words
necessary and proper in this con-
nection mean that they shall be appro-
pirate. ADAPTED to effectuate the objects
sought, and not prohibited, but within
the letter and spirit of the constitu-
ton.
Does not this statement of the case.
based on the highest legal authority
of this country, make it plain that taxes
imposed to obtain money to be appro-
priated to the building of canal in
foreign country; that taxes imposed to
substitute private ENTERPRISES. that