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The Commoner.
JULY 24, 1'tO !"'
15
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The Keystone of the Republic,
(Continued 'from- Page 13.)
the increasing power of corporations,
said: J &
"At the time of, the anti-slavery agi
tation I was not sure whether wo
should come, out of the struggle with
one republic or two; but republics T
knew we should still bo. I am so con
sent, indeed, that we shall, come out
of this storm as a republic unless the
labor movement succeeds. . . . Unless
there is a nower'in your movement,
industrially and politically, the last
knoll- of democratic liberty In this
Union is struck."
Jefferson, Lincoln and Phillips they
-uere alarmists, as prophets, apostles;
martyrs and reformers evor have been!
And were they alive today to see the
malign maturity of these monopolistic
Institutions whose infancy, even. dls
turbed, them, I am persuaded that in
weightier and more eloquent words
Ihn mine Ihey would seize tho oppor
tunities of this great day to Varn the
people against those artificial, soul
less creatures which have no creed
but the multiplication, table and no
dpolicy but that of reaping- other men's
harvests. In wprds that would ptirn I
they would point out to us. now tno
corporations are pre-empting all fields
of business, how they are controlling
and corrupting our instruments of
government, and how, worst of all,
they are perverting intelligence at -its
fountain heads by controlling most of
our great universities, journals and
. magazines; and with all these facts,
and more, before the public they would
call upon the people to arise and ar
ray themselves at the polls that a
government of the people and by tht
people might not perish from the
earth! - -
Grtint too the indulgence of one
other thought. . The. doctrine of equal-,
ity adopted by the fathers contem
plated an equality bjf.t'he burdens of
government,
It is a somewhat singular fact that
the, greatest struggles of modern his
tory, at least, have grown directly out
of questions of taxation. The French
revolution, Cromwell's rebellion and
our own war of Independence all
started at that point of abuse where
some men sought to lay their own bur
dens upon other men's shoulders.
Taillo and octroi in Franco, ship
money in England, and the stamp act
in America these were the things
that kindled the indignation and
sharpened the weapons -of the com
mons in three of the greatest revolu
tions known to history.
At a hasty glance such a provoca
tion seems entirely out of propor
tion to the consequences; and we are
somewhat humiliated to think that
the bloody fields and heroic sacrifices
of the world's democracy should spring
from some small money matters which
in their nature could not inflict any
great and sudden harm upon any in
dividual. But such a notion disap
pears upon more prolonged and in
telligent inquiry. Read tho speeches
and letters of the fathers, go over
the ground surveyed by Franklin
Quincy, Hancock, Jefferson and two
Adams and you will soon see that
the question of taxation is not a
merely material one, but one that
touches at some point of tiontact every
other question of human life law, lib
erty, progress, even religion; for an
abused taxation means, eventually,
that other abuse the abuse of some
men eating their bread in the sweat
of other .men's faces. It means the
collection of money from the least
competent of citizens tc be spent upon
the enterprises and vanities of the
least needy. It means the rending of
the seamless robe of the republic, tho
separation of tho people into taxpay
ers and tax-eaters. It means pluto
crats on one side and proletarians on
the other, increasing arrogance here
and Increasing misery thore until., at
length tho upper tens and tho lower
million's collide, with tho event that
cither, tfio cause of liberty is lost or
is preserved, only, at a most shocking
sacrifice..
Hence tho fathers wore exceeding
careful upon tho subject of taxation
so careful and jealous that they in
corporated into the constitution of tho
United States everything which the
conditions then existing suggested as
necessary to prevent that ancient, "vil
lainous vice, that common ruso o
offluant selfishness tax-dodging. They
wroto into the supremo law of the
Union that all bills for revenue? shoula
originate in tho house, tho popular
branch of the national legislature, and
the one most quickly responsive to the
people's wishes. They provided that
all duties, imports and excises Bhould
be uniform throughout the. United
States and that no capitation, or other
direct tax, should be laid upon the
states except according to numbers.
And there tho constitution builders
stopped feeling reasonably sure that
they had secured equity in taxation
beyond all peril. And thero, my fel
low citizens, their acumen failed!
They did not foresee modern capital
ism. They did not anticipate thn multi-millionaires
whose prodigious for
tunes are concealed in evasive parch
nents and papers; and, most of all,
they did not foresee a supremo court
capable of reversing itself over night
end of striking out of the statutes
the most equitable system of taxation
now possible, the income tax.
And so today we are under a sys
tem of taxation which shifts the chief
burdens of taxation upon the common
people and which allows the holders
of vast wealth to escape that fair and
6qual burden of the costs of govern
ment which not only justice, but the
safety of republican institutions de
mand! My fellow citizens, I have not ex
hausted tho subject; .but consideration
for you requires mo to pause hero,
Beyond all reasonable doubt tho
equilibrium of our government has
been seriously disturbed; and influ
ences now at .work are increasingly
multiplying tho disorders of. the re
public from day today. Something
must be done and that speedily or
the time will quickly arrive when all
remedies will be ineffectual and our
children, if not ourselves, will live to
witness the final destruction cf all
those lofty concepts of liberty which
for a century rind a quarter past have
gladdened Americans and sent the in
spiration of hope into all quarters of
tho world.-
Let the Ameridan commons arouse
themselves! They have always been
the most loyal and effective guards of
freedom in every -crisis of our his
tory! Let them arouse themselves and
with that peaceful, but potent Instru
ment, the ballot, let them maintain
those institutions of freedom which
the fathers purchased -at ineffable
cost! Let them expurgate from offi
cial circles, at least, every vestige of
tretentious aristocracy! Let them
wipe from tho statute books every
grant of special privilege! Let them
own and operate, through their gov
ernment, every variety of public util
ity in the nature of a monopoly Let
them decapitate the trust-breeding
hank trust and amputate the robber
tariff. Let them force the abandon
ment of all schemes of foreign con
quest and reduce our military estab
lishment to a standard comporting
with the character of a free and
peaceful republic. Let them install a
progressive income tax that will set
our nascent money oligarchy in the
way of a swift decline; and, in order
to accomplish these great ends, let
them sharpen, furnish and secure the
most effectual weapon of such reform,
tho ballot, by establishing in every
integer of government, from the town-
Jsbip up, tho rule of the initiative and
referendum! Lct.lho American com
mons do these things, speedily nnd
effectually, and in "a hundred Indepen
dence Days to como an intelligent and
increasing patriotism will drink again
from tho ancient fountains and rise up
refreshed,!
Llpton as Smoker.
In his early days Sir Thomas Lipton
denied himself almost every pleasure
except that of amassing a fortune.
Calling ono day on a consul q busi
ness matters, ho was offorcd a cigar
by tho official.
"No, thank you," said Sir Thomas
(then Mr.) Lipton. "Although I am
tho biggest smoker In England, I nev
er smoke cigars."
"What do you smoke?" was tho
surprised query.
"Bacon," was tho prompt reply.
San Francisco Wasp.
J "Hi
BLIND FOR 20 YEARS
nr. a, v. YYiuara, JjiDunfTUJO,
III., had her sight rnstorod at
home by th ONEAL DI3
flOLVENT METHOD.
Cataract nnd all othor Y.j
Straightened in two minutes."!
Always aaccemifnl. lllaitmtna a
ooaic rur.r. inoinmgttniu.u.lJ.
OHM 0NEAL, M-, D., Slle 121, 52 (., CMcjf
AW MtT,r,M II.
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ilr
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I THE COMMONER, Lincoln, Neb.
133 PerCent Profit
"We arrived at Asher, Pottawatomie County, Oklahoma, April 5;
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21
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