The Leon reporter. (Leon, Iowa) 1887-1930, 1912-03-21
OUR WASHINGTON LETTER.

washington correspondent OIL In'
Reporter.)
Washington, March 16.-Win /
be possible to transfer the $4,000,
900 sugar tax from the breakfas
table to the shoulders of tn,
wealthy? Are the people sufficient.
in control to accomplish this end?
These questions are being asked
everywhere. The status of the sit
uation is this:
The democratic house, in keeping
with it's promise to reduce the cos
of living, will at this session pass {
bill repeating the $53,O0O,000 an
nual tax on sugar, reducing the price
of this commodity to the consumer
nearly cents a pound. Then an
other bill will be passed taxing in
comes in excess Of $4,000.
The bills will go to a republican
senate. If the progressive republic
cans vote with the democrats, botf
bills will pass the upper body.
The fate of the two measures viii
then rest with the president. If Mr.
Taft accepts the advice of those
about him, who were described by
the late Senator Deliver as being
men who know exactly what they
want" he will veto the bills.
Protectionists oppose an income
tax for two reasons: list. They are
rich as class and like other humans
have no desire to pay more taxes
than necessary. End. PrOtectionists
know that if this country gets into
the habit of raising revenue by tax
ing wealth instead of the things the
people must have in order to live, the
tariff will be reduced on those COM
modities in which they now have
monopoles. If the tariff trusts, such
as the steel trust, the sugar trust and
the wooden trust, are not allowed to
dictate what the people must pay for
their products, the enormous divi-
dends they are now drawing down on
stock that is watered until it is soggy
will be interfered with. Therefore
protectionists fear an income tax as
they would a plague.
Breaking Away From Tradition.
The greatest Importance of the
democratic program providing for
the substitute of a tax on incomes
above $4,000 for the tax on sugar, is
that it breaks away from the tradi-
ton that the governments expenses
must be paid wholly with funds de-
rived from a tax on the things the
people eat, wear or use, to be collect
ed through customs houses and inter-
nal revenue office. This tradition is
responsible for wealth not bearing its
Just proportion of the burden of fed
eral taxation in this country. 1t is
the same tradition which has been
responsible for so many tariff out
RACES through SO many years. Re-
CARELESS of whether the bill is We
toed by President Taft, there is lit
tie question that the democrats have
opened the way for its enactment
when some other man is president of
the United States.
Here is Real Humor.
Those millionaire wooden mag
mates at Lawrence, Mass, are moth
ing if not humorous.
AS evidence of their humor, wit
ness pay envelope No. 1907, issued
to a Lawrence worker. On the back
of this envelope, solemnly put there
by the Broadway Savings Bank, a
wooden trust institution, was this
advice:
"Do Not Spend all Your Income.
Start u Bank Account and he lnde-
pendent. A Mans Duty to Himself
is to Save Some of His Earnings"
Now for the WOODEN trust joke!
Just opposite this fatherly advice
were the figures $6.05. This was the
workers full weeks pay!
employee, on the edge of
whose pay envelope was written ST.
after you have paid the grocery bill
for family of five or SIX suggests
the father old wooden trust, and
bought some coal, and paid the land
lord his share, and tickled the baby
with a new pair of shoes, and paid
the doctor bill, and purchased some
warm underclothes for Willie, and
bought mamma new shawl, take
what is left of your wages and buy
a home
How long are the American people
going to stand for this kind of hui
NOR?
Lawrence VS.. Foreign Wages.
Here is a comparison of full time
wages paid in England, and at Law
renee, Mass, U. S. A., which fails to
the high protectionist
theory that it is necessary to place
high tariff on WOODEN clothing in Or
der to protect American workers
from what American trust magnates
delight to describe as foreign pau
per labor" The figures show that
the so-called 'foreign pauper labor
receives as much wages as the all
labor at Lawrence, while
the cost of living is much higher here
than in England.
In England, spinners receive from
$3.50 to $12 per week; in Lawrence
they are paid from $50 to $40
per week.
English weavers receive $2.75 per
week for attending looms; in Law
renee the rate is SO cents per loom.
The English weaver makes as much
two looms as the American
makes for taking care of seven.
In England the average pay of
women workers of all classes is IS
per week; the average in Lawrence
for Tho oop,o c1occ IF uorE ic