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workingmen generally, and, without diminishing their wages, would enable them as laborers and mechanics to become home owners. Every man should own a home, however humble. Lands in my State are rapidly increasing in value, and will soon be beyond the reach of the man of limited means. Syndicates and speculators have their eyes on Arkansas dirt, as formerly they had them on Arkansas timber. Now they control the latter and unless we are watchful will soon control the former. I have looked with pride on the numerous elements that make up the strength of the States and of this Republic. But the most comforting sight to me is the quiet dignity and independence of the American country home. Home of the unpretentious citizen, environed with woodland and field, and fragrance and freshness, and verdure and songthe ozone of life and vigorous nature at every hand-and the master rising to catch the first breath of the morning with praises to God upon his lips for His care of the household through the slumbers of the night. With that vision before me I feel that the dream of more pretentious auguries for the future must vanish-broken the charm of their majesty and power and from these enlightened Christian homes, from these nurseries of public virtue, shall come at last the industrial freedom of this generation, the moral exaltation of this people, and the sun-bright glory and safeguard of this country. [Prolonged applause.]

North Carolina-Her Growth and Progress in Population, Agriculture, Manufactures, and General Development in the Last Decade.

"Here's to the land of the long-leaf pine,

The summer land where the sun doth shine;
Where the weak grow strong and the strong grow great;
Here's to down home, the Old North State!'

SPEECH

OF

scroll of fame. In yonder chair of the Speaker sat for many years a distinguished North Carolinian, Nathaniel Macon, whose statue many of us think should be placed in yonder Statuary Hall side by side with that of the great commoner, and North Carolina's best beloved son, Zebulon B. Vance. It is also needless for me to recall to your minds that North Carolina has been among the foremost in all the wars of the country, down to and including the war with Spain, in which she sacrificed the lives of some of her most gallant sons. In peace and war, in the beauty and character of her women, and in the ability and courage of her men North Carolina yields the palm to no State in the Union.

We are now considering a bill to pay certain claims reported by the Court of Claims under the provisions of the acts approved March 3, 1883, and March 3, 1887, and commonly known as the Bowman and the Tucker acts.

These claims are for stores and supplies taken by the Federal Army in the South during the late civil war, and for the occupation of churches, colleges, and lodges by the Federal troops during that war. In every case, as the chairman of the committee has said, there has been a reference of the claim to the Court of Claims, and upon the findings of fact of that court the pending bill has been based. It is a just and meritorious measure, representing an honest indebtedness of the Government adjudicated by the Court of Claims and should pass. All just and proper claims arising out of the civil war, especially those for stores and supplies seized and used by the Federal Army, and for occupation of churches and colleges and lodges. should be paid by the Government as rapidly as possible. It is appropriate upon such a bill to refer to the wonderful recuperation of the whole South since the civil war. Prostrated by that war, the South in the years since Appomattox in agriculture and industrially and commercially has arisen from devastation and poverty which that war brought upon her people. Among all the States of the South, North Carolina in the last decade has been foremost in progress.

GENERAL SKETCH OF NORTH CAROLINA.

The State of North Carolina is more than 500 miles in

HON. CHARLES R. THOMAS, length. Its average breadth is about 187 miles. Its area

OF NORTH CAROLINA,

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES,
Friday, February 7, 1908,

On the bill (H. R. 15372) for the allowance of certain claims reported
by the Court of Claims under the provisions of the acts approved
March 3, 1883, and March 3, 1887, and commonly known as the
Bowman and the Tucker acts.

Mr. THOMAS of North Carolina said:

Mr. SPEAKER: The gentleman from Louisiana [Mr. WATKINS] recently, in a brief but eloquent speech, referred to the State of Louisiana, and eloquently depicted its splendid population, fertile soil, and great resources, paying his State a most deserved tribute.

He has inspired me with the desire to present to the House and to the country a description of my own State, North Carolina, and a statement showing the wonderful growth and progress of my State in the last decade in population and industrially and commercially.

I shall enter upon no extravagant eulogy of North Carolina, for a simple statement in regard to her soil, climate, resources, growth, and progress in agriculture, manufactures, fisheries, and general development speaks with greater eloquence than any extended oration I could make. I shall speak especially with reference to that part of North Carolina of which I am a native, and in which is included my Congressional district

eastern North Carolina.

