The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-04-17

middle Western State, who appeared in a
~jocular mood, remarked that the President
was enjoying a little target practice in
economies. you know he went on record
as Assistant Secretary Of the Navy in favor
Of burning powder freely, " said he.
Some of the Presidents ablest defenders
in the Senate bore sorrowful testimony in
their countenances to their belief that he
was in earnest in his latest announcement.
It was suggested that the restless spirits
in politics would accept it as an invitation
to continue the cry against wealth and cor
porations, raising a national refrain that
ever rate legislation would not quell.
Representative Mccall Of Massachusetts,,
in commenting upon the Presidents utter
anoes, said that the proposition which he
had advanced was not a modern one; 1t had
been suggested at intervals ever since
"that great washout commonly known as
the food He added, however. that 1T
had not been advanced by the conservative
forces of society heretofore"
Its antiquity, however, does not make
it conservative" he added. 1T has been
considered too radical to find a place even
in recent Democratic platforms. There are
two kinds Of fortunes, those created by
individual enterprise and genius and those
which are the products OF legal grants and
bounties. To limit the first by law would
be to impose a harmful restraint upon
Individual freedom, and by putting letters
upon the ambition Of every man born into
the world might deprive the race Of great
achievements necessary to its we'll being
and vital to civilization.
Many men In working out their own fort
unes open Q avenues of production and
of progress, and gain vastly less for them
selves han they contribute to mankind.
But as to the other kind Of fortunes, those
that are the outgrowth Of unequal laws,
they demand limitation. Before proceed
ing to set bounds upon what honest indus
try, coupled with individual genius, may
acquire, 1t would be we'll at least to stop
legislating money out Of the pockets Of the
many into the pockets Of the few. The
greatest a~ggregations Of capital the world
has ever seen are rapidly growing greater
because of duties which no longer serve any
just purpose Of protection, but which
amount to a grant to levy trib ute. For
three years of President Roosevelt's admin
i~stration the fact has been 30 palpable as to
make the issue not a mere economic or po-
litical but a moral question.
The President might make more than an
academic contribution toward the solution
of the accumulation Of wealth problem
by sending a special message to Congress
asking for a correction Of some of the glar-
ing wrongs Of the tariff, AS to imposing
national taxes, in some cases oonflscatory,
upon inheritances and gifts, what resources
would be left to the States? Or is their
obliteration contemplated? Under our sys-
TEN the local governments bear practically
all the expenses of education, of preserving
internal peace and order, OF constructing
roads and, indeed, a great part Of the work
and the legitimate expense Of government,
The Constitution prohibits the States from
Ievying duties upon imports and their only
resource is direct taxation. How are they
to carry on their work il this resource is
serioualy inyaded?"