The independent., 1903-11-12
Money and the Taxing Power
BYW.H AsHBY.
All Rights sReserve
to get tax receipts inscribed upon gold
with which To nav taxes.
BY ". ii. ASHBY.

TO get tax rece1ptS inscribed upon SOlu
With which to pay taxes.
The gold owner having first
through a statute robbed the produc-
ers, by means of his exclusive posses
sion Of what they must obtain, now
compels government to return again
to him at a profit those tax receipts,
by means of their exclusive posses
sion of the things thus taken from the
people and which the government
must obtain. The gold owner is thus
in position to repeat the robbery of
the taxpaying people annually
throughout the cycles of time, This
dominion over these tax receipts gives
their owners power to commit the
crime Of usury, and they have pro-
cured statutes not only legalizing, but,
compelling it's payment.
To compel the government to ac-
cept in payment of taxes the things
the people produce and possess, which
constitute the taxable wealth OF a
nation, would put an end to this mo-
mentous robbery and would likewise
put an end to the curse OF usury,
which devours the people and de-
grades the usurer.
But people will be told that such a
scheme is wild and mere vagary.
The incredible iniquity of the present
system will be defended as the result
of the wisdom and experience Of ages.
Be it sol? "Whom the gods have de-
termined to destroy they first make
mad"
Perhaps it is best that the oppo-
nents of the system propounded by
the Man of Nazareth, under which
passionate love for each other would
soon do away with the, need for gov
ernments, and all their train of abuses
and oppression, should thus cham
pion manifest. wrong and outrageous
injustice, thus driving plundered and
oppressed humanity into each others
arms and into mutual love and care
for each other as their only hope and
refuge from a crucifixion that never
ends.
AS it is, the condition of humanity
is typified truly by Prometheus,
chained to the rocks, while the vul-
lures eat his ever-reneWed vitals No
hideous nightmare can present, no dis
ordered imagination can cOnjure
phantasmagoria so wild and wonder
full as the wierd and awful spectacle
of the human species tormenting each
other and suffering intolerable an
guish, simply because they refuse to
turn toward each other the loving
face and to hold out in mutual help
fulness the hand of brother and to
accept fraternal love as their guide,
instead of Indifference and hate and
every fellow for himself"
If the fruits of this present system
of selfishness. and the survival of the
meanest' shall, through iniquity
framed into statutes, become SO Bit
ter as to be impossible of longer en-
durance. men in despair must turn to
mutual love for each other, and mu-
tual care for each other, as the sole
refuge from annihilation or return
to savagery.
Perhaps it is by such teaching alone
that the human race can be made 10
understand the things which belong
to their peace" The lnscrutable Pow
er thar operates this universe may
thus be making bare His arm.''
It is certain that the fear of theor-
etical punishment in a life after this
has failed to make men love one an
other. Let us hope they may now
perceive the manifest fact that moth
| ing but mutual love. sufficiently
passionate to render all other re-
straint needless here. can ever do
away with the horrible incubus OF
government, and put an end to actual
punishment in this life.
i llsnnclndnd Nnxi IWnnk