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The Commoner.
VOLUME 10, NUMBER S
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Franklin Pierce on "Keeping Still
Franklin PJorco of Now York has written to
Ilonry Wnttorson, editor of tho LouIhvIHo
Courior-Journal, UiIb interesting letter:
"I havo read with IntorcHt your talk boforo
tho National Press club at Washington yester
day. So nturdy a IlKlitor as you aro will surely
not tako unkindly honest difference of opinion
as to tho truo policies of tho democratic party.
You say, 'Keep still and profit by the enomlcs
mlntakoB.' I say, go at tho republican party
holl-bont on tho question of protectlvo tariffs,
imperialism, ship subsidies, extravagant govern
ment and costly navy, corruption and all tho
othor abuses which they havo been Imposing
upon this American people. Tho democratic
party has been keeping still altogether too long.
Froo government can not exist without agita
tion, and tho democratic party ought to bo a
paTty of agitation. Tho alleged safo and sano
part of this party naturally belongs to tho re
publican party, and there It will finally bring
up. "Whon tho leaders of tho democratic party
aro quiot, notwithstanding hundreds of tariff
bred monopolies aro soiling their products to
tho American consumor for twico tho prlco which
thoy would exact if tho tariff was removed;
whon theso special Intorests sit at tho hearth
of tho poor, charging them extra prices for coal,
oxtortlng from fiu to 250 per cent moro for
ovory thread of clothing which thoy wear than
tho natural prlco, and robbing them day and
night, year In and year out, by enhanced prices
for all Iho necessaries of Hfo, and wo democrats
sit around smiling as soronoly as two summer
mornings, when such a condition of affairs as
this exists, I say, away, away with you faithless
ones. You aro recreant to your trust and aro
rocroant to tho memory of tho democratic lead
ers of tho past, and from tho very heavens their
voices condemn you.
"Slavery was tho curso of tho south before
tho war, but our modern materialism, our tarlff
mado monopolies and tho rulo of corrupt special
intorests Is laying much heavier burdens upon
your peoplo than did slavery in those days, and
you southern mon havo bowed your heads to
this sin and seem to bo returning to your old
doctrines that society exists for tho benefit of
tho fow instead of tho many; that tho millions
may bo enslaved to increase tho riches of a few
thousand planters and manufacturers. God savo
you and bring you back to truo democratic prin
ciples or send you over to tho republican party,
whoro you bolong if you do not reform.
"Again, you tell us that if tho scheme to
causo a breach between President Taft and
Roosevelt comos to a head, wo democrats may
got into power. Is not this tho cry of weak
ness? Wo can got into power because of a
brooch botweon our adversaries? Why not got
into powor bocauso you aro entitled to get into
power on your willingness to do tho right thing
to tho wholo body of tho .people? I havo no
groat admiration for ex-President Roosevelt. I
havo spont not a littlo timo examining his usur
pations of powor, but Theodoro Roosevelt at his
worst is tho superior of President Taft. No
prosidont in our country has ever started, in tho
very beginning of his torm by making such a
Income Tax Cheat
Thoro is danger that in the furoro of excite
ment created by tho kicking insurgents and
Gifford Pinchot out ot tho republican party, tho
full significance of Governor Hughes' message to
tho Now York legislature urging tho defeat of
tho income tax amendment will bo overlooked
Tho governor, as tho Now York Herald aptly
puts it, "has furnished to tho opponents of tho
income tax amendment tho one thing they havo
been seekinga plausible argument from a
highly rospectablo source." Tho argument is
that the amendment infringes on states' rights
bocauso it would make it possible for congress
to imposo a tax on incomes from stato and city
bondsIf congress should desire to do so
It is not necessary just now to aTguo the
question, though it is obvious, in tho first placo
that congress would impose no such tax uS
driven by the spur of necessity and suprted
by public sentiment, and that, in the second
place, something that would discourage the ten
dency to issuo immense amounts of bonds which
tho people must pay might not bo wholly an un
mixed ovil. And it is interesting to note how
humiliating exhibit of himself as has President
Taft. Tho progressive element in his party
ought to desert him, and I trust that they will
desert him. Government with President Taft
seems to bo something of a' joke. He seems
to bo bent upon having a good time at the peo
ple's expense. Ho is hardly serious upon any
public question, and is on altogether too good
terms with tho corrupt elements of this country
to please tho vigilant and patriotic citizen. His
attitude on tho tariff and his attack upon tho
progressive republicans of tho west, his swing
ing around tho circlo .at tho cost of hundreds
of thousands of dollars of the peoplo's money,
his easy neglect of public duties, his good-natured
lack of indignation at wrong, these all
may mark him as a good fellow, but not as a
faithful and a great president.
"Tho hopo of tho democratic party is in get
ting back to tho first principles of justice and
government, throwing aBlde tho superficial men
who havo been directing its councils, and re
solving at onco to do justice to the consumers
of tariff-burdened goods and to those who are
bearing tho terrible burdens of our extravagant
national government. If tho democratic party
twenty years ago had cleared its decks and
fought valiantly for democratic principles, in
stead of talking about keeping still and profit
ing by the enemies' mistakes; if it had sought
not only to please tho people by honeyed words
and demagogic cries, but had actually created
and championed real reforms affecting all tho
peoplo's welfare, it would hot be sighing for
power today. It is out of power because it is
unworthy of power; it is out of power because
it lacks leaders who believe in tho people and
who believe in justice toward all the people. It
is out of power because hundreds of its leaders
aro actually in league with the tariff-made trusts
and aro voting tho republican ticket three
fourths of the time and are real republicans
and ought to be in tho republican party and
stay there. Theso leaders havo simply be
trayed tho people, and among them aro your
United States senators from the south, who have
been steadily taking care of your large land
owners and manufacturers, Instead of taking
care of the great body of your poor people. Our
millionaires are expending hundreds of millions
of dollars yearly for charities of all kinds. Let
us democrats advocate justice, which will make
charity almost unnecessary. Let us urgo the
people to fight for little things when those little
things involve a principle of liberty and justice.