Every foot of the soil of this great Commonwealth is, of course, dear to my heart, and to the hearts of all her loyal citizens, from the "Land of the Sky," where the peaks of the Blue Ridge pierce the clouds, to where the waves of the Atlantic wash the eastern shores of the State.

It is not my purpose to speak of the glorious history of North Carolina, nor of the great men and statesmen she has produced, nor of those great historic events which have given her prestige and renown. My speech will deal with her commercial and industrial progress.

It is needless for me to recall to the minds of those familiar with the history of their country the fact that the first English settlement was upon the shores of North Carolina, at Roanoke Island; that she was among the foremost of the Colonies in the struggle for independence, and that she has produced many most eminent men, who have honored her upon the bench and in the halls of Congress, both the Senate and the House of Representatives. My time would be too limited to recall North Carolina's illustrious sons whose names are engraved upon the

is 52,286 square miles. The State is divided into three natural divisions, the westernmost of which is the mountain plateau. The average elevation of this plateau is 4,000 feet above the sea; its area is 6,000 square miles. It contains the highest mountain peaks to be found in all the territory of the United States east of the Rocky Mountains. It is also the source of many large rivers, which radiate to the Atlantic and to the Gulf as tributaries of the Mississippi. The mountains are covered with deep, rich soil and clothed with massive hardwood forests, inclosing fertile valleys. It is a high, cool, healthful region, the "Land of the Sky," a land without a rival in scenic beauty in the United States.

The Piedmont Plateau comprises the central part of North Carolina. It is a region of greatest development in the manufacture of cotton and wool and of furniture.

The Coastal Plain, or eastern North Carolina, stretches from the seashore into the interior of the country for nearly 200 miles and comprises practically one-half of the landed area of the State. The soil of eastern North Carolina is perhaps the most productive on the Atlantic seaboard. The soil has great value in the production of early vegetables and fruits, the season following closely upon that of Florida and being a few weeks in advance of that of the lands in the Virginia and Maryland tide water region.

The climate of North Carolina is a happy medium, being neither one of extreme heat or of extreme cold, and the State is climatically naturally divided into three regions-the three already described as Mountain, Piedmont, and Coastal Plain. The mean temperature of the State is 59° F. The normal aver age rainfall for the State is 52 inches, which is uniformly distributed throughout the year. The State lies outside the path of cyclonic storms; there are no blizzards, no cyclones; just a good, healthful, all-around climate.

Taxation is low, the State debt is small, the facilities for education are excellent, from the common school up to and including the University of North Carolina, which was the second university established in the Union.

AGRICULTURE IN NORTH CAROLINA.

The State, having every variety of soil as well as climate, the crops of the State are diversified and numerous. It is a land of corn and wine, of grape and fig, of sunshine and flowers, and produces all the staple crops-corn and cotton, wheat, oats, rye, barley. Perhaps the greatest progress of the State, however, agriculturally, has been in the raising of tobacco and in the progress made in the cultivation of truck crops. Eastern North Carolina is particularly favored in its climate and soil,

its nearness to great markets, and ready means of transportation, so far as the raising of truck crops is concerned. It is to-day one of the greatest, if not the greatest, truck gardens of the country, and in my Congressional District in the territory around Newbern, my home, and in the territory lying along the Atlantic Coast Line Railway from Goldsboro to Wilmington, the sums of money annually realized from the early truck crop run into millions, and the output is more readily computed in hundreds of carloads than in any other way.

