The labor argus. [volume] (Charleston, W. Va.) 1906-1915, 1909-09-30
a A.COrnn0unication Deal
ing with that All Inn
Portant Question.
Advocates Amendment
to the Constitution
and Urges Workers to
Help Secure Passage.
BI G. w. KNAPP

The Constitution Of the United Statee
provides for an income tax to be levied
on corporations in proportion to popu-
lation of the several states.
This mode of taxation does not full
fill the requirements of the advanced
ideas of the people; it does not include
vast fortunes of Individuals, which
should bear their just portion of tax
alton.
There is, at the present time before
the Legislature of the several states for
ratification, an income Tax Amendment
to the Constitution of the United States
which will come very near filling all the
requirements of the people. The amend
mend says: "The Congress shall have
power to levy and to collect taxes on
incomes, from whatever source derived
without apportionment among the states,
and without regard to any census or
enumeration. AS this is an amendment
to the Constitution of the United States
Ito the supreme law of the land---it
will take the veto power out of the hands
of the Supreme Court---that trust con-
trollcd body. This is the sixteenth
amendmentthe greatest and best
By it's ratification wealth can be made
to bear it's just portion of taxation.
which taxation, to-day being borne by
the poor classes, is a burden to them, and
is grinding them to powder as between
the upper and neither milestone.
History tells us (and so do those who
income tax levied during a short period
of time, 1861 to 1871, during and after
the close of the Rebellion. This war
had made heavy taxation necessary; the
poor people could not bear it; hence the
levying of this income tax for short
period of time. This being a tax on
capital, on wealth, it was the first to be
repealed. Wealth was said to be stiff
ed; it was helping, in a very small de
gree to pay this tremendous tax But
who, all these long years, is still paying
this debt bearing this burden grcvous
to be borne, this CALLING tax to pluto
cracy? 1t is I; it is you, dear comrade! !
Who have 10, these forty years borne
the burden and heat of the day, it is
your fathers and sons, your wives and
daughters, those under your own roof
that are ground down by the iron heel of
capitalistic nobility!
Should this income tax amendment be
ratified by three fourths of the states,
thirty -five-I estimate that John D.
Rockefeller would pay into the treasury
of the United States, annually, one mil
lion four hundred thousand dollars; and
that at rate of taxation no higher than
we have paid in this country. Is this
not right? Is it not just for him who
is protected most to pay the most taxes
Certainly it is, 1t is recorded in the
good Book, that the man who was for
given most should be the most thankful
So it should be in our day: he that is
protected most should pay the most taxes
AS they are now levied, one fourth of
the wealth pays ninety-five per cent of
the taxes, while three fourths of the
wealth of the country, pays only five per
cent of the taxes. See where your money
goes; see why it is that wealth is accumu-
lating in the hands of a few. while mil
lions are becoming paupers.