Daily Arizona silver belt., 1910-05-22
h The Halls of Congress
Special Washington Correspondence.
BY TAV.

| in Washington. The necessary three-fourths of the state legislatures will not vote to amend | the constitution.
 Technical and state sovereignty objections, added to the opposition of powerful combina- tions of wealth, have sounded the doom of the proposed amendment.
 l Whatever the specific reason, the important i thing is that the country has been defrauded out of an income tax.
 When the tariff was in the making the demo- crats and progressive republicans favored the insertion of an income tax clause. Noses were counted and it was found that majority of the senate favored an income tax. Aldrich repre- senting Wall street, opposed the proposition that wealthy men like Rockefeller and Morgan should be taxed For several days he worked underhandedly against the proposed income tax, promising senators increased protection on most anything they could name if they would stand with him against an income tax. But the senate boss finally saw that he was beaten.
 Aldrich then appealed to President Taft for help. The president permitted himself to be used, coming out with recommendation for a tax on corporations. As a substitute for a genuine income tax, the corporation tax is a gold brick.
  tions, when compared to an income tax, is only another way to shift the responsibility of the tax to the consumer and producer at the bot tom. If man s income is $5OOoO and the law tells him he must pay ? per cent on that income to the government, there is no way for him to shift that tax. But if it is a corporation that has an income of $50,000, and the government put per cent tax on those earnings the cor poration turns around and adds the tax to the price of the goods it sells, or takes enough from the wages of its men to make up the difference
 To fool the people Aldrich proposed that the question of amending the constitution to make an income tax legal be put up to the various states President Taft himself had declared that it would not be necessary, even if possible to amend the constitution; that he believed the supreme court would uphold an income tax if given another opportunity.
 It is practically impossible to amend the con stitution Otherwise Mr. Aldrich would never have consented so smilingly to the idea. Two thousand futile attempts have been made to- amend the constitution. Only fifteen attempts have been successful in the history of the na- ton. Under the constitutional provision for an amendment, it is possible for per cent of the voters to nullify the will of the other 96 per cent. Twelve states are sufficient to defeat an amendment.
 The government secured the greatest propor- tion. of the revenue with which it runs the gov ernment by the levying of a tariff on clothing and foodstuffs. The people pay this tax, not to any tax collector, but in the form of increased prices for foodstuffs, wearing apparel and other manufactured products.
 Under this system men like Rockefeller and Morgan do not pay cent more toward defray ing the expenses of the government than the poorest citizen. Indeed, the workingman with a family pays at least twice as much toward the expenses of the government as the millionaire bachelor Surely the average American citi- zen can not be informed on this subject, other wise congress would be forced to pass an incomeI tax and thus compel wealth to bear its Just proportion of the burden of taxation.
 Among the great nations which levy income taxes are Great Britian, Japan, France, Ger many, Holland, Austria, Denmark, Switzerland, Australia and New Zealand
 President Taft, the standard bearer of theI republican party, having used his influence tol prevent the passage of an income tax, it is ap- parent that such progressive legislation can not be secured at the hands of the party in power.
 The democratic national platform, on theI other hand provided for an income tax Gas part of our revenue system, that wealth may bear its share of the burdens of the fed eral government
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