| Show THE GRADUATED INCOME TAX THE editor of the new york sun has baa discovered the plank in the ohio democratic platform favoring a graduated income tax he opposes it of course not as we suspect because of any deep seated objection to such an experiment but for the opportunity the citation affords to relieve his insufferable pugnacity he begins by declaring that such a tax divides the people into two distinct classes the honest and the dish dishonest 0 D e st the one being those who will report their incomes truthfully to the tax gatherer and the other those that would not if mr dana can cite or invent a style of taxation which will not do this abominable thing his bis argument will then be of some worth we believe that such a method of taxation la is possible but if it were proposed we doubt very much that the editor of the sun would be satisfied with it he declares that such a law would require a system of espionage and spying into private affairs repugnant to american institutions espionage is truly repugnant but why the espionage necessary for the collection of an income tax F should be so abhorred in ones im imaginations while we are all the time submitting passively to a personal taxation is difficult to I 1 comprehend what the sun editor evidently deems the annihilating charge is that clif if the tax for example on incomes is 5 or oue cue per cent and on 1000 incomes 16 15 or one and one half per cent and so on the tax on a income becomes whatever adjustment may be made between rate of tax and size of income taxed the graduated tax sooner or later reaches a point where it swallows up the entire income this is confiscation progressive steps toward this are progressive steps toward confiscation they are steps along the direct r road oa d to communism this to is simply the balderdash of a smart demagogue in the first place the confiscation described is not a necey necessary result of grading an income tax it might be of course if it was waa the disposition of legislators to make it so and the people were disposed to accept it but as an argument against a graded tax it lie ie sophistical nonsense the tax on an income of being fixed at 1 per cent and that on 1000 at af U per cent does not fix 11 as the sun would im ply an obligation upon the lawmakers law makers to carry out this ratio to the point of confiscation or any farther than the spirit and purpose of the law would make consistent but suppose the ratio of increase were made absolute ap the sun ang bests what of it with properties to the value of while enjoying an income of or indeed no income at all a man if he Is ig honest will be taxed just the same according to his bis own owning inge he might be called upon to pay or more than he makes into the public treasury between this man and the one with which might be in reality producing no mote more for mankind man kind than his neighbors neighbor but which is yielding to him sometimes half a million a quarter of ae which is claimed for taxes sometimes of which half is claimed and sometimes of which all ora or a little more than all is claimed Z which is the worst abused but this hao oo 00 point in the issue between the people of ohio r 1 we know something about the ress rem of this scheme to make private income the basis upon which to raise a revenue and simultaneously to make the rich man shoulder the burden of it the purposes of the pro eject while raising a revenue are first V to entirely exempt from taxation men whose incomes are simply a comfortable living second while making the large incomes Income of the country pay its ex pen sesto seeto render impossible the numerous and rapidly increasing ten thou sand a day incomes whose corrupt influence in the courts and legislatures I 1 to i s th threatening reat ening the peace of the nation it the idea may be the dream of a visionary but it is neither nor unjust the only question is can lk it be realized upon this point we would not venture an opinion there is ra hing appalling about it or so very repugnant the man who jn meets the public collector with a ah honest accounting of his earnings would suffer nothing that could be construed into an indignity at the hands of a ool collector lector the dishonest citizen altizen under such a system might find so some me trouble just as the dishonest millionaires lion aires atres sometimes do now but for their grievances no just man will mourn the cry of the present generation is that the poor men pay the most of the taxes because they have not the retained attorneys and other corrupting conveniences ces to help them to avoid just taxation if under the income tax some ome or many should deal dishonestly with the collector we fall fail to see me that the thought under the circumstances should be particularly rightful |
