Watertown leader. [volume] (Watertown, Jefferson County, Wis.) 1909-1911, 1909-04-30
Our washington Letter
(From Our Regular Correspondent

(From Our Regular Correspondent
Washington, D. c.. April 27, 1909,
The tariff fight that 10 now keinp
waged in Washington is increasing
IN intensity and interest with every
day that passes. The representatives
of the great corparations and trust.
that want a law amounting TO a
license to plunder the American people
are here on the ground demanding
the highest tariff that WAS known te
this country. Unfortunately the
IS, 900, 00U consumers seem to have nc
agent to represent them, but they are.
however, sending some very vigorous
and spicy letters to their Senators
and Representatives they sent to
Congress. If the people of this
country would do more letter writing
to their Congressman. they would get
better laws from congress than they
have been getting. About 200 years
ago the French Mobiles secured laws
exempting them from taxation, 30
that all the burdens of the govern
ment fell On the middle and lower or
peasant classes. The "AmerIcan
Mobiles" are now trying to do the very
same thing.
One of the things that frightens
Senators most is the proposal of an
income tax which President Taft
heartily favors and which would do
more towards placing the proper share
of the burdens of the government on
the wealthy and prosperous, than any
measure that was ever proposed. The
leading Senators that detest the income
tax are crying out that this is Demo-
cratic doctrine and are endeavoring to
have 1t squelched by raising this kind
of partisan cry. This charge is
nothing less than an Infamous lie.
The first income tax was passed by
republican congress and signed by the
immortal Linculn end yielded millions
of dollars of revenue during the war
times of 81 to '65. We have now
come to the point where more re-
venue must be raised and nothing is
more just than that tax shall be
levied on the enormous income that
a few man in this country enjoy.
Senator Aid lch, whose daughter is
the wife of John D. Rockefeller, Jr..
which of course, makes him closely
kin to the Standard Oil Co., and th>e
is horl ified at the idea
of an income tax and says that if we
had an income tax, it will mean the
abolition of tariffs and consequently
the abolition of protection This is
one of his trick arguments. The
government at the present time is
failing to raIse revenue for it's nec-
essary expense by about $100, 600, 600
per annum and an income tax which
would yield ABOUT $50, OOO, 900 to $780,
0000OO. would still be inadequate even
with the tariff to raising the necessary
revenue for running the government.
Senator Alorich is working over
time to convince his fellow Senstors
that the revenue from an income tax
will not be needed, and so tenderly
does he feel for the miIllonaires of the
country, that he is deliberately trying
to deceive the conutry into believ ing
this untruth, which he knows too
we'll to be false
This willy old sanstor. d.nies that
the country was promised reduction
Of the tariff, he claims that "revi-
sion" is all that was promised, and
while he Knows the conutry understood
that both parties promised to
"reduce, he holds that re. ision
means raising as much as a lever
ing, and raising is what he instist, ss
long as it enables the monopolies to
gouge deeper snd deeper into the
pockets of the common people, which
Apraham Lincoln said God must hav e
loved or he would hav. not made SO
many of them.
One thing however about congress
that all people heartily endorse. and
that is their desire tu pass a tariff
bill quickly. and get away as soon as
possible, so the country can have an
era of quite and rest.