AUGUST 27, 100
3
The Commoner.
that Pinchot Is opposed. And Balltnger Is op
posed to Pinchot.
Balllnger represents President Taft in the de
partment of the interior. But who represents
the people? Balllnger represents President Taft
and the water-power pirates. But who repre
sents the people? That is what the people would
like to know. "Who represented the people when
President Taft put his signature to tho Taft
tariff law, which plainly violates the pledges
he made to the people last year when ho was
bidding for their votes? Mr. Taft is the only
one among the candidates for prosident last
year who would have in the cabinet a repre
sentative of land and water-power monopolists.
In his speech at Spokane last Wednesday, tho
day after Pinchot made his stirring address, Sec
retary Ballinger shrewdly "talked of something
else." It was not necessary for him to tell tho
country that irrigation is a useful thing, or
that water is needed for plant-growth. Ho
might as well have said that soil and sunshine
are necessary for success in agriculture. It is
not irrigation that has been placed on the de
fensive, but Balllnger.
The country does not need to sit at the feet
of Balllnger and learn the rudiments of irriga
tion and agriculture. What the country wishes
to hear from the secretary of tho interior is
a defense of tho charge that he is "hooked up"
with water-power pirates and other monopolists.
' Now, in the controversy between Pinchot and
the people on one side and Ballinger and the
monopolists on the other side, where is Presi
dent Taft? Is he with Ballinger or with tho
people? He can prove that he is with tho
Interests by permitting Pinchot to resign rather
than4 dismiss Ballinger. Pinchot has no party
iriacnirio;. behind. h(m;' Ballinger has. Ballinger
has a great corporation political machine be
hind him; Pinchot has no corporation machine
behind him. The corruptionists who sign large
checks for campaign funds are not with Pinchot.
.To dismiss Ballinger might "hurt the party,"
and the party must bo preserved at all hazards.
Does anyone guess that Prosident Taft will
stand with Pinchot and tho people in this fight?
The President lost one opportunity to stand with
tho common people when he signed the Taft
tariff law. "Will he now lose tlie second oppor
tunity in order to "preserve party harmony?"
"Party harmony" often means "tho opportunity,
of industrial pirates." San Francisco Star.
EDUCATIONAL SERIES
Why We Need an Income Tax
THE WATER POWER TRUST
It was In the closing days of his administra
tion that Roosevelt' learned of the wholesale
seizing of water" powers by the then forming
water power trust.
He took sharp action to disconcert their plans.
He was convinced that the occasion called for
the extremest exercise of his prerogatives.
Water power, in Mr. Roosevelt's opinion, will
some day supersede coal and steam. Tho great
western water powers will run the railroads of
the future and be sent across the plains to the
mills and, factories. They will pump floods of
water upon millions of acres of arid land and
make new homes for multitudes of Americans.
Mr. Roosevelt foresaw that if a private com
bination should get complete control of this
glgan'tic energy, it might In the .future hold the
very life of the nation in its extortionate grasp.
Therefore it was that, on the last day of the
Roosevelt administration, 186,000,000 acres of
debatable ground was withdrawn from tho reach
of land grabbers.
It was said that one of the flrsj: things done
by Mr. Ballinger after he was sworn into tho
cabinet was to begin the turning back of this
land to the grab-bag on some technical grounds
not yet generally understood.
It is said that the Amalgamated Copper com
pany, with power sites secured since Roosevelt
left office, is now in absolute possession of the
Missouri river from Three Forks, In southwest
ern Montana, to the alkali plains west of .Great
Falls. This river holds probably the most val
uable water power sites in -the country.
These, all in the hands of the trust, give it
power to shut out competition for all time, and
to compel every home, farm and factory within
an area of thousands of square miles to pay
tribute to ex-Senator Clark, the Guggenheims
and their associates.
The American congratulates the country that,
In the midst of the nice technicalities of tho
Interior" department, we at least have Pinchot
to speak a word for the more solid interests of
civilization. New York American -
William E. Borah, United States senator from
Idaho, has written for Sonator LaFollotto's
paper an article entitled "Why Wo Need an In
come Tax." Senator Borah's article follows:
One of the many unfortunato things imposed
from first to last upon this country by reason
of tho existence of slavery was tho compromise
in tho constitution of tho United States provid
ing that direct taxes should bo imposed in ac
cordance with population.
To levy taxes according to population upon
any kind of property is impracticable and cum
bersome oven when tho tax is confined to tho
kind of property contemplated by tho trainers
of tho constitution. It Is not too much to say
that tho clause with roferonco to imposing a
direct tax would never have found Its way into
tho constitution but through tho fear which arose
out of the belief that tho north might impose
an arbitrary and unjust tax upoil slaves.
Tho discussion first arose over tho protection
of the slavcT and to guard against this tho south- v
ern delegates insisted upon an equal representa
tion in congress with tho north. Governor
Morris and others declared thoy would never
consent to counting a slave equal to his master.
The discussion finally took a wider rango owing
to the existence of largo tracts of land in tho
south of less value per aero than tho land In
the north, bence it was believed .that these lands
might be taxed unfairly. .
At last, therefore, it was provided that direct
taxes should bo imposed according to popula
tion, and direct taxes, in my opinion, referred
alone to slaves and lands and the improvoments
on lands.
Tho supreme court In tho Pollock case ex
tended and broadened tho terms of this some
what unfortunate compromise so that It now
not only covers lands but income from land, per
sonal property, and income from personal prop
erty. This decision was made possible by. In
voking a mere technicality, that is,. that-A: tax -upon
the rents of land Is a tax upon the land.
