Morgan County Democrat. (McConnelsville, Ohio) 1886-1943, 1931-12-24

can buy salt for one cent per pound
and less in quantity. Do you real
ize that there is no other article Sc
necessary in your daily food? L
there was tax or monopoly or
salt here in the U. S. A., you would
pay 81 per pound for salt if you
could not get it cheaper. From re.
that England has such monopoly
on salt in India. Any monopoly or
sales TAX is a tax on poverty and
should be abolished We fought to
gain our independence, why forfeit
it to the League of Nations, or TO
ed, will reduce the labor of this ma
! tion to foreign standards. Labor
wants no dole, but labor must be
| paid a wage sufficient to buy the
product of its labor, and the hours
of labor must be shortened to the
end that all men can have labor.
Therefore: Unless we desire war
| by forcing our principles on the
other nations, it will be wise to let
| other nations settle their own trou-
| bles. also place 25%o export on
wealth leaving our shores, other
than in payment for imports at val.
ue received.
INCOME TAX
Until recently / was a booster for
the INCOME TAX as means of
paying the operating expense of the
government. We were told that
the rich man through the income
tax assessment paid the operating
expenses of the nation, but after a
careful study of the tax question I
find that it was all wrong. The Ia
boring man, the farmer, the con-
sumner and the real estate owner are
practically paying not only the cost
of operating our national govern
ment, but also our local govern
ment. We have allowed big bust
ness and our financial wizards to
blind us on this most vital ques-
ton, Taxation" Now here is the
situation as l see it: The great for
tunes that have been accumulated
within the past 12 years, have
mostly been made through the au
tomobile, electricity and electric de-
velopments, steel and kindred in
dustries, radio, refrigeration, oil,
gas, public utilities and few other
lines, all more or less controlled by
monopolies. The products and
usages sold to the consumer at any
price demanded by these monop
olies. When the profits from an in
dustry are SO great that a 1919 tax
on the income Tin the upper brack-
ets) still allows profit to accumu
late to such an extent, that these
profits not only were sufficient to
operate the government, but also
enabled 10000 men to accumulate
fortunes ranging from one million
dollars to five billion dollars dur
ing that period. After looking over
these figures it is not hard to de-
eide who paid the tax. It was the
consumer. That is why this sea-
son of prosperity left the nation
poor, and the rich richer. The rich
paid no tax. 1t was in reality a
"Sales Tax" and the consumer paid
it. The laborer and the farmer
were the goats.
What is income tax? 1t is a tax
on profit, not on wealth. How does
capital make profit? BY investing
in labor, merchandise and other
Of 11h n h. 1ltr
sold and paid for by the consumer.
All profit to capital is paid by the
consumer Therefore all income
tax is paid by the consumer. Thus
the farmer, home owner, laborer
and the professional man are the
real producers and they pay the
running expenses of the govern
ment. The wealth of the capitalist
is not touched by the income tax.
Monopoly, concentrated wealth
and excess profit taking caused the
present depression, aided by the
export of our wealth, and the de-
probation of silver. Our legisla-
tors failed to do their duty in pro-
tecting the consumer against excess
profit taking and allowed the con-
sumner to be robbed by monopoly.
AS an example, review the automo-
bile industry. We did not know
what it cost to make it. We did not
realize the tax in the way of profit
we were paying to capital, but now
we know to our sorrow. Under
1ofo nf in,
righted article by United Press
which forbids quotation in whole or
part, Henry Ford is credited with
having made a forecast of coming
permanent prosperity After read
ing this article, the thought struck
me: "What caused this depres
sion?" If any one man caused this
depression, that man might be Hen
ry Ford, and then remembering
that Herbert Hoover had an in
fallible method of solving difficult
problems and learning that he had
no monopoly on the system, at
once appointed a commission to dig
into my files, clippings and sta
tistics to ascertain just to what ex-
tent Henry might be responsible
for this panic, or as some call it
depression"
My commission reports that Hen
ry started on shoe string. The re-
port does not state what kind of
shoe string, possibly it could be
termed a monopolistic shoe string,
or it might be termed capitalistic
shoe string. My commission fur
ther reports that it was rumored by