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About The commoner. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-1923 | View Entire Issue (May 2, 1913)
" 3FV 7' J i The Commoner. MAY 2, 1913 ?W NINETY-SIX BOSSES In bo far &g the revised senate rules curb the practice of inserting new legislation in bills by confer ence committees; the altered- method of procedure in handling legislation in that body looks to be a step in the right direction. Something will be lost, to be sure, by pitting fledgling senators against the more experi enced and skillful conferees named by the house, but that drawback should be more than offset by the restraint the amended rule puts on a flagrant abuse of power. Stripping the chairmen of the regular committees of powers and prerogatives which all experience has shown should be centered in led captains, to whom the uninitiated instinctively turn, is likely to prove a blunder a biggor blunder than was made by the house when the speaker's power and responsibility were distributed among fourteen chairmen of committees. That move put the house on the same plane with the senate as then constituted, with this difference, that the house chairmen play a more important part in legislation than their Benate col leagues. What could be more de moralizing than to relieve the house chairmen of their badgeB of authority and put the 435 members on a com mon level in the committee rooms. Obviously, the house soon would de generate into a bedlam a hundred times worse confounded than "was witnessed during the last session, with a power-shorn speaker in the chair. The sentiment favorable to a return to the Cannon rules was rapidly ripening when the short term came to its close. Yet, despite this example, the senate makes a distri bution of power that gives equal authority to each of its ninety-six members. The various committees are presided over by members who have seen service, and at first glance things would seem to be going on as before, but really the chairman is a mere figurehead. With nobody ex erting a guiding influence, is it not likely that the so-called chairmen, and their colleagues, too. will be dis posed to shift their cares to the shoulders of the clerks of commit tees? Somebody must keep run of things and whip legislation into some kind of shape in response to caucus' in structions or chaos will reign. If the clerks are not given leeway, com mittee action as heretofore under stood must come to a standstill or proceed at random, like an army whose officers are denied the power of command. Is the steering com mittee going to disband and let its conception of "nure. democracy" run amuck, or has.1t in mind to confide into its own hands the power to fill the vacuum it has created? In any event, can the senate do its full duty with ninety-six bosseB? Washing ton (D. C.) Post. A GREAT POPULAR TAX -Exactly what the Income tax is, what it will produce and how It will be collected is explained by the author of the income tax provisions in the revenue bill' now pending, Representative Hull of Tennessee, in an interview In the Evening World. The tax will be paid by more than 1,000,000 people; by one person say, in every ninety of the total popula tion. Only 2,6,330 persons, or one in ninety-six, pay personal taxation in Manhattan for local purposes. The total number of taxpayers on both real and personal property in Man hattan can not be stated because there are many duplications. It may be 45,000 or very much less; it is certainly less than one in fifty per sons. The proportion in Boston is about the same, in Chicago not much higher. Abuse of the. Income tax as class taxation, therefore, might be 'directed "with equal plausibility and equal in justice against the collection of ordi nary local taxation in all large American cities, the income tax ia not an attempt to tax the rich for the benefit of the poor. It only par tially remedies tho present injustice of taxing the poor indirectly, through consumption and through rent, far more heavily in proportion than the rich. Nor is tho tax unnecessarily in quisitorial. In great part tho tax will be assessed at its source. In the typical case of the man with a salary, ho will have no temptation to porjury. His employer will not only return the figures on the gov ernment blank, just as It is done in England, but will actually deduct the tax. Banks, factories, executors, trustees must make returns. Stock in corporations pays once for all. No more than the present system of collecting tariff revenue, much less than local personal taxation, does the proposed income tax offer a premium on perjury. The great majority of those liable to it will be unable to swear falsely about it if they would. Collection will be auto matic. Fair, light, almost impossible to escape or postpone, the