Show f THE TARIFF A TAX ON INCOMES Into the Farmers Alliance platform in many states there is a resolution in favor of taxing incomes as being the only way of Teaching the millionaire classes These dwell chiefly in the northeast section and are very expert in dodging other taxes Now the tariff is levied on many of the necessaries of life which are manufactured in tho northeast and the protection feature of it Is for their advantage But the millionaire mil-lionaire classes have successfully resisted tho income tax proposition Tney argue that it would be unjust and oppressive to those who have been prosperous in business busi-ness and that on general terms a tax on incomes is always inequitable and unwise The high protective tariff which the moneyed mon-eyed and combine manufacturing interests of the northeast have imposed on the country coun-try is itself a tax on incomesand what is worse it is a heavy tax on small incomes It exacts a tribute of 20 to SO per cent on nearly every purchase of necessaries and comforts a man makes If he is a poor man and buys only 8100 worth of necessaries and comforts in a year the tax is 30 per celt or 530 If he is a farmer and pays out 500 a year for lumber fencing wire binding twine implements tools harness boots and shoes clothing and household goods table ware kitchen utensils etc tho tax will be 150 The tariff makes those purchases higher by the several sums stated and it is therefore a tax on the incomes in-comes out of which it is paid This tax possesses the additional oppressive op-pressive feature of being imposed on the gross Income During the war a quarter of a century ago when the government was in great need of money it levied a tax on 1000 or over of net income This exempted ex-empted the mass of tho pcoplo and reached only the welltodo classes But this high protective tariff not only wreaks its force upon the small incomes of the masses but It makes no allowance for the interest they would have to pay on debts and other necessary expenses It is an exaction on all of a mans earnings Ho may not make his living ho may not at the end of the year come out even Sickness misfortune unforeseen expenses failure of work low wages or low prices may consume every dollar of his earnings and leave him in debt But the pitiless tariff takes no account ac-count of these things It bleeds him from day to day and from hour to hour It takes toll from what goes on his head on his back on his feet and into his mouth and do what he will ho cannot help himself so that at the end of the year he is poorer by theO the-O 00 or 150 which the tariff has taken from him Who gets this tax on the gross income of every person in the land i The federal government No The state No Tho protected manufacturers of the northeast get it They are the favorites of the government gov-ernment and the government has given them the special high prerogative of collecting col-lecting tribute from their countrymen This is the secret of their enormous wealth their immeasurable arrogance and their great authority at Washington |