Greenbrier independent. [volume] (Lewisburg, Va. [W. Va.]) 1859-1980, 1922-10-27
CONCERNING GENERALIZATION AND
PATERhAllSM.

| ~ DtloiS tDC NOtCIS Is TIC amount
Of. taxes collected and sQuandcrcd
by the bureaucrats, paternalists and
graftcrS. The volume, the amount
of taxes is the issue and not HOW
they get the money. HOW they get
it is only Il secondary matter. These
graftcrs fool the people by talking
about the METHOD of Taxation. We
do not care whether it is done by
tariff. income tax. sales tax or
whether it is ''cqu;,l and uniform"
or how il is. the gist of the question
is THE AMOUNT they are getting.
The common man has TO pay the
taxes there is nobody else to pay
them and all schemes 10 make any
body else. corporation Or what not,
pay them are frauds. The method OF
| taxation is Il question of very little
Importance, Nor does it matter
whether property is assessed at lis
true and actual value. or one half.
or one tent. OF its true and actual
value. Take our primary election
law. II is all fraud no matter who
has TO pay the tan for it OF how il
is paid. We are grated to the tune
Of Five Hundred Thou>ud Dollars to
hold Il primary election. DO we &C;
any better men, more efficient men.
Or wiser men i'll Office? We are
crazy on the subject OF voting any
way. Popular Vote" is not an
American discovery by amy means.
Popular voting is as old as human
history. People voted in the days
of Sargon Of Akhad. Taruuin. the
Proud. and Ivan. the Terrible. In
old Greece. they voted every day in
the wcck-a any time. all the time.
the polls were always open. The
Greeks could do more by voting
than We ever thought of doing. They
could vote any man out of the coun-
Try they wanted to vote out. The
right TO vote WAS so we'll recognized
that our fCrcfathcrS did moi deem it
necessary to mention it in the Con-
Stitution CT the United Safes. Votes
III themselves, says II. G. Wells. are
worthless things. Men had votes in
Italy at the time of the Gracchi.
Their votes did not help them. I'm
ill a man knows what he is voting
about and for whom he is voting IA
vote is Il dangerous thing for him to
possess. We have in West Virginia
the most expensive, elaborate and
complicated system of voting, all
hri>tling with pains and pcaltics.
A man can get into the pcnitcntiary
some sixty different ways for VOL
attn" orr complicated primary cleo
ton laws and what good is the
whole rattletrap Of it In every
primary election there is scan
d"l" and the very roots of all our
institutions are struck at" and the
w:olc expensive graft does not pro-
ducc one whit better officers than
if they were nominated by convcn-
ton or if they were nominated BY
the Smiths or the IOncSc>. And with
all our expensive voting the people
OF this country never vote on the
most vital questions. They have no
voice in voting on war and peace
or in amending the Constitution of
the United States or in most other
really vital things and yet it costs
us more to indulge in pretending to
run he Government tina any people
on h.c face of the earth. One great
trouble about our modern patcral-
ism is that it tcmptS people to vio-
lac tho law. Look at Edwards case
in the recent West Virginia Primary
Such things bring our whole system
into contempt. The Primary Sys-
tenn invites the candidacy Of the
unfit and the candidacy of the unfit
invites the CRATER.
PaicrialiSm is always foStcred Ey
the petty tyrant and the ignorant
rich. What do the rich care about
high taxes? Wa do they matter to
thc Corporations? If we tax the
Standard Oil Company the tax is
added to the price of oil and gaso-
line; tan the railroads and the tax i. |
added to freight and fare: tax tho |
coal mines and TIE tax is added to |
the price OF coal: tan Henry Ford 4!
and he &ddS the tax to the cost of |
universe ian the telephone com
panicS and they all tie tax to our
phone messages: faiSU tn" tariff |
and the extra cost is added an in all |
cases TIC people pay. Tine heads
CT great corporations arc baud i'm |
glove with u,c patcrnaliS>lirs. Both
arc interested in cCntraliziny the
Government for by the process the
rich ad the burcaucratS gain, and |
the people lose control. We spend |
millions Of dollars in elections.
nominating Democrats and RcDubli- |
cans and the patcrnaiiSts and tax
graftcrS capture them bag and bag
gage before they get to Washington,
80 We have lust about as much Ia