The Grangeville globe. [volume] (Grangeville, Idaho) 1907-1922, 1912-10-24

te
~ TINS country and at the same tir,s
refuse to lay hand upon ~, tv"'i
oi these vast estates Rut 49, az,
ana tne income tax amendment ,.as A.
ieateo; the excise tax passed ,ha -.
ana II passed the senate ara =. =,
now In conference. II NAV ,,,,,a
eoihe law. l don't know u,hatho :.
VIII or not, but 1t has passed no.h
houses and is now in conferana, -,
the conference committee renor,s Co..
orapiy between now and tho fo,rth :.
warren 1t will become a law ana raca,.,,
less OF what a man Is doine u,hat,,o.
ne Is selling peanuts or selling cattle
y. running a farm. he will nav an ax
eiSe TAX Tor the right and privilege n
AIRY on that business. while thase
vast estates with their great incomes
S.ep absolutely from under anv mart
VI the burdens of this great government
uhoer which they have SO magnificent
ly prospered
NOW, my friends, the subject of taxa-
.ion Is dry and tedious one but Il
Is nlshty interesting when the collector
eo,hes around. 1t is especially So An
.his state, and If they raise it another
Nv percent, like they have in the last
car upon the farmer. it will be much
more interesting than it is in the pres-
gu. campaign. But there is nothing In
'"e world so calculated to make the
poor poorer and the rich richer as an
uh'usl ana unfair system of taxation
'o'iie OF the great struggles of history
nave turned upon this unjust and I'M
ah system or taxation which taxes
.he common people of the country and
'eaNes the great and wealthy estates
uh'aNed. Take, for instance, the French
NNo4u'lon. What was the cause of
II. one historian will tell you one
lining ahother one will tell you another.
put the real cause of it was this sys-
TEN vi excise taxes on the common peo-
PIE whlch we are ever so ready in this
country TO lay. Arthur Young. the
hhsAsh traveller tells us that when
ne was travelling in France Just before
the french revolution If a peasant
earned sixteen dollars he paid twelve
ooiiars OF 1t to the support of the ma
tionai government. If peasant start
ed from one of the interior provinces
OF france with cask of wine he paid
Toll thirteen times before he got to
faris. When a child was born they
PAID an excise tax; if he lived and was
chrlstened they paid an excise tax;
when he married they paid an excise
TAX and when he died they paid an
other excise tax, and when he was fin
ally buried they paid q farewell excise
tax. And they taxed and taxed the
common people, while three fifths of
all the wealth, in the hands of a few
men, absolutely passed from under the
burdens of government. And when Tur-
got, the great finance minister, came to
advise the king he said: "Oh, sovereign,
II you do not conceive of some plan by
which to transfer the burdens of gov
eminent from the peasantry and bour-
geosie of France to the great estates
of your kingdom, you will pay for the
mistake with your head,'' and SO the
king said to Turgot, the finance min
lister, Formulate your plan; devise a
system so that l can reach these great
estates which now own three fifthss of
the wealth of my kingdom And Tur-
got formulated a system and when they
began to put 1t in operation and began
to put part of the burdens of gov
eminent upon the rich and the great
they began to hammer at the door
OF the king and the king gave way
and they passed the burdens back onto
the peasantry and the bourgeoise Of
France. and they taxed them and tax
ed them until they taxed them out
of their homes, away from their
little holdings, and drove them into
sinks and dives of Paris where the
French revolution was born. That is
the true theory of that bloody strug-
gle. and to my mind it is the most
striking example of the operation Of
the law of retribution ever enacted
among men. What have we in this
country today? Mr.. Carnegie collects
twelve million dollars a year in inter-
est from his bonds alone! An ordin-
airy United States senator cannot con-
ceive such a sum; and yet you can
not tax that twelve million dollar in
come one single cent for the support
of the national government And II
the Japanese fleet was hammering at
San Francisco tonight, you could not
lay the hand Of the taxing power Of
the government, as a practical propo-
sition. upon that vast income even to
save the life Of the national govern
ment itself.
A gentleman over here In New
York City. owns several business blocks
from which he collects hundreds of
dollars income every year. He does
not even live In this country; he does
not even buy his grub here; he does
not buy his clothes here; he does not
buy even his cigarettes in the United
and he does not pay one cent
to the support Of the national gov
The char-woman who bends
above his marble floors day by day
pays more to the support of the ma
tional government than does this finan-
cial king. l say that 1t cannot con-
tinue. And during the four years in
which / have been in the Senate 1
have repeatedly. in season and out of
season, urged that the government of
the United States put upon these vast
incomes a part of the burdens of gov
and lift 1t from the people
who are now bending under It's weight
And the man or the men who say that
Senator Borah talked one way and
voted another is something that 1 do
not use except when l am mad. CAP
plause.)
(Reading from Gompers letter AGAIN.
'On February Is, 1910, he voted for
the Standardization of equipment bill
Ia sefety appliance for railway en-