The National tribune., 1909-02-25
A CopPERHEAD YELL.

/
sued them since the old war days. Their
has been most gratifying decreas
within the past few years of the NAL
evidence of the past. The facts of tn
war arc becoming better known, tn
justice of the pension system is every
where more generally conceded. the lie
with which the system was attacked
have been exploded, and reputable pa
pers generally have become ashame,
of attacking old men and women OF
account of the little pittance of So or 5,
a week which the Government bestow.
upon them for the few years that the,
set have on earth. The Democrat. o.
Johnstown, Pa, is one of the paper.
that proves obdurate to good sense
good taste and plain, undeniable truth
In a recent issue il has an editorial or
the pension question with the ranl
Copperhead twapg which has disap-
peared from so-called reputable papers
for many years. 1t says-in part
W Htit Is liiS emu .
The Federal Government has been in
dulgins in a magnificent orgy i'll the be-
stowai of grataities. No other country
ever dreamed Of such prodigality. Year
by year is has increased. Year by year
the appropriations grow in volume. And
when Congress begins to lag in the
work of lengthening the pension rolls
an executive order~o of sweeping reach
is brought into play.
Since the close of the war of the
rebellion the United States Government
has paid out SO. b,000,000 in pensions.
Every dollar of this has been taken
from the people who work. In over
wheiming proportion il has come out
of the weakest and the least fortunate.
The burden has fallen in proportion
with 10.0e0-f0ld greater weight on the
shoulders of the scrub woman and the
day laborer than on the Carnegies and
the Rockefellers. Yet the burden has
been borne with patience. 1t has eX-
cited scarcely a murmur. As the money
has come thru indirect taxation and
has been paid in large part by those
ignorant of the cause of the hard
times which they felt, the Government
has gone on from one extreme to an
other. until to-day the pension charge
reaches tine stupendous total of $751;
100000 annually.
BuI lEllS Is HOT ALL ne EtNtr mas
attacked the States and Pennsylvania
now proposes to enter the competition
No fewer than five pension bills are now
pending. These bills contemplate the
Inauguration of an Independent PEN
sioning system that eventually must
impose a tremendous burden on the
taxpayers of the State. These bills carry
all the way from a million or two TO
four or five millions. and they furnish
in ,1rf lan off fnr.
strous proposal to tax trust funds and
bank deposits and personal property.
The bills also provide for a great addi-
ton to the official class. There are 70
be Pension Commissioners at fat SAL
aries and big working force of clerks,
all at liberal pay. Thus more patron
age will be at the disposal of Mr.. PEN
rose and his friends. They will be able
by this means to pay off a larger num-
Der of their political debts. They will
pay these debts with your money The
pensions and the salaries and all the
costs of this proposition will be saddled
as burden on the toiiers of the State.
The officials in favor will have more.
The people who work in mill and mine
and who risk life and limb on the rail
or in the lumber camps Will have less"
There is absolutely no truta in the.
that the people of the United
States are pressed with taxes to pay
pensions, and that this comes from the
pockets of the very poor. II is wicked
and demagogic to say this. and try to
excite the anger of the poorer people
against pensions. Not a dollar has been
received by the Treasury which would
not have been collected if there had
been absolutely no pension list. The
taxes and duties which are levied and
create the fund from which pensions
are paid were imposed for totally diff
ferent purposes than the payment of
pensions or any other expenses of the
Government. Substantially one-haIf of
he revenues of the Government are de-
rived from taxes on spirits, beer, tobac-
60, oleomargarine, etc. which taxes
we're imposed for moral PURPOSES. and
.he people of the. country would insist,
4 they were brought to vote upon it,
hat the taxes be made still higher. The
axes on whisky and beer have been
he most effective curb yet devised for
the ravages of the drink
lemon. The tax on oleomargarine was
placed there as the result of the earnest
work of the dairymen and as a matter
If protection for the peoples health in
he way of pure food.
The other half of the taxes, which |
,ome thru the customs houses, were all |
imposed for the purpose of protecting |
american manufacturers and farmers
and to develop our manufacturing and |
agricultural interests, TO develop a mar |
zet for home products and to furnish |
at good wages to American |
To-day the main resist |
,nce to the lowering of these duties |
'omes from the farmers. workingmen |
md others, who want to preserve our
interests against being swamped by the
heap pauper labor outside our country.
What is done with the money raised
rom all these taxes is a matter OF less
to those people than that
he production and sale of whisky, olco-
etc. shall be restricted and
hat the wealth OF the country shall be
or American products. Substantially
line people out of 10 to-day want the
evenue to remain very much as it is.
nd the Government TO go on collecting
as much money as ii now
oes
Having collected this money, incom-
arably the best way of distributing jt |