The

A traveler along the line of the Norfolk and Southern Railroad and the Atlantic Coast Line in eastern North Carolina during the trucking season, in my Congressional District, will see a landscape which appears one huge truck garden. Everything that a fertile soil and kindly climate will produce is grown in eastern North Carolina. Every variety of early vegetable and fruit is produced, and every variety almost is a moneymaker. No section of the United States has made greater progress within the last ten years in truck farming than eastern North Carolina. Men have made fortunes in raising asparagus, lettuce, strawberries, and other early vegetables and fruit. strawberry crop in the counties along the Atlantic Coast Line from Goldsboro to Wilmington, in Wayne, Duplin, Pender, and other counties, is worth millions of dollars annually. About the towns of Mount Olive and Faison, on the Atlantic Coast Line, the strawberry business had its first start, and the soil there and all along the line of this railway has been found to be well adapted for the production of the finest fruit. The first really fine berries sent north are from this section of North Carolina. Of course, earlier in the season strawberries come from Florida and from other more southern sections, but there are none of them equal in quality to those produced in the counties of Pender, Duplin, and Wayne, in North Carolina. The Irish potato is one of the leading truck crops, grown for the early market, and from the city of Newbern alone over 100,000 bushels of early Irish potatoes are shipped annually, and the crop in the adjoining county of Pamlico and other sections is a very large one. In eastern North Carolina are also grown the finest crops of lettuce, celery, cucumbers, and other early vegetables. It is not rare to get $3,000 an acre from the winter lettuce growing. A thousand bushels per acre is a common crop of cucumbers, and the North Carolina asparagus is a standard article in the northern markets. Besides every variety | of early vegetables and fruits, including the strawberry crop, eastern North Carolina, of course, produces also the staple crops of cotton and corn. In the western part of the State and in the Piedmont section are cultivated all the staple crops of cereals, as well as tobacco. The value of the trucking industry of eastern North Carolina is well stated in the following paragraphs from a publication issued by the United States Department of Agriculture:

The Wilmington district embraces the southeastern portion of North Carolina, and the northeastern portion of South Carolina, and it is one of the sections of the country peculiarly adapted to truck gardening, owing to its light sandy soil and temperate climate.

The products of the farms of this trucking area, of which Wilmington, N. C., and Newbern, N. C., are the chief centers, are ready for market about two weeks earlier than those of Norfolk, Va. Newbern is convenient to both water and rail transportation, and the farms about that city and Elizabeth City, N. C., produce large quantities of potatoes, two crops being grown annually. It is estimated that an average of 25,000 acres of vegetables and fruits is planted each year in southeast North Carolina. The varieties grown include cabbage, potatoes, beans, peas, asparagus, cucumbers, spinach, tomatoes, melons, and grapes, strawberries, pears, peaches, and other fruits. This acreage

is said to average 100 packages of vegetables per acre per annum, which would make 2,500,000 packages. Averaging the selling price of the package at $1.50 would make the trucking and berry-growing industries of this section worth, at close market value, $3,750,000 per annum. This would, of course, include the cost of production and transportation.

Strawberry cultivation is carried on most extensively in this district. perhaps more so than in any other section along the Atlantic seaboard. It is estimated that between 11,000,000 and 12,000,000 quarts were sent to Northern markets in refrigerator cars during the spring and early summer of 1900. The berries begin to move about the middle of April, but the shipments up to the beginning of May are light, and are generally forwarded by express. As the shipments become heavier, refrigerator and ventilated cars are substituted. From Wilmington to Goldsboro, a distance of 84 miles, nearly every station along the railroad is a shipping point for strawberries and other garden

truck.

It has been estimated that the average net profits per acre on vegetables grown in this district are as follows: Asparagus, $93.63; beets, $95; snap beans, $42.96; cabbage. $113.61: cucumbers, $175: watermelons, $32.06; canteloupes, $55; peas, $57.37; Irish potatoes, $101.60; sweet potatoes, $106.50; spinach, $70; tomatoes, $94.72.

The main problem in the growth of the trucking industry of eastern North Carolina is the question of transportation and freight rates. What is needed to make the industry profitable is quick transportation and low express and freight rates. The railway facilities of eastern North Carolina are now most excellent and the railway mileage of the State has very materially increased. I include in my remarks a statement received from

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THE FISHERIES OF NORTH CAROLINA.

