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About The commoner. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-1923 | View Entire Issue (July 30, 1909)
'? r The Commoner. WILLIAM J. BRYAN, EDITOR AND PROPRIETOR ?! IIVI VOL. 9, NO. 29 Lincoln, Nebraska, July 30, 1909 Whole Number 445 Already "Touched" The Boston Transcript is greatly agitated be cause Jeffersonian democrats favor an income tax and its arguments (?) are noticed because they may be accepted as fairly representative of the fight which plutocracy will make against the income tax amendment. The Transcript says that "Jeffersonian democracy should touch the individual citizen as little and as seldom as possible." That is good, but it is a little in consistent for this doctrine to be invoked by those who have been "touching" the individual citizen as much as possible and as often as possible. The individual citizen who has been touched by a tariff on every necessary of life a tariff reaching in some cases to one or two hundred per cent can view with complacency an income tax which will equalize taxation and make those with large incomes bear their share of the expenses of the government. The Transcript says that democrats ought to object to having a "body of federal tax collec tors whose duty and privilege it would be to pry into the private business of every one of its citizens, etc." Pry? Does not the tax collector pry now? The holders of visible, property have to list it all from the sow with pigs to a setting hen. An income tax exempting incomes under three or four or five thousand dollars will only reach those who now pay less than their share and will not ,be as inquisitorial as the present personal property tax. And why not allow the Income to be known? Except on assessment day the possessors of large incomes are not generally anxious to conceal their wealth they often make an offensive display of it. Possibly an income tax would make them. more modest and it might also be helpful in restraining some who live beyond their means. The Transcript will have to invoke some other name than Jefferson's if it opposes the income tax, for Jefferson had a' passion for Justice and the income tax is just. Possinly the Transcript is afraid that the manufacturers of Massachu setts, who have been taxing everybody else for a generation will have to pay their share of taxes if the amendment is ratified. PLATFORM DEMOCRATS As some of the democratic senators and congressmen have questioned the binding force of platforms, every con gressional platform for next year should contain the declaration: "We believe that platforms are binding and we pledge our candidate to caTry out this platform in letter and in spirit." CONTENTS . ALREADY "TOUCHED" "PALLING GODS" HOW TARIFFS ARE MADE HARD TO PLEASE IS THIS MR. RILEY? ELECTING SENATORS EDUCATIONAL SERIES SPECIAL INTER ESTS AND THE SENATE THE TARIFF IN CONGRESS HOW DEMOCRATIC SENATORS VOTED CATHOLIC TEMPERANCE CRUSADE PRACTICAL TARIFF TALKS CURRENT TOPICS LETTERS FROM THE PEOPLE HOME DEPARTMENT WHETHER COMMON OR NOT 1 NEWS OF THE WltfUiK. 0 0 0 HOW TARIFFS ARE MADE It is the popular impression that a tariff is the slowly worked out product of protracted congressional inquiry and matured thought. This impression is 0 confirmed by long and apparently earnest senatorial debates over one or another schedule. The people who sat in tho senate galleries a few weeks ago and lis- tencd to the elaborate discussion of tho wool and woolen schedule thought they saw how tariffs are made. That was a great mistake. The senate in adopting the schedule it did merely ratified one which had been agreed on months before by outside parties. Last October east and west met in Chicago. Tho manufacturers of woolen goods of one region and the wool growers of tho other came together to agree on tho wool and woolens duties of tho tariff law which they assumed would bo passed tho following year. Their con- elusion was that the Dlngloy law rates should be re-enacted. That having been settled, nothing was left but to notify congress quietly after it should have been elected and had convened. The elaborate hearings before tho ways and means committee were a farce. The wool and woolens schedule was then res judicata. The senatorial debate was a sham light. As the president of the National Association, of Wool ,Manuf ac,- - . turers, fcays MThls entire discussion is unnecessary and absurd." After the real tariff makerg had 'decided what the duties were to bo whyjspend time in talk? ' If the allied eastern and western in- terests had seen fit they could have or- 0 dered congress to raise the duties, and presumably it would have done so. It may be that the public should be thank- ful for their moderation. But what a legislative mockery it is when a few men get together in private, make out tariff schedules to suit themselves, and then direct congress to make it law. Now we begin to understand how tariffs are made. Chicago' Tribune (republican). "FALLING GODS" Puck contains a cartoon entitled "Falling Gods." It Is a Bplendid conception, powerfully worked out. The picture