Income- Tax Decision Indefcnsiblo
I am not going to discuss at this,, time the de
cision further than to say I am one of those
who believe that the income tax decision is as
indefensible as a matter of. law as the Dred
Scott decision, and fraught with far more danger
in its ultimate effect if it is to become tho set
tled law of the land, to the republic.
This language may seem strong, but if so,
then I invite attention to tho following from
Mr. Justice White in his dissenting opinion:
"My inability to agree with tho court in tho
conclusions which it has just expressed causes
me "much regret. Great as Is my respect for
any view by it announced, I can pot resist the
conviction that its opinion and decree in tills case
virtually annuls its previous decisions In regard
to the powers of congress on the subject of tax
ation, and is therefore fraught with danger to
tho court, to each and every citizen and to tho
republic."
Mr. Justice Harlan also says:
"This decision may well excite the gravest of
apprehensions. It strikes at the very founda
tion of national authority in that it denies to
the general government a power which is or
may -become vital to the - very existence and
preservation of the union In a national emer
gency." Income Tax Fairest of All
The income tax is tho fairest and most equit-'
able of all the taxes. It Is the one tax which
approaches us in tho hour of prosperity and
departs in the hour of adversity. Tho farmer
though he may have lost his entiro crop must
meet the faxes levied upon his property. The
merchant though on the verge of bankruptcy
must respond to the taxes imposed. The laborer
who goetf to tho store-to buy his food, though
it be his last must buy with whatever extra cost
there may be imposed by reason of custom
duties
But the income tax Is to be met only after
you have realized your income. After you have
met your expenses, provided for your family,
paid for the education of your children for the
year then, provided you have an income left,
you turn to meet the obligations you owe to tho
government. For Instance, according to amend
ments recently pending relative to the income
tax, a man with an income of ten thousand dol
lars would pay tho modest sum of ono hundred
dollars. "Man as a human being owes services
to his follows and ono of the first of-those Is to
support the government which makes clviliza-.
tion possible."
Rich IOscupoK Taxes; Poor Pay Thorn
It seems incomprehensible that anyone would
seriously contend that property and wealth
should not boar their fair sharo of tho burdens
of tho general government. Adam Smith says:
"Tho subjects of every stato ought to contribute
toward tho support of tho govornmont as nearly
as possible in tho proportion to thoir respective
abilities, that is, In proportion to tho revenue
which thoy respectively enjoy under tho pro
tection of tho state."
Notwithstanding our largo standing army, our
largo navy, our all but criminal extravagance
as a govorr.ment, men are found who still un
blushingly arguo that this burdcn'niuBt all bo
laid upon consumption and nothing upon wealth;',
that Is, that tho man of most- ordinary means
must pay practically as much to the general gov
ornmont as the man with his uncounted mil
lions. It is strango indeed that in on can bring
thcmselvos to bellevein- so unfair and- unjust a
position.
They Booilie thoir ,conacioncea to some-oxtont.
by saying; that it kr ai jusb tax; a fair tax: and
that tho proporty- should Indeed bear its propor
tion of tho expenses of tho general government
but an income tax causes mon to commit per
jury! Of course tho man who says this would
resent the idea that ho would commit perjury
but his evangelical spirit leads him to look with
particular care to tho salvation of his neighbor's
soul. There Is not r, state In tho union today
but has laws just as exacting with reference to
accounting with personal proporty, Just as oner- '
ous as an Income tax law would -bo and just as
liable, to encourage perjury. Yet the tar gath
erer, does not stop gathering taxes.
Thoy say it is Inquisitorial. Do you know of
any kind of taxes which aro not inquisitorial?
For instance, under tho internal rovonuo Byatom1
now In existence, tho whiskey of tho citizen la
taken possession of by tho govornmont, placed
In a. warehouse, locked up and a key given to a
United Stated official. In the collection of our
customs duties, packages and tho baggago of
the citizen are taken, opened and inspected, and,
male or female, though tho citizen may bo, are
sometimes taken into a room and searched.
Nothing could be more Inquisitorial than this.
All these arguments are put forth In the hope
of leading us away from the great and funda
mental principle of equity In taxation and that
every njan should respond t tho burdens of tho
government in accordance "with his ability. It
is nothing less than a crime to put all tho bur
dens of this government on consumption.
Will Distribute the IlurJciis'of Taxation
I think those who advocato tho income tax
merely as a revenue producing proposition rob
tho proposition of its moral foundation. We
should contend for an income-tax not pimply
for the purpose of raising revenue but for tho
purpose of framing a revenue system which will
distribute the burdens- of. government between
consumption and accumulated wealth, which will
enable us to call upon property and wealth not
In an unfair and burdensome way but in a just
and equitablo way to meet their proportionate
expenses of the government, for certainly It will
be conceded by all that the great expense of gov
ernment Is In the protection of property and of
wealth.
A tax placed upon consumption is based upon
what men want and must have. A tax placed
upon wealth falls upon those who have enougk
and to spare and therefore have more which It
is necessary for tho government to protect.
"All the enjoyments Which a man can recelvo
from his property como from his connection
with society. Cut off from all social relations
a man's wealth would be useless to him. In
fact, there could be no such thing as wealth
without society. Wealth Is what may be ex
changed and requires for its existence a com
munity of persons with reciprocal wants."
The general government, as wo have said, has
its armies and Its navies and its great burden
of expense for the purpose among other things
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