The labor journal. [volume] (Everett, Wash.) 1909-1976, 1918-02-15

We, the American public, have
gone along through the first year
of the war without thinking. We
have gone on the principle that the
government, the big newspapers, the
bankers, the dissatisfied politicians
and silk-stocking patriotic societies
should do our thinking and talking
for US. We have shirked our re-
sponsibilities. We have trusteed
American thought. We have allow
ed our guardians to discourage all
opinion other than their own. And
this they have done with such ex-
traordinary thoroughness that today
it is almost ''les majesty" for an or
binary American citizen to speak his
own opinions or even to have any.
Heine cynically observed, "Revo-
! buttons do not occur in Germany -
they are forbidden" In America,
public opinion does not exist-it is
considered unpatriotic. While lib
eral opinion has been threatened, sup
pressed, prosecuted and sometimes
jailed into silence, the reactionaries
have held the floor. UP to the
present time, practically the only
people who have been heard on the
subject of paying for the war, have
been the Tories, the bankers, the
agents of the corporations, in fact,
the people who are making money
out of the war, and, at the same
time, escaping a fair share of taxa
ton.
We have got to raise colossal
sums to pay for the war. The es-
innate of twenty thousand millions
for the wars first year has turned
out to be far below what it will
actually cost. This money will
not come out of the air. 1t will
come out of somebody's pockets. The
question is whether it will come out
of the pockets of people who can
afford to pay or out of the pockets
of those who cannot.
Congress has passed an income
and excess profits tax that can not
be collected, because it is too COM
plicated. If it could be collected, it
would still be both unjust and in
adequate. Under its provisions
! million dollar corporation which net
ted $4,000 a year before the war,
and which now gets 100000, pays
tax of $154,2O0, and keeps the re-
maing $345,800. That means this
corporation makes almost 400 per
cent more than it did in normal
times.
Is this bearing fair share of
the wars privations and sufferings?
Compare the sacrifice made by the
$4,000 year man and the $780,
600 year corporation with that of
the poor man, to whose family war
has meant hunger, cold, closed
schools, sickness, doctors bills and
debt! Is this case of equal sacri-
flee, or is it case of appalling sac
rifice for the poor man and little
or none for the rich man?
And yet the American people have
looked on in silence. We have been
told by our trustees of public opin-
ion, that to talk about taxing wealth
would be unpatriotic. We have not
dared to speak. Only the million
aires, the bankers, politicians, profit
teers and big newspapers that rep
resent them, have discussed taxes.
How shall we pay for the war?
"Why, out of the poor mans pocket,
of course. We will pay with bonds.
And the bonds will be redeemed by
taxes on the poor That is the
way to finance war. 1t is the
way all wars have been financed,
and any one who disagrees is pro-
German, a disturber of the peace,
a demagogue."
Of course, we have to have war
bonds. You cannot raise twenty
1
millions of dollars by taxation alone;
but you can raise a large part of
that sum by taxes, and, in addition
to taxes, by direct confiscation of
capital, as the British cabinet now
proposes. Naturally the capitalists
prefer to have the war financed by
bonds rather than by taxes or con-
fiscation. The purchaser of a bond
becomes a patriot and gets a safe
four per cent investment. But the
corporation or individual, whose in
comes and profits are taxed, gets
only tax receipt. Therefore war
bonds are sacred institutions, and
war taxes are anathema.
The people of England, however,
have not gaped in open-mouthed 81
lence and let the great and wise
write their tax laws. Nor have
they stood like cows waiting to be
MIXED while the profiteers approach