Weekly independent. [volume] (Elko, Nev.) 1887-1914, 1913-03-28
From Fridays Daily
WHAT THE DEMOCRATS
PROPOSE TO DO

Is it just that the men who own 90
per cent OF the wealth Of the United
States should shoulder but 10 per cent
Of the burden of the taxation?
The democratic position is that 1t is
not Just. What the democrats propose
to do, beginning Immediately with the
converting of the extra session of Con.
gress, is to take some of the tax off of
such articles as woolens, cottons, sugar,
meat and lumber, and then placea tax
on the incomes of the wealthy.
This il class legislation, the stand
patters and protectionists say. They
were never heard to complain, how
ever, of the existing class legislation,
which taxes the hats, coats and shirts
Of the masses almost II per cent, while
not requiring men like Rockefeller and
Morgan to pay a single penny of taxa
ton to the national government on
their swollen fortunes,
The masses of the people produce the
wealth, and by legislative advantage a
few get possession of it, and now these
few object to the transfer to wealth of
even the amount of taxation derived
from the tariff on woolens, cottons,
sugar, meat and lumber, which are but
afew OF several thousand items on
which the masses are paying n tax.
Few persons realize the far reaching
Importance of the fact that the United
States will Dol have an income tax on
its statutes.
First of all, it means that millionaires
will, for the first time since this nation
has stood, bear q fair proportion Of the
burden OF taxation.
1t is estimated that one hundred mil
lion dollars will he raised annually by
taxing Incomes. This means that.
Am cunt of taxation is to be taken off
Of the things that the people must have
in order to live.
Under the fiscal system at present in
use in this country, with the exception
that a comparative small sun is raised
through the ne corporation tax, near.
ly every penny OF the money necessaTy
to run the government, maintain ,ne
army and navy, construct public bul I'D
ings, ETC., is raised by taxinG the
things the people eat, wear AMI use.
The only thing that Protection does
not tax is wealth. A mar with for
tune Of ten million dollar = net requir.
ed to pay n single penny f tax to the
national government. lnis seems al
most unbelievable, but 1t is true. The
man working on the section for one
dollar and fifty cents per day, with a
family Of five children, is at the present
time actually contributing more to run
the national government than the mil.
lionaire bachelor, too proud to marry
and raise q family.
The United States of America is prac.
tically the only one of the great ma.
tions where such a condition exists.
Nearly every first class nation on earth
levies an income tax or an inheritance
tax. Uncle Sam has neither.
Why have we never been able to
place an income tax on the statute
books? Here is the answer High pro.
t~ectionists have prevented the passage
OF an income tax law, because they
know that the more money the govern.
mont collects from taxation incomes,
the less excuse there will be for a tariff
tax. To take protection away from the
tariff trusts is to interfere with their
monopolies. And how could the tariff
trusts regulute prices and gouge con.
sumers without monopolies?
IL q fiscal system which requires a
millionaire to pay no more tax TO the
federal government than the section
hand or mill worker is fair and just,
there is no need Of reform. But IL such
o systt m Is unjust. the program that
the democratic administration will be-.
gin to work out with the converting Of
the extra session Of Congress, is Il move
In the right direction to remedy it.