Our forefathers fought a seven years' war from
Lexington to Yorktown for relief from taxation
not a millionth part as burdensome as congress
has just imposed upon ninety millions of con
sumers. "In short, my dear Mr. Watterson, let us be
lieve in liberty and justice and in their final
triumph, and hate from our boots up oppres
sion and gird ourselves anew to fight for the
old democratic ideals, and then there will be
no uso of 'keeping still and profiting by the
enemies' mistakes.' Sincerely
"FRANKLIN PIERCE.
New York."
quickly republican leaders grab at "states'
rights" as an excuse to defeat the Income tax
Massachusetts republicans made the same plea
--while at the same time they are preparing to
take away from the states tho right to regulate
the great corporations which control commerce
and the necessities of life, and while they look
on, with benign complacency, while inferior fed
eral judges annul at their own irresponsible
whim and pleasure the carefully framed laws
of sovereign states.
Wo desire, though, to direct attention to a
Washington dispatch printed in the Chicago
lribuno, a great republican paper, which franklv
admits that Governor Hughes' message is on y
one step in a plot to defeat the income tax
which plot was clearly in the minds of the rZ
publican leaders in Washington last summer
32f ,US?d ,thQ Proposed amendment to
defeat tho inclusion of an income tax in the
taT!LlaT; Tne Tribune dIsPatch says:
Ynrwn flW dealt bJ Governr Hughes of New
York to the proposed constitutional amendment
authorizing the levying of an income tax has
produced undisguised satisfaction among ?
Aldrich following in congress and equally patent
dismay among the progressives. The latter ad
mit that the attempt to obtain tho adoption of
an income tax amendment now is an uphill 4
fight, with the result in grave doubt.'
"The outcome is believed to be exactly' what .
was foreseen by Senator Aldrich last summer
when he executed his flank move and headed .
off tho inclusion of an income tax in tho tariff
law. Senator Cummins and the insurgent re
publicans had nineteen votes for the proposition
in the senate and were ready to combine with,
the democrats and tack the provision on to tho
Aldrich bill.
"Then Aldrich hastened to the White House
and offered to concede a corporation tax if the
president would call off the insurgents in the
senate. The president accepted, the corporation
tax was included in the tariff law, and a resolu
tion was adopted submitting to the stato legisla
tures a constitutional amendment to authorize
an income tax.
"Now that Governor Hughes has taken action
which likely will block the ratification of the
amendment in New York the progressives realize
the pitfalls of the trap that Senator Aldrich
laid for them. Georgia and Connecticut so far .
have failed to ratify the proposition, and it is
believed that the objections raised by Governor
Hughes will be voiced elsewhere, with the re
sult of sidetracking the whole amendment."
The republican party makes a business of fool
ing the people, then breaking faith with them,
and then swindling them in the name of the
special interests. It does these things brazenly
and impudently, because it has found it can
escape the penalty when election day rolls round
by threatening that it will bring on a panic and
make the corn stop growing in the event of a .
democratic victory.
The process will continue as long as the peo- .
pie are willing and not any longer. Omaha
World-Herald. 7 -
"EDUCATE THE PEOPLE"
Predicting that the prices of meats will -go
even higher than they now are Harold Swift,
member of the Swift Packing Company, says .
that the remedy is "educate the people to the
use of tho cheaper cuts of meats." This vis
some improvement over the other suggestion .; .
that the people be educated to do without meat,. i"
altogether.
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"GOOD GOVERNMENT" BY THE RE
PUBLICAN PARTY
In the making of a- tariff law, one
would naturally suppose that those least
able to bear the burdens of taxation
would not be discriminated against in
favor of those best able to pay the tax
involved in any tariff levy.
But what are the facts?
The man who imports $1,000 worth of
diamonds pays a tax of but $100 10 per
cent. If he imported a thousand shirts
worth a dollar each he would have to
leave at the customs house and tack onto
his selling prjees $601. GO 60.16 per
cent.
If he decided that he would bring in
$1,000 worth of champagne, one of the
items upon which there is a large in
crease, the tax levied by the tariff is
$500. If he brought in $1,000 worth of
blankets he would pay a tariff tax of
$1,645.42.
If he brought in $1,000 worth of
paintings and statuary, all he would
?aXe t0 pay as customs duties would be
$200, but if it were sugar he would pay
$788.70 tax on $1,000 worth.
If he brought in $1,000 worth of jew
elry he would have to pay $600 tariff
tax, but if he brought in $1,000 worth
U.0B0S2 uSS. g00ds he would pay
IfheJmiorted a ?5'000 automobile
9k5 rlflak?rB would relieve him of
$2,250. If it were $5,000 worth of
yarns the tariff tax would be $6,960
If the importation were $5,000 worth
? fujs the tariff tax would be $1 650
but if it were $5,000 worth of clothing
that tax would be $4,330. E
, If S0mNew York millionaire brines
in a $100,000 ocean-going yacht the
SShSWOuW be $35'000 but "the im
portation were stockings the tariff col
lected would be $87,950. C Q D.
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