The Birmingham age-herald., 1903-01-31
THE STAMP TAX.

From the Mobile Item
 The press of the state generally re- fleets the continents of tAe general peo- pie, therefore the unanimity with which the state papers oppose the stamp tax clause in the revenue bll, should encour- age the defeat of that clause.
 From the Uniontown Herald
 The bill proposes to impose a stamp tax on notes and mortgages. A few years ago congress imposed such a tax Every business man knows what nuisance 1t was. He also knows that it was a tax on the borrower. The latter paid the tax all the time. And we see no way to prevent this. So the tax is laid on the necessities of man and is a part of mans inhumanity to man. Like the real bur den of taxation 1t rests upon the poor. From the Coosa Democrat.
 A bill is pending in the legislature to place stamp tax on instruments of writ ing similar to the war tax we were so glad to get rid of because of the burden and continual annoyances, and we trust this bill will never become law or that the undesirable features will be stricken out, such as stamps on notes and mort gages, which will have to be paid by the poor who have to borrow money or make mortgages to secure bread and , meat.
 | From the Eufaula Times.
 | We hope our legislators will study caro- | fully the revenue bill presented by those | who vast to increase the revenues of the state, for the bill now before .aem will | make tax burden h. sier to those who are now paying all they can. And there ought to be a just bin in which none | will be oppressed. Let's have legitimate | assessments, not stamp acts;-the latter
 Is only used in case of emergency and if | the makers of the official bill did not | see breakers ahead there would be no | necessity for stamp collections. From the Greenville Living Truth | The stamp tax seems to be lacking in | friends among the business men of the state and the majority of them seem to | favor the old democratic method of direct taxation. The stamp tax is in the nature
 Of an indirect tax but its operation Is
 directly against those least able to pay
 1.-the farmer and small borrower As a
 war measure stamp tax, while full l aafiah5 thC opJcCt Ol TdlSlnS revenue, mas never been popular and never will be. As method of raising revenue in time of
 peace it is an absurdty. The majority of
 the people are opposed to it from prin- eiple. Why seek to foist on the people what they do not want.
 From the Greensboro Watchman
 It is to be hoped that the stamp tax
 provision of the new revenue law now
 pending in the legislature of Alabama. | will be defeated. It. would be an inter-
 minable nuisance and a clog to business.
 and besides, an additional burden to those who have to borrow money. None
 of us have forgotten the Inconvenience
 and expense of the stamp tax imposed l by the United States government in 1898 1 There is no doubt but that the proposed
 measure would be revenue raiser on a
 large scale, but why make the borrower
 the bearer of his own tax burdens and
 also that of the money lender? He
 would undoubtedly have this to do
 should the proposed stamp tax provision
 be enacted into law. It is decidedly to
 the interest of the great borrowing class
 that this section of the revenue law be l defeated.