The Elk Mountain pilot., 1900-09-18

sumption, and while they are income
taxes, in the sense that they must be
paid out of the incomes of the people,
yet the exactions are propOrtionate to
the income. The taxes upon conSump-
tion bear heaviest upon the poor and
lightest upon the rich, and are, in fact,
graded income taxes. The per cent.
collected decreasing as the income in
creaSes.
If this nation adheres to the doctrine
that governments derive their just
powers from the consent of the gov
erned, and the people have an easy and
ready means of collecting the abuses, the
government will not need to be SUP
ported by large permanent army, for
every citizen will be ready to defend
such a government from attack. The
only domestic use for large standing
army is to suppress by force the dis.
content that should be cured by legis.
lation.
10 support permanent army of 1OO,-
600 men requires approximately one
half as much money as is annually eX-
pended for education in the United
States. How much easier it is to up
lift people by the gentle and peaceful
process of intellectual development
than to blow them up with powder and
dynamite.
from principles which were universal
ly accepted in this country until within
two years ago. To know that all men
are created equal one needs not the
wisdom of n sage or the learning of the
schools. 1t was declared to be n self
evident truth. 1t was evident to those
who pledged their lives to the mainten-
ance of the Declaration of Independ-
ence, and it is evident still to those who
N.s .I..I Al
wealth and the glittering promises of
colonial system. If all men are Great
ed equal and endowed with inalienable
rights, it follows as a logical and nee
essary sequence that the governments
were instituted for the welfare of all
and derive their just powers from the
consent of the governed. On the pre-
servation of this doctrine our hopes de
pend; il it is abandoned there is no
hope upon which government like
ours can be constructed Do not al
low yourselves to be deceived by those
who question the capacity of this peo-
pie or that people for self-government.
When | say that those who distrust
the capacity of the people for self-gov-
ernment tend directly toward mon
archy | am only repeating what Lin
coin deliberately declared in his first
annual message. He said:
Monarchy itself is sometimes limited
at as a possible refuge from the power
of the people. In my present position
| could scarcely be justified Were | to
omit raising warning voice against
the approach of returning despotism. 1t
is not needed nor fitting here ihat gen
eral argument should be made in favor
Of popular institutions, but there is one
point, with its connections not so hack
neyed as most others, To which l ask
brief attention. Ii Is the effort to place
capital on an equal footing with, If not
above labor, in the structure of govern
ment. No men living are more to be
trusted than those who toll up from
poverty; none less inclined to take or
touch aught which they have not hon
estly earned. Let them beware of sur
rendering political power which they
already possess, and which. If surren-
dered, Will surely be used to close the
door of advancement against such as
they, and to fix new disabilities ana
burdens upon them till all of liberty
shall be lost"
The warning is even more needed
now than 1t was forty years ago. The
Army and Navy Journal is already jas
tifying the colonial idea, and declaring
that fate has decreed for us a destiny
in which an imperial executive, free
from restraints of n written constitu-
ton, will govern subjects according to
his own pleasure.
But why quote from newspapers as
to what may be done hereafter in the
presence of n law already enacted
which makes subjects of the Porto
Ricans, withdraws from them the guar
antees of the constitution and asserts
the power of the President and Con
gress to govern them without their
consent and tax them without repre-
sentatlon-a power as unlimited and
tyrannical as was ever asserted or eX-
ercised by any ruler in all the history
of the human race. This doctrine has
not yet been approved by the people;
it furnishes the supreme question OF
the present campaign. In the presence
of these perils the laboring man has Il
responsibility commensurate with his
opportunity. Without large percent
age of the laboring vote no party can
win an election in the United States.
The men who work for wages can by
throwing their votes ON the one side or
the other determine the policy of this
country. They need not march in par
AIDES; they need not adorn themselves
with the insignia of any party, but on
election day their silent ballots can
shape the destiny of this nation and
either bring the government back to its
ancient landmark or turn it into the
pathway followed by empires in the
old world.
One of the pleasing prospects held
out by Mr.. Bryan is free trade, which
would afford n particularly pleasing
prospect to the commercial traveller,
IL. IL.