Los Angeles herald., 1907-08-02
THE SURPLUS" SLOGAN

THE income of the federal govern
ment from all sources for the fiscal
Il year just closed was $50. 929, ,425
more than the outgo. and yet the
standpatters of the house and senate
continue the excessive duties on inn
ported metals and make the iniquitous
steel trust and cognate burdens possi-
BILE, brushing aside the monitorial COM
plants of oppressed business all ap-
parently for the solidifying of partisan
power through the medium of financial
exhibits.
Better a surplus than a deficit!'
cries the partisan zealot, blind to the
devious, hurtful. almost criminal ways
in which the surplus has been created,
and his allegiance, money and business
prospects are tied to the tail of the par
tisan kite called progress" The willy
manipulators of the party in power
must have campaign material, and
what is so excellent as a surplus of
$S6,000 900?
This great mass of idle wealth comes
direct from the earnings of the laborer
and artisan, and the shame of it all is
that its only excuse for being is that it
shall fortify the forces that made 1t for
another lease of political power. No
sane man will claim such a surplus is
right or necessary. No business man,
with the knowledge that two more
years must elapse before n partisan
congress committed to the continu-
ance of this baneful policy will change
the order, can view the current strin-
gency of money knowing this surplus
to be its prime cause, without serious
misgivings. There is evidence that no
change in tariff laws will be attempted
until after the next presidential cleo
ton, in order that this boast of a great
name of progress; and so, for political
reasons of a purely partisan nature,
the business and commercial worlds are
burdened with unnecessary taxation as
exacting as rapacious.
That this burden can be lifted from
lowing extract from an article on 1.-THE
Wrong of the Great Surplus" in the
current number of the North Ameri-
can Review by former Treasurer of the
United States Ellis H. Roberts, than
whom more competent critic is not
known:
"Thls-tariff revision-can be done by
a fiat reduction on all present rates of
revenue. Agree on the abolition of the
surplus as the first thing to do. Accept
the mandate of common sense to col
lect what is needed and no more. Ex-
tend the free list by score Of millions
Some will insist that tobacco, beer and
spirits can easily afford to pay the tax
now levied, and that internal revenue
should stand without change. Others
will! claim that the customs duties
should not alone bear the whole reduc-
ton, which would take off 81 per cent
from the schedules as they stand.
Such diversities force practical legis-
lation back to the plain plan of uni
form discount from all the present
charges to an amount equal to the
surplus of 1907. Under the general dis
count the principle of protection (sic)
would not be challenged"
This from one who has handled the
finances of the nation under the con-
troll of the reigning political power
assuredly must convince that not only
is the present tariff law a burden and
a menace to the people, but that it is
to adjust the law to righteous
conditions, carefully protecting legiti-
mate enterprises, and by easy and nat
ural steps, If only the power of the
great protected trusts may be pla-
Gated and overcome in the senate Of
the United States.
A horizontal reduction equal to the
surplus of the past year would be 13
per cent of the total revenue, one-half
of which, taken from customs revenues,
would. If judiciously placed, free iron
and steel and their products from the
grasp of monopoly, open up healthy
competition and provide an entering
wedge for the final disruption of rapa-
cious trusts.