Scranton Wochenblatt. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1865-1918, 1917-11-15
YOUR MONEY
OR YOUR LIFE.
By Alv. Johnson in The New
Republic.

Nlai . 10 SNtfA
young men of America are as
sembling to the end that he may
drink. Many are destined to
be victims; each knows that his
lot may be among those to be
drawn. Do they then move
with an air of sacrihcial solem-
nifty? No; whether volunteers
or conscripts, they appear cheer
full, even joyous. There are
downcast faces enough to be
seen on the citys streets; but
one will wander far before he
will encounter one sad-faced
man in uniform. More livesi
shouts Mars with brazen throat.
o Mars, they are given freely.
Mars wants also money, wants
money even more than men. He
gets it; but is it given freely!
Let us look about us! No
where is any man asked to strip
himself of his capital wealth.
Nowhere is any man asked to
give the services of his wealth
freely. Men of large means are
asked to give part of their in
come, but never so much of it
as to reduce them to privation.
Men of small means are asked
to contribute here and there the
price of a humble luxury; a
cigar, a moving picture ticket,
pinch of tea or coffee. The
steel manufacturers, the rail
ways, the coal operators, the
farmers, are asked to content
themselves with modest profits.
No one is asked to serve with
out profit. The laborer is ask
ed to give his services, not free
ly, not at rates corresponding
with the allowances of his bro
ther in the field, but in return
for pay, that, as the world goes
nowadays lis good. Yet the
country is filled with murmur-
ing. Those who must pay in
come or profits taxation COM
plain bitterly. if not in the
public press, at least in their
private clubs, over their black
coffee. Universal is the mutter-
ing that arises when it is pro-
peeed to levy consumption tax
es of wide incidence, Two-dol-
lar coal throws a dark pail up
on the patriotic enthusiasm OF
the mining magnate; two-dollar
wheat almost raises sedition in
the breast of the farmer, bull
wark of democracy. And were
any class of labor, however we'll
paid, required to abate its claims
to its customary standard of
pay-But there are limits
beyond which even hypothesis
are nefarious. Mars shouts
savagely, More Money! Take it,
o Mars, but leave us the relief
of grumbling and groans.
What a cynical misrepresent-
alton of the spirit of a people,
someone exclaims. The rich do
indeed object to excessive in
come taxes, but why? Because,
if large incomes are pruned to
the very stock, how shall the
rich contribute to government
loans? How shall charities be
supported how shall the higher
learning and scientific research
be financed? The profit makers
counsel moderation in public
exactions, but are they animat-
ed by desire for rapid enrich
ment? Drastic profits taxation
takes the spirit out of business,
and by business, if not alone, yet
chiefly, shall we be saved. The
coal mine operators mourn over
two-dollar coal, not because
two-dollar coal will yield insult
ficient wealth to the producer,
but because it will yield insult
ficient warmth to the consumer.
The farmer wanted three-dollar
wheat in order that he might be
able to bring relief to a world
threatened by starvation. And if
labor refuses to abate its claims
to more, more here and now, is
this not because labor recog-
nizes, as all the world should
recognize, that a high standard
OF living is a prerequisite to eff
ficiency? 1t is patriotism that
makes us give freely of our lives.
1t is also patriotism that makes
us cling resolutely to our money.
The optimist's case is as
plausible as the cynic's, and
much more pleasant. To dis
credit it would be a sin. But
man was born to sin; therefore,
be it observed that it is not
patriotism alone that makes men
with disposible income prefer to
accept in exchange for it, rather