The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1910-09-29

of which the permanent chairman of the Republican state convention is
 so important a part. has piled up ex- | traVagance and unjust taxation cu1-
 minating in state tax, 1eveled di- rectly at the homes and the farms | Nor has the half been told. Dur | ing the session of the legislature, in
 1909, MT. Corbin. the state tax com
 missioner, who is an expert upon the 1 formative remedy to increase the rev | enue of the state. He proposed the
 corp corporate e,,i excess tax bill. modelled l results in Massachusetts. This bill | proposed to reach with a state tax
 the property of the manufacturing l was badly treated and defeated. =
 As early as Jan; 1, 1905. the form of l to reach with a state tax had confessed and exhibited estates l worth $37s, 1000. upon which had
 554,ooO. A tax of only one per cent 1 upon this first amount would yield | &3,732, GOO. A tax of less than one l quarter of one per cent upon the cor 1 porate excess would have rendered a l state tax unnecessary, and would l then have left the total amount of ] and farms of the state substantially unimpaired.
 l What MT. Hill says about reduc- ing the state debt s7oo,ooo in 16 years 1 But the State government during each and all of those Is years has an- nually robbed the home owners and
 the farm owners, by the operation of unjust tax laws, of more than twice | $70o, ,o0O.
 And when I say robbery" I say it i advisedly. The Supreme Court of the United States has used the same lam 1 guage about the same wrong.
 f Said Justice Miller in the Topeka l case, delivering the opinion of the 1 gro lay with one hand the power of the government on the property of the citizen and with the other 1 to tbestow. it upon favored indiyid- | uals, to aid private enterprises and build up private fortunes, is none
 the less a robbery because it is E l done under the forms of law and is
 called taxation.
 No man, more than I. believes that manufactures should be fostered and encouraged. The State should pur- 1 sue toward them a liberal policy, but | they should pay their own tax bills. and not require the widow and the 1 orphan, the worker and the small bus l mess man to pay for them The product of the manufactories of l Connecticut, in the year in question, was valued at $3os, ,o82, 900. The, value 1 of the product, in excess of the cost | of producing it. was $55, 5S7 000, so that l it will be seen that a tax of 1 per cent, upon confessed value would have been no hardship, and would then have been some five mills less than the rate i ordinarily imposed upon the farmers l and the home owners.
 You see, gentlemen, that the Dem | ocratic party knows what it is talking about when it says that the State tax, as levied by the last General Assen- l bIy, was unnecessary and need not be again imposed
 l Unjust taxation continues because those who have much exercise an unA elected by the voters. The manner | in which that influence is too often exerted has been shown in recent in- vestigations and by scandals in our When MT. Hill undertook to defend the fiscal system of Connecticut he assumed a task that was doubtless welcome to him, for this country holds, I believe, few other men who so ar dentiy believe that the tax burden should rest, not upon the property of the country, but upon the workers of the country.
 We find him, in his speech to the State convention. defen ding the Payne AIdrich tariff bill, which many Repub- lican leaders have not been able to endure.
 T shall not today consider to any ex- tent the detail of this bill its special and particular iniquities. but shall con- tent myself with showing you that in passing it the Republicans in the Con gress carried Cannonism to it's high
 
 edge of the precipice.
 The tariff is, primarily tax. It is secondarily designed to protect nanu- facturers from the encroachments of foreign manufacturers upon the home trade.
 As tax the tariff falls upon the of all taxes, an indirect tax. of which a great man said a hundred. years ago. sIt is the art of plucking the goose without making it squawk.''
 TfS features have hean tended until they have created trusts and monopolies, and increased the cost within a decade or two. the American people may be reduced to European standards of living. or below.
 But you need not depend upon my any Democrat to what the Repub- Iican organization promised to do with the tariff, and what they did do with
 Speaking at Cincinnati, Sept. .22. 1908, MT. Taft said:
 the country well, but it's rates
 have become generally excessive,
 because conditions have changed
 since it's passage in 1896."
 This was a promise to lower the tariff.
 And upon P. 43ss, Vol. A, of the Congressional Record appears MT Hills understanding of the pledge made to the people, in his own lam guage; as follows; ao.ys;aa,a ,u t
 Congress has been called togeth-
 CT for the sole purpose of revis-
 ing the Dingley tariff law on the
 difference between the cost of
 production at home and abroad
 and SO FAR AS THIS HOUSE
 IS CONCERNED AN HONEST l
 ATTEMPT HAS BEEN MADE
 TO DO THAT"
 You will note, gentlemen, that in l telling what ought to have been done with the tariff. MT. Hill used almost 1 the very language Of the democratic 1 platform. adopted by our state con