The Montgomery advertiser., 1909-04-09
PIRATES. OLD AND NEW.

methods adopted by the ancient Moors to get the money they wanted. In their swift-sailing vessels they would dash out of the harbor of Tariffa and intercept the Spanish vessels passing through the Straits of Gibraltar, levy ing toll on the unfortunate sailors. and if they failed to get what they wanted they would sink the vessel and kill or imprison the crew. Then The Post compares those methods as fol- lows:
 bery prevails under changed methods. No lives or dangers are risked to coi- lect the toll. There is no violence. nothing smacking even of rudeness. fective than the old are quite refined. Tn ose who have waxed pr osperous and powerful keep. little men in Congress, or get themselves elected here. to le- galize their plans and to impose the task of collecting the toll also onI the Federal Government The tariffites give liberally of their loot to states men and the party willing to do their work.
 The comparison is by no means a bad one. The robbers do not use guns. scimetars or biudgsons or anything of the sort. but they get the money just the same, and the means used to obtain some of 1t Is little less repre- hensibie than the Moorish way was. Some of the tariff scheduies are rob- bery, and that is all there is about it. The proposition to put an almost pro- hibitive duty on women's ahd ohildren's clothing. a high tax on tea and cof- fee, and a number of items. Is little else than robbery. The Moors used force and displayed courage. while the modern pirates get their booty without danger to themselves. 7 And while on the subject of tarin schedules we are reminded or a speech on the subject by Congressman Gil- lett. of Massachusetts. Mir. Gillett is one of the Republican brethren. as would naturally be understood, seeing the State he halls from. and he was attempting to show how national ex- penses could be reduced. ana sufficient revenue raised. He said
 Taxes on ten and coree. 1t seems to me, would accomplish this end. They are purely revenue taxes, and industry here. They should be so heavy that 1t could not be shifted onto the middleman, but should bear di- rectly on the people, They should be was empty they should increase and when it was full they should fade away. Then the people would feel iii their tenderest point. their pockets, the conduct of an administration or a par ty which allowed appropriations to ex- ceed income, and would be very apt to punish and rebuke such conduct, and we here, their representatives instead Of feeling as we do now, that the only road to popular favor Is liberal appro- priations, and that a spirit of econ ony is foolish and out of date, would be obliged, if we wished to keep the confidence of our constituents, to plan our expenses so that they could be met without the imposition of unpop- ular taxes"
 This is about the plainest plea for robbing the people that we have yet seen. The idea Is that the people will have tea and coffee, no matter what the cost may be, and therefore he would put a heavy duty on those ar- ticles and force the people to pay 1t in order to raise revenue. His spacious argument that the people thus burden ed would be more ready to watch after the official acts of their Congressman is all bosh. MT. Gillett plainly belongs to The Posts family of pirates.