The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1911-07-21
States.

States.
 Is it to be wondered at, MT. Presi- dent, that the Republican voter in 1910 felt that he had several scores to settle? A President, whom he had elected, believing him to be the cus- todian of the Roosevelt policies, had dismissed the Roosevelt Cabinet and appointed in their places men, in the main, of known hostility to those policies.
 With the promises of Candidate Taft for downward revision still sounding in his ears, he had seen President Taft use all the power of his administration to save from de- feat stand-pat Speaker, who ap- pointed Committee on Ways and Means in deadly opposition to any re-. vision of the tariff in the interest of the ultimate consumer.
 And then he had witnessed that same President on March Is, 1909, transmit his first message to Congress On this a1l-important subject, a mes- sage so brief and so perfunctory that it had no room for an explicit word or suggestion for downward revision of the tariff.
 And finally, after having been baf- fled in his struggle to secure tariff re- vision by a stand-pat Congress, and after having at last secured the prom
 
 national convention and elected a President and a Congress pledged to such revision, the voter had seen his Representatives in Congress pass and his President sign tariff bill that increased his burdens and left him even more completely at the mercy of the over-protected trusts and combin- ations.
 But, more than this. So complete ly had the successor of Roosevelt abandoned the progressive principles committed to his keeping that he had selected as his legislative counselor and guide, and in public speech ex- tolled in the most extravagant terms the patriotism and statesnanship of the greatest opponent of all progress sive policies, and hence the greatest champion of privilege in the United States Senate
 Following this he journeyed from coast to coast to speak in defense of standpat Senators and Congressme who were the bitterest opponents of the progressive policies of his prede- cessor, and the very men who were chiefly responsible for revision of the tariff upward.
 Then, to still further show his dis regard for the great body of progress sive Republicans he proclaimed the Payne-Aldrich monstrosity to be the best tariff bill ever enacted by the Republican Party.
 In his acceptance speech, MT Taft gave the public distinctly to under- stand that he favored an income tax. Criticizing the Democratic platform. because it recommended a constitu- tional amendment providing for an in- come tax, he said:
 "In my judgment, an amendment to the Constitution for an income tax is not necessary. believe that an in- come tax can and should be devised which, under the decisions of the Supreme Court, will conform to the Constitution
 tion tax, but an income tax as com- monly understood, the very income tax pledged in the Democratic platform He realized that the income tax was popular as campaign issue, and he led the public to believe that he had a plan through which the tax upon incomes could be levied directly through legislation without waiting for the long delay and uncertainty in- cident to amending the Constitution as proposed in the Democratic plat form.
 He we'll understood that the people very generally favor a tax upon the individual incomes of the rich, and his suggestion of the possibility of accom- plishing this at once through legis- lation placed him in position of great advantage on this issue In other words, the voter had a right to believe that Taft the lawyer, the judge, was strongly in favor of the income tax and had in mind feas- ible plan for the enactment of a con- stitutional law taxing the individual incomes of the enormously. rich and that by voting for the Republican candidate the country would have the benefit of such a tax as soon as Con- gress could convene and enact the
 Mark, now how completely the vo- ter was misled.
 MT. Taft was elected. The tariff bill came to the Senate. The opportunity was offered to add an amendment to tax individual incomes and resubmit preme Court, which had decided against such an income tax by only one majority.
 Senator Cummins proposed an amendment providing for a tax on individual incomes of $5,000 and over Senator Bailey proposed another. The two were combined, and votes enough pledged to insure the adoption of the amendment. The proposition to tax individual incomes was so strong with the country that MT. Aldrich, bitter ly opposed to it as he was, could not hold all of his followers in line. Senators Borah and Cummins had discussed the matter fully with the President. They were assured of the Presidents sympathy with the amend ment, and all progressive Senator's remembering his campaign declaration on this subject, believed that he could be relied upon to stand just where he stood in the campaign.
 At last it seemed certain that the enormous wealth in the hands of in dividuals hitherto escaping taxation would be compelled to pay its just share in support of government
 And then just when the people seemed assured of winning a great victory, the Senator from Rhode Isl- and, MT. Aldrich, without a moments s warning sprung his plan to "tax cor porations' as a substitute for the Cummins-Bailey income-tax amend ment, and to the utter amazement of the progressives, who had been in conference with and supposed they had the support of the Executive, the