The Department of Commerce and Labor, Bureau of Fisheries, upon my request, has furnished me the following statement as to the magnitude of the fisheries of North Carolina, showing how extensive and valuable they are:

The fisheries of North Carolina in 1902 were exceeded in value by Florida alone of the Atlantic and Gulf States south of Virginia, and this single exception is due to Florida's possession of the unique fishing for sponges. In value, North Carolina fisheries equaled those of South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, and Texas combined; her capital invested was almost equal to that of the States mentioned, while the number of persons employed was greater by over 2,000. field of development now and in future open to the fisheries of the The Commission believes that the most promising and important State relates to oyster culture. The other fisheries are, in most part, already highly developed. The Commission drafted and recommended oyster culture on a large scale, but it failed of enactment. a law which it is believed would do much to encourage and permit It is be lieved that if this law were put into effect and supplemented by the

same enterprise exhibited by the people of North Carolina in the development of the shad and herring fisheries it would result in a production of oysters almost equal in value to that of the entire present fisheries of the State.

GENERAL SUMMARY.

In the products of farms, forests, and waters we readily see from this brief summary that eastern North Carolina is unsurpassed by any section of the United States, and is indeed one of the garden spots of the world, the paradise of the home seeker and the home builder.

The manufacturing industries of North Carolina, as I have said, are larger in the central and western portion of the State, although there are numerous cotton factories and other manufacturing establishments in the eastern section of the State. The progress of my State in manufacturing, as well as in the products of its waters and forests and farms, has been most marvelous, perhaps exceeding that of any other State within the last decade.

I have secured from the Department of Commerce and Labor, Bureau of the Census, a most valuable compilation showing the industrial growth of North Carolina, including its growth in population, agriculture, manufacturing, mining, and railway mileage. This table, which has been prepared with the greatest care by the Census Office, shows a most marvelous growth and development in the manufacture of cotton goods, cotton-seed oil, furniture, lumber, and tobacco, and a remarkable increase in the value of all these products, as well as in the State's population and resources. The table makes a showing, I believe, which is perhaps unsurpassed by any State, and which shows in more eloquent terms than any language I could use North Carolina's growth, progress, and prosperity in the last decade.

May heaven continue to smile upon the good old State, her progress continue, and peace, plenty, and prosperity be ever within her borders. It is a land of milk and honey and oil and wine, of rivers and waters, forests, and mountains, where thou shalt eat bread without scarceness," inhabited by a free, brave, independent people.

Here's to the land of the long-leaf pine,
The summer land where the sun doth shine;

66

Where the weak grow strong and the strong grow great;
Here's to down home, the Old North State!
Industrial growth of North Carolina.

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23.0

$32,651,000

710,275

Production

Running bales..

Value, including seed.

Consumed (running

bales).

Manufactories (num

ber)..

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Hoisery and knit goods.
Indebtedness less sinking-
fund assets...
Leather, tanned and cur-
ried...

Lumber cut (M feet B. M.).
Lumber and timber, plan-
ing mills, sash, doors,
and blinds.
Manufactories:

Number

Employees, average

3 $47, 254, 054

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276 2,681, 386

111.2
66.5

Increase of Pensions of Widows and Minor Children.

SPEECH

OF

HON. GEORGE W. KIPP,

OF PENNSYLVANIA,

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES,

·Monday, February 3, 1908,

On the bill (H. R. 15653) to increase the pension of widows, minor children, etc., of deceased soldiers and sailors of the late civil war, the war with Mexico, the various Indian wars, etc., and to grant a pension to certain widows of the deceased soldiers and sailors of the late civil war.

Mr. KIPP said:

Mr. SPEAKER: I am heartily in favor of any legislation that is in the interests of the gallant men who have fought for our country, and who are entitled to the very best consideration 60.5 that this great nation can give them. I am equally heartily in 45.3 support of all measures that will care for their widows and orphans. I am in favor of this bill to pay the soldiers' widows $12 a month because I believe it to be a step in the right direction. But it is only a step, Mr. Speaker. It does not go far enough. As a minority member of the committee that reported this bill I maintained that the clause limiting the widows who will benefit by this act to those who were married before 1890 was a mistake, and I still think so. I dare assert, Mr. Speaker, that there is scarcely one Member of this House who has not living within the confines of his Congressional District at least one poor, honest, deserving widow who will not be entitled to the benefits of this law because she became a soldier's bride in 1891, or later.

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number.

3 85,339

Wages paid

3 $21, 375, 294

* 72, 322 $14,051, 784

3,667 33, 625 $6,552, 121

Manufactures, value of

product..