represents a scene upon the Nile. Four gods made after Egyptian models, and representing High Protection, Parti san Politics, Bossism and Plutocracy sit en throned upon the banks of the Nile. Others have fallen Into the water and "High Protec tion" is toppling; the foundation of "Partisan Politics" is being washed away and tho waters have even reached the base of "Bossism" and "Plutocracy." The cartoonist has told a story that furnishes both warning and encouragement i warning to those who defend the wrong and encouragement to those who stand for the right. Time removes all evils and redresses all griev ances; time will finally overthrow the high tariff fetish and restore justice to the consumers; time will correct tho evils introduced by that blind partisanship which puts an immediate party triumph above the permanent welfare of the country; time will drive bossism out of politics and restore to the people tho control of tho party organization; time will at last dethrone plutocracy and make our government in fact a government of the people, by the people and for the people. The tide of reform does not move with an even pace, but it moves, and sooner or later it overwhelms opposition. Puck is to be congrat ulated upon having so forcefully portrayed a great truth. Hard to Please The financiers aro hard to please. Tho Finan cial Ago criticises tho action of tho banking board of Oklahoma because it "dictates to tho banks, both stato and national, as to what in terest shall bo paid on deposits not deposits made by tho stato, mind you, but Individual and corporation dopoBits." Tho Ago expresses great indignation and wonders whethor tho stato will next fix tho rato of discount to bo charged by tho bank, and then instruct it as to whom It may loan. If Oklahoma had not exercised tho right to fix a maximum rato of InteroBt, the Financial Ago would havo denounced tho state vehemently for creating a guaranty system un der which "unscrupulous bankers" could draw money from "conservative banks" by offering high rates of interest. When a bank receives tho benefit of tho guaranty system it ought not to bo permitted to tako advautago of that sys tem to do injustice to other banks. The fixing of tho maximum rato of interest is a necessary part of any guaranty system, but no matter what is done in behalf of tho public, papers like tho Financial Ago will find fault. But why should tho editor Imagino that "the next business for tho stato to look after is the rate of discount charged by tho bank to its customer, etc." The law now fixes the maxi mum rate of interest in nearly all of the states, and has for years. Every usury law doe Just what the Financial Ago is afraid, that the state will do "next;" And the Ago is also afraid that "paternalism" may go on until the state will bo "instructing the banks as to whom thdy may loan." Does not . tho national bank law do that now to a certain extent? Tho law fixes the kind of security banks may take, prohibits the loaning of more than one-tenth of tho capital and surplus to any one person, otc, etc. One would think from tho Age's editorial that bankers now acted entirely without re strictions and that the world would como to an end If any law was passed regulating banking. To clinch his argument the editor says: "Then following this spirit of paternalism to its logi cal conclusion, why not just wipe out the offi cers and directors of each bank, thereby sav ing a lot paid In salaries, and havo a clerk, appointed by the commissioner, in each bank to receive all applications for loans, and for ward tho same to tho commissioner?" That is just tho condition that the financiers would force upon the country if loft to their own folly. They are so blind in their indiffer ence to the interest of depositors and in their hostility to necessary regulation that they aro driving millions of money out of the country eyery year to bo deposited In government banks in tho old world. They are driving other mil lions into hoarding and hiding. The demand for a postal savings bank has at last found its way into tho national platform of tho republi can party, and the postal savings bank, if It comes (and nothing will prevent it but the guaranty of deposits) will tend to absorb the banking business of tho country. Tho demo cratic party ha"s labored to perfect tho banking laws so that banking may be done by individ uals, but the dense ignorance of tho high finan ciers, and the subserviency of the papers that live in tho Wall Street atmosphere are making it more and more difficult t prevent the absorp tion of the banking business by the government. Tho Financial Age might better be assisting to make regulation intelligent and efficient than ridiculing in its clumsy way the patriotic efforts of those who are seeking to compel the banks to recognize their quasi-public character. PART OF THE GAME? Was it all a part of the game? The house bill raised the tariff and the country howled. Then the senate bill RAISED the rates SO MUCH MORE that tho president thinks it will be a victory to .get the house bill. m ' i .'i ii H'i t v im I m m i xdJ&MdMtiti&m