Income tax ought to remain one of tho mbst per manently popular forms of raising money for the federal government. Its great advantage is that all the money paid goes to the government. In this it is ins'timably superior to tho present system which, for evory dollar gathered at the customs houses by excessive tariffs, puts many dollars into the coffers of privilege? New York World. ISO'OKS RECEIVED Beauty of the Highest Type. A scientific and an artistic aim for a nobler beauty. By Caroline Williams Lefavre. The Health Culture Co., New York and Passaic, N. J. L. N. Fowler & Co., London, England. Price, $1.00. Christ Among the Cattle. By Frederic Rowland Marvin. Sherman, French & Co., Publishers, Boston, Mass. Price, 60 cents. Government by All the People or the Initiative, the Referendum and the Recall as Instruments of De mocracy. By Delos F. Wilcox. The Macmillan Co., 64-66 Fifth Ave., New York. Thought and Thrift. Subjects in every 'letter of the alphabet for all who labor and need rest. By Joshua Hill, Cincinnati, O. Price, $1.25. Sulzer's Short Speeches. J. S. Ogilvie Publishing Co., 57 Rose St., New York. Price, 25 cents. U. S. Money vs. Corporation Cur rency, "Aldrich Plan." Wall Street Confessions, by Alfred Owen Crozler, Cincinnati, O. The Magnet Company, publisher, Cincinnati. Concentration and Control. A so lution of the trust problem in the United States. Charles R. Van Hise. The Macmillan Co., New York. Price, $2.00. The American Government. By Frederic. J. Haskin. J. J. Little & Ives Co., New York. Our Judicial Oligarchy. By Gil bert E. Roe. With an Introduction by Robert M. LaFollette. B. W. Huebach, New York. Price, $1.00, net. History of the Supreme Court of the United States. By Gustavus Myers. Charles H. Kerr Co., Chi cago. Price, $2.00, postpaid. The Currency Trust Conspiracy. By Flavius J, Van Vorhis, M. D., L. L. B., Indianapolis, Ind. "Fulfilled." (Poems.) By Henry T. Wimbush, 441' Mt. Prospect Ave., Newark, N. J. ' The Scientific Dial Primer. Con taining universal code- elements of universal language, ..new base for mathematics, etc.MBy A, Hallner, San Francisco, -Cal.v--Price, $1.00, A straight from the shoulder message to separator buyers Bewaro of separator salesmen who claim that their machine is "just like the De Laval" or "as good as the Dc Laval." Such claims are all absolutely false. Such imitators juggle with words. Instead of putting into their machine the experience and the worKjnansnip ana ine maicnai neces sary to make a cream separator any- 'thing like as good as tho Dc Laval, they find it cheaper and easier to "claim everything" and make a bug bear of "price" to keep the buyer from discovering the mechanical shortcomings of their machines. They go on Bnrnum's theory that the people like to be fooled and they don't care how they gct your money just so long as they get it. It is unfortunate that the separator business should be burdened with such unfair business methods but since it is it behooves every prospec tive separator buyer to use care and good judgment in the selection he makes. Look well to the demonstrated ability of the concern that makes the machine to build a good separator. Avoid buying a machine whose makers have had little separator experience, or who are constantly changing from one makeshift type to another. Talk with separator users who bave learned by experience. The more you investigate the more you, will find that there is one and only one separator that stands in a class all by itself. It was the pioneer cream separator in 1878 and it lias been first ever since. You will find that more machines of this make are being sold than all other makes combined. You will find that 98 per cent of the world's creameries use it exclusively. You will find that every user of this machine is a booster. You will find that its makers are so confident of its superiority that you may have a free trial of it alongside any other machine and judge for yourself as to which machine will serve you best. This machine has over 1,500,000 satisfied users. It will serve you best, save you most 'and last the longest. If you want to be sure of making a good bargain buy a De Lavaf Cream Separator THE DE LAVAL SEPARATOR CO. NEW YORK CHICAGO SAN PEANCISCO SEATTLE m f i9Hlv I l JJftlll I L lr1lilt TEXAS LAND BIG BARGAIN in Choice, 30 Acre Tract near thriving City of Houston FOR SAIiE 30 acres of the most desirable and best located land in the rich farming tract near Houston, Texas, known as Allison Rlchey Suburban Gardens. This land is within a few blocks of the railway station, Almeda a suburb of Houston and will bo sold at a reasonable price, or will tra.de- for good Nebraska farm land or city property. "Write at once for further particulars to i Department 8, Commoner Office, Lincoln, Mtkraska -Vi ! i - - - u 1 iUS