The independent. [volume] (Lincoln, Neb.) 1902-1907, 1905-03-16
Al Open Forun for Single Takers

| is in course of doing in our own coun-
try even now. Thus a barbaric plu-
tocracy was formed In Rome, which
soon acquired control of the govern
ment machinery and in the logical
course of events. destroyed the now
empty shell Of democracy and estab-
ljshed an imperial form Of government
with an irresponsible head, an en-
peror, sustained in power by the pa
trician exploiters, not only of Rome
and Italy, but of the whole then known
world.
This system fell in time by its own
| iniquitieS, because organized greed de-
lstroys not only the moral fibre of so
ciety but also the physical human be-
ings, even as leprosy does. The off
spring of the patricians, who had
changed the tax system and laid the
people, became degenerates, even as we
see the offspring of those American
families, who grow powerful by the ac-
QUESTION of unearned money, degene-
rate now. There is a blighting curse
in unearned money.
When the German tribes destroyed
that empire, they fell victims to the
Roman civilization and its tax system,
nevertheless.
1t is an old experience that when an
Intellectually higher people are con-
quered by physically stronger people,
the latter absorb and transform the
older civilization, but can not abso-
lutely destroy it. Thoughts and ideas
can not be destroyed, you know, mere
ly modified to suit new civic, economic
and ethical conditions.
The chieftains of the old Germanic
tribes within a few centuries organized
what we now know as the feudal civili-
zation Of the middle ages. They con-
sidered themselves very much as the
Roman emperors did-irresponsibl
leaders, sustained in power by class
| of military officers. These in time, as
the power of the degenerating chiefs
waned, set themselves up as more or
less independent petty rulers with an
absolute right over the life and prop
erty of their retainers, their soldiery
and the tillers Of the soil, VINO sus-
tanned the whole outfit, even as our
farmers and Workmen sustain this re-
public now
Now it goes without saying that
these feudaI lords and chieftains did
not pay taxes to themselves. They
collected rather the taxes from the
economic earning capacity of the
Masses and the masses were satisfied
with that arrangement for centuries
because degenerated church, leading
on the people and fawning before the
lords of the land, preached that this
was the will of God. even as Baer now
says to us that it is Gods will that
those who have special privileges on
the land and its earnings for their
class benefit, and shift taxation on the
landlesS workers. l have mentioned
this idea of Baer's several times lately
because l consider it the most signifi-
cant public utterance of the aims of
our new feudal lord 1t is the old idea
of ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS system in
modern garb
The tendency of our taxation system,
therefore, is the same as the tendency
of the Roman patrician taxing system.
The burden of the cost of government
is lifted from the land and shifted on
the people. William j. Bryan. as yet,
does not see that point. He still be-
lieves that an income tax would pal
late, at least, the fundamental error of
our Roman feudal system of taxation.
which we have inherited from the feu-
dial times of England. Bryan ought to
know better.
You can not monkey with fundamen-
tai economic and social principles and
compromise with an ethical wrong.
Either it is right or it is wrong to
sustain society by taxing the earning
capacity of land for the common good
of all men and leave these men free
to make Roadway as they can, per-
sonally, with an even field for all and
special privileges for none. Either it
is right or it is wrong that all humans
have to depend absolutely on the earn
ing capacity of the land for their very
existence.