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Show A Graduated Tax H IT REQUIRES months and years to plan, and infinite labor to weave a large Turkish H carpet. When completed it represents the H long, wasting labor' of human beings who, while H incorporating their very souls into the wonderful H fabric, had not sufficient food to properly nour- H i'sh their bodies. But at last a patient worker, H taking the principle on which the carpet was H woven, began to study how machinery might be H made to do the work that the hands in Turkey H we're doing. He made and changed his plans, he H made and changed the molds for the machinery H that was to be, and after years of labor he per- H fected it arid, attaching to it the power that had H been evolved - from the brain of Watt, it all H moved harmoniously, and on trial did the work H automatically that 'before required the work of H scores of men. That invention has been im-i H proved upon until now a man who has moneys H enough can install the machinery and purchase4 H the material for it to work upon and can in a H week produce a carpet almost as enduring and' M beautiful as those upon which scores of people wear out their lives in producing. j H At first, when the steam engine and the H power loom Were started in England, the frenz-J H ied people tore down the structures in which! they were set, because they reached the natural' H conclusion that the poor were about to lose all, H chance of making a living. But the world is' H t wide, and as yet is thousands of years" removed ,M from full enlightenment, and though those ma- M chines which transfer the burdens from arms of, 'H flesh to arms of steel, have been vastly multkj H plied, it has been found that there is more and, M more work for men. M But it is likewise true that men with money H can command this machinery and make it work H for them and to the dollars they have add thou- H sands and millions more. This makes heart- M burnings and discontent and men who are 4 M struggling for a livelihood cry out against M the inequalities of the world's gifts, for- H getting that Alladin had no more than others un- M til he invoked the genii which was thenceforth 'JM his slave. And that the imprecations should not M toe against Alladin, hut against the slave that t compassed all of Alladin's wishes. 'M So we hear men on all sides inveighing v HI against all monopolies and combines which are H piling up wealth. We see the prosecuting m officers of the government proceeding against H these monopolies and combines; we read in the M daily press that this or that monopoly or com- P mine should be attacked and destroyed. But H the truth of the matter is that the men thus1 H arraigned are not one whit different from 'iq H B man who buys a crate of twenty-five canta- e1' lotipes for a dollar and sells them to his cus- i' tomer for fifteen cents each. It was his genii who brought the treasures and built the marvelous houses and decorated them with t i ferns. H There is no way to crush monopolies and Hi combines, and we can think of only one way to K curb them. l That is by a system of graduated taxation. f Money rules the world now, but the world is M not half redeemed. More and better schools are V needed, more hospitals; more opportunities need L to be opened for the poor; more obstructions M removed from their paths. M There is but one thing through which this M can be done and that is the genii which modern m men call money. m The way to obtain this is by taxing the in- M comes of men of monopolies and combines. The M tax should be graduated. A fair reward for work M a fair interest on money shoiild be allowed, but 1 after that the taxes should increase up to the M point of confiscation when a certain percentage ( is reached. |