38142, 520, 776 3 $85, 274, 083 $40, 375, 450

73.9

55.6
18.0
52. 1

67.1

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Death, Mr. Speaker, is no respecter of persons and neither is age, nor is illness. The soldier who married seventeen years ago and has since passed away had the right to demand from the country he served that the woman he made his wife should not be discriminated against when she became a widow, sick, and poor, and helpless, but that she be accorded the same assistance and the same protection by the United States as that given to the widows of the comrades by whose side he fought, but who had married a few years earlier than he. No dsicrimination should be made, Mr. Speaker, when widows and orphans of our soldiers are sick and helpless and poverty stricken, no matter what the year the soldier married. The weak, en

Not including hand trades nor establishments having products feebled soldier's bride of seventeen years ago, and her helpless

valued at less than $500.

4 For 1902.

* Decrease.

little ones, are just as much entitled to our support and sympathy as are those of a wedlock in 1889.

If this bill provided, as it should, that this pension be paid to the widows of all soldiers who were married before the enactment of this law instead of only to those married before 1890, it would be more creditable to this body. And because it fails to do that I feel that it is not doing full justice; it is not treating our old soldiers and their families as fairly as it should, and I hope that before this session ends the majority party that controls the legislation of this body will agree to an amendment to the bill providing that all widows of honorably discharged soldiers married before February 1, 1908, be paid a pension of $12 a month. Then we will be acting fairly to all. It is argued, Mr. Speaker, that it would take too much money to do that; that it would not be economy to do so. I am a business man, Mr. Speaker, and I think I know the value of economy in all things. But I maintain that to deprive any widow or orphan of a departed soldier of our help because of his marriage in 1891 and allow to a soldier's relict married in 1889 what you refuse to the widow of another who fought just as bravely for his country's flag but was married in 1891, is false economy and bad principle.

I voted for this measure in committee when I realized that this bill was the best we could get, and I joined with the rest of the committee in making the report on it unanimous. I vote for it to-day, not because it is entirely satisfactory, but because

I see that it is the best we can do and we must be satisfied with it until this House can see things in a more liberal light. During my campaign, Mr. Speaker, I was accused of being a lumberman and not a public speaker, which is true. I am a lumberman and I am very proud of it. I have been in this Hall long enough to distinguish the difference between this House and a sawmill. While the sawmill is whistling and singing and making lots of noise it is cutting wood. While this House is whistling, jabbering, and making a big hurrah, it is cutting "nix."

Income and Inheritance Tax.

SPEECH

OF

HON. ROBERT M. WALLACE,

OF ARKANSAS,

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES.

Thursday, December 19, 1907.

Mr. WALLACE said:

Taxation has its tragic and its comic side. In my State the dog tax at one time seemed to take both sides of the question and passed away-some of its advocates failing "to make good" on retrenchment and return-to the next assembly. A grimace or a smile, according to where the blow falls, may be provoked by the following lines from Much Ado About Nothing: O good Lord, tax not so small a voice

To slander music any more than once.

Again, there is such a thing as taxing patience with a speech. Taxes have the sterling quality of constancy and like fate, and the poor shall be with us alway. Under the systems of taxation have grown up the taxgatherer, the taxpayer, the tax cart and the tax dodger. The tax dodger is unlike the tax cart. The distinguishing feature between them is that the cart was exempt at one time under one English law, and the dodger, as far as possible, exempts himself all the time from all law. But some years ago somebody defined the tax dodger as one who, finding that the rate of taxation in Boston was too high for his means, hied himself away with his wife and children to some rural town or retreat. But the serious, and even tragic, side of taxation must have appeared to a very large number of persons when the decree went out from Cæsar Augustus that all the world should be taxed. And it seems that "all went to be taxed, every one into his own city." It was followed, however, by the coming of the Messiah and the setting up of His kingdom. When the Pharisees or their disciples asked if it were lawful to pay tribute to Cæsar and told the Master that the image and superscription on the penny were Cæsar's, he said:

Render therefore unto Cæsar the things which are Cæsar's and unto God the things that are God's.

Here was laid down the rule of obligation on the part of the subject to his king, of the citizen to his government. With this preface I shall proceed with some observations on the subject of

INCOME AND INHERITANCE TAX.

