The Lexington intelligencer. [volume] (Lexington, Mo.) 1901-1949, 1904-02-06
INCOME IN.

YAK, WHICH appears elstWueI6 w tnl
issue This is perhaps the most in
teresting and valuable Of the seriea
r OF papers which be has contributes
up TO this time.
The subject Of taxation is q thai
ought to excite a great deal more in
terest than it does Strange to say.
it excites less than any other import.
ant public problem. When time;
grow hard everybody is anxious &c
tamper with the currency, which is
the most frequent cause Of hard
times. Meanwhile it is difficult to
get the peoples attention when one
%discourses on the inequalities Of taxa
ton. Few people know or care that
the total tax actually collected by
nation, state and city is more than
half as much as the total amount of
money in circulation This does not
mean the total amount OF taxes paid,
for the amount of taxes paid under
the tariff law is more than six times
as much as the amount actually
covered into the treasury from this
source. For instance, the tariff du-
ty on glass Of various kinds ranges
from 40 per cent to $50 per cent.
Not more than ten per cent Of the
glass used in the United States is
imported, and the government gets
the tax only on the part that is i'm
ported. The people pay the tax on
the 80 per cent produced in this
country but they pay it to the max.
ers Of the glass, who sell their pro.
duct at the price which the foreign
glass would bring after paying the
import duty. These taxesIalone, that
is, the ones which do not go into the
treasury but which the manufac-
turers Of the land are licenced by the
government to levy upon the consul
mers for their own "protection'' and
benefit amount to considerably more
every year than the total amount Of
money in circulation in the United
States. Yet for some unac :ountable
reason the people prefer to excite
themselves over the discovery and
punishment of a score Of boodling
aldermen in St. Louis.
The provisions of the federal con-
stitution upon the subject Of taxa
tion are highly unsatisfactory. These
provisions were agreed upon as a
compromise by those who, on the one
hand, we've jealousy guarding states
rights and slavery and those who, on
the other, were bitterly assalling the
idea of a merely federated union and
who wanted it clearly understood in
the constitution whether slaves we're
to count as property, population, or
both. So the constitute on, strickly
construed, limits the power of the
national government in the matter
Of taxation to lmposts, excuses, and
direct taxes. And of the latter, the
constitution twice specifies in sub
stance that direct taxes like con-
gressional representation shall be ap.
portioned among the several states
according to population, which is to
be determined by adding to the
whole number Of persons, including
apprentices and excluding Indians,
"three. ffths Of all other persons''-
meaning slaves. The purpose which
this provision Of the constitution was
meant to serve has passed away, but
the provision remains in full force
and effect. An income tax must be
construed as a direct tax-it is GER
tainly neither impost nor excise-and
as such it would have to be apportion-
ed to the several states according to
population. There are few large
incomes in North Dakota; there are
many large incomes ia Rhode Island;
but 10 order that these states might
pay the same amount into the federal
treasury, for they have the same rep.
resentation in congress, small incomes
10 the former state would have to be
taxed as high as the great incomes in
the latter This of course is up n
the superstition that the constitution
is to be respected. The republicans
are never troubled by a little thing
like that. They had an income tax
during the war between the states
which was constitutional enough at
that time. But the income tax Of