The Butler County press. [volume] (Hamilton, Ohio) 1900-1946, 1920-05-14
BY Charles NJ. Kelley


In one very important particular al
least the profteers of the United
States now regard the war as being
over Having cleaned up unnumbered
millions Of dollars by taking advau-
tage of the nations emergency, the
army Of new millionaires and near
millionaires are determined that the
plain people shall be compelled to pay
the thirty odd billions Of debt that has
been incurred
The ways and means committee of
the house of representatives has
adopted a resolution to the effect that
large sums Of money required by the
government to meet its current obli-
cations shall be raised by tax on
sales This is to be a tax on the bel
lies and the backs Of producers. 1t is
intended to relieve the men who have
become wealthy as a result Of the wal
from any responsibility for payine
any Of the cost of the war.
This tax will be paid by those who
are least able to pay it, The worker
with his inadequate income, will be
compelled to pay almost as much as
viii Mr. Rockefeller, since the food
and clothing requirements Of the
poor are as great as those Of the rich
This is but another evidence Of the
reactionary tendency Of congress anc
its loyalty to privilege It is indiffer-
ent to human rights and concerned
only that money shall be safeguarded
and coddled
There are billions Of war-made prof
its that can be taxed without injustice
to the people. There are billions that
could be taken without financial en-
barrassment to those compelled to pay
it.
Privilege demands that taxation
shall be removed from excess profits
that the profteer shall be protected
in his gains. 1t demands that workers
who have been mercilessly exploited
shall now be burdened BY the govern
ment with the cost Of the war a cost
many billions in excess Of what i
should have been because Of the profit
eers, cost-plus contractors and plain
ordinary thieves, robbed and looted
the government when it was not in
position to help itself.
1t is written in the annals Of this
nation that many Of the great for
tunes had their inception in civil wal
looting and profiteering. The records
Of the supreme court Of the United
States declare that the late Junius
Morgan, founder Of the house of Nor
gan, got his start by selling at exhor-
bitant price the government guns
which had been condemned as danger
ous-guns which blew off the thumbs
of soldiers who used them.
What was done during the civil wal
has been done on much larger scale
during the late world war 1t has
been stated that more than 10000 new
millionaires were created in two years
Thousands of men have been enriched
The rich have become richer, and the
poor have been made poorer, for the
latter is natural corollary of the
former.
Now these millionaires and near
millionaires, with a strangel hold OF
the already over -burdened backs of the
congress, are about to impose uooI
masses new and crushing burdens Of
taxation, that they may retain th'
money they have wrung from the peo
pie.
The sad part of the matter is thai
they probably will be able to do it
Congress has demonstrated to the sat
isfaction of all open-minded men thar
when the rights and welfare of tht
people clash with the greedy demands
of privilege, the plain people must suf
fer.
The new burden which congress ha:
prepared for the people means tha
every man, woman and child must b,
prepared to yield not less than $15(
per year as war taxes. Everything
that we eat, wear, is to be made :
basis of taxation.
Meanwhile, the larger interests ar;
multiplying their profits il
some instances so large that they arr
proving embarrassing. And thus pro
ceeds the ordered processes of making
the few richer ard the masses poorer