There is no perfect system of taxation, but the weight of opinion among thinkers on economic subjects is that a properly

adjusted income tax approaches more nearly perfection than any other. Adam Smith laid down this principle:

The subjects of every State ought to contribute toward the support of the Government as nearly as possible in proportion to their respectively enjoy under the protection of the State. tive abilities-that is, in proportion to the revenue which they respec

whatever source it may be derived, he is giving support to When a citizen pays taxes according to his income, from more nearly approaching perfection than under any other plan his government and receiving protection from it in a manner Yet devised. If his gains increase, his tax increases, and well it may, because he is better able to pay it. If his gains decrease, so does his tax, and fortunately for him, because he is less able to pay it.

An income tax requires the rich men to pay their due proportion of the taxes, a thing which all history proves they have never been doing. The fear that an income tax would confiscate the property of the rich is not well grounded. The sense of justice among Americans would not permit it. On the other hand, it is notorious that this same sense of justice has not led the rich to voluntarily assume their share of the public burdens, but, on the contrary, by every reputable and disreputable device, to avoid or evade the payment of their proportionate part. And this fact comes from studied neglect or design to defeat the Smith maxim and produces inequality of taxation. object of the law. But equality of taxation is or ought to be the

Again, the cost of collecting an income tax is very low com

Pared with our present excise system. According to the Treas

ury authorities the cost of collecting the income tax in 1866 was less than 2 per cent, being lower than the cost of collecting any tax then existing except the tax on banks, which was paid at the Treasury.

A tax upon incomes has been tried twice in the United States; (1) from 1862 to 1872; (2) from 1894 to 1895. The first series of income taxes was held to be constitutional by the Supreme Court of the United States, while the second series was held to be unconstitutional, the terms of each series of laws being almost identical. It is a strange comment upon the Supreme Court that one of the justices-Field-voted in favor of the constitutionality of the first series and against the constitutionality of the second. Under the first series there was collected from income tax, from corporations, from individuals, and from salaries of officers and employees from 1862 to 1872, the enormous sum of $347,220,897, made up as follows:

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The difference between the first income-tax bill-that of 1862-and the second was, first, as to the exemption; the first bill exempted $800, the second $2,000, and of 1894 $4,000. The Supreme Court held this exemption constitutional. The act of July 1, 1862, read as follows, placing a duty or tax upon theannual gains, profits, or income from every person residing in the United States, whether derived from any kind of property, rents, interests, dividends, salaries, or from any profession, trade, or employment or vocation, carried on in the United States or elsewhere, or from any source whatever, etc.

This was held to be constitutional by the unanimous opinion of the court.

By the act of June 30, 1864, a tax on gains, profits, or incomes of all kinds of property, including rents, was passed, which was also held to be constitutional.

During the years 1862-1873, the following additional taxes were collected on legacies and successions and paid into the Treasury of the United States:

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and succession taxes. All countries impose such taxes and the
men who pay them have the least right to complain of taxa-
tion of all taxpayers. They are not taxed on the sweat of
their brow but on the easy money which has come to and the
conscience money that departs from their hands. The chief
caution that needs to be observed along this line is that the
States need revenue as well as the General Government, and
the States have been using this means to raise revenue, and it
might be well to leave this lever entirely in the hands of the
States, unless the Federal law contains a provision adjusting
its rate to a per cent that would harmonize with the State rate.
If the Government should preempt every method of raising
taxes the States would finally be relegated to the land and
personal property tax, two very onerous taxes.
Under the law passed August 28, 1894, the second income-tax
law, the one declared unconstitutional, there were collected
and paid into the Treasury, and then paid back the following

sums:

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Amount of
tax.

$1,523,784

4, 158, 875 1, 183, 435 455, 957 268, 938 298, 065 221, 816 715, 687 985, 135 9,815, 697

7,400

12,027

624

933

338

595
208

2, 201

5,327

29, 653

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Amount of
tax.

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111,012

6, 128,051

posed to be done, may clearly see the necessity of proceeding with wisdom and self-restraint, and may make up their minds just how far they are willing to go in this matter; while only trained legislators can work out the project in necessary detail.

The principles of the income tax are admitted in England and other countries. The difference between our law and theirs was that our exemptions were higher-more