The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1909-10-21
THE BAY STATE CAMPAIGN.
Tho Issues of the Contest Regarded
from the MugWumy Standpoint.

1t being the fixed purpose of the
capitalists and railroad lords who
now boss the so-called Republican
party in Massachusetts, quietly to pre-
vent the ratification by Massachusetts,
OF the proposed income tax amend
ment,-that latest dodge of the AL
drich- Cannon-Lodg clique at Wash
ington to hold the tariff up to the
highest notch consistent with the
Decuniary intel est of the New Eng
land millionaires,- still hunt, with
pledges secretly made for members
elected to vote against the amend
ment for which all this ring of de-
ceivers voted in Congress, was the
plan at the State convention. But
the fact that the income tax as a ma
tional resource is popular has brought
out Ex-Governor Bates conditionally
in its favor; and the vigorous onset
of Hamlin, Vahey and Foss ON the in
trenched camp of the millionaires has
put other thoughts in their heads;
and now the prospect is OF short
campaign but a leyily one The
struggle over the two charter plans
for Boston is going to draw out a
large majority for Vahey and Foss
here. against which the smaller cit
les and the country districts will be
mustered in force, If possible. The
opposition of the labor vote to Gov
ernor Draper, though not well found
ed, is more serious than was hoped
when the veto was sent in; and the
defeat of several good republicans
who voted with the governor, when
they came up for denomination, is a
little significant The fact is that the
downward revision of the tariff, in
visible to the eye unassisted by Nc
Call, does not make the republicans
eager for the fray.
They see that there is a serious re-
publican revolt at the West, and if
they believe they can vote for Foss
without being turned out of the party
as Lodge threatened Foss long since,
many who will vote for Draper and
the rest of the ticket will cast a pro-
testing vote for Foss When a poor
man looks out on the banquet getting
spread in his sight for the future gor-
ging of the millionaires, high tariff,
central bank, ship subsidies, no in
come tax,-with no plate set for him
at the feast.-what inducement has
he to vote the millionaire ticket?
Nine-tenths of the tariff profit, reason
able or unreasonable, goes to the mil
lionaire; the great central bank will
give that benefcent class q frmer
hold on the currency and the stock
market, for their private benefit than
g Ia ,N. q
less; every dollar that the taxpayers
lose in ship subsidies finds its way in
to a millionaire pocket and no ia-
come tax is to be allowed to draw
these patriotic dollars out TO replen-
ish the public treasury. It is the bill
of fare in honor of the Almighty Dol
lar; and the small side-table where
the labOrer sits is but poorly supplied
with the means of satisfying his sto-
mach. 1t may be a picnic for the
capitalist this year: his holding com
panies may seem to be getting all
they can hold; but there is a day of
reckoning Tor all these plutocraces
and it may as likely come next year
as any time
The whole legend of President Taft
and Charles Crane has yet TO be told
and it will send one of those flashes
of light on our incorriglbly merry
chief magistrate. which have been
starting forth at intervals ever since
he appeared as a meteor at Manila 1t
may have escaped notice that another
undiplomatic dipomatist, Or. Eliot,
used three Crane generations--grand-
father father and on,-to illustrate
one of his frequent speeches in this
region the other day. The great
Crane company of Chicago and
Bridgeport appeared in his parable
just before Charles Cranes resigna-
ton.
The division among the republicans
on the subject of the income tax may
force Governor Draper and the lead
ers of the party in Massachusetts to
declare themselves little more clear
ly on income taxes and tax-dodging i'm
general. SO far as | have observed,
and my attention has been occasion
ally directed to this subject for many
years, partly because | had an income
tax to pay, 80 hundredths of the oppo-
nents of the income tax, including
those who now profess to favor it as
a state tax, are and have been tax
dodgers. Such persons, ! do not al
Jude to the honest l per cent who on
theoretic grounds prefer other modes
of taxation, when they speak of dou-
bic taxation, as frequently they do,
are in the condition of the debtor
whose note was hard to collect.
His creditor finally said, well,
don't mean to be hard on you, III
throw off half the amount to which
the economist rejoined: 81 won't be
outdone in liberality. I'll throw off
the other half" So opposed are our
friends to double taxation that they
dodge a single tax. through fear that
it may inadvertently grow double by
cultivation as wild flowers do. Others
profess to fear that income taxation
will make the secrets of business
known to rivals in trade or that it
will lead to perjury; yet, these same
persons see no harm in the spy sys-
TEN which the high tariff makes nee
essary and are supposed TO take Gus
tom house oaths themselves when oc-
casion offers. If the taxation policy
OF Massachusetts is to be determined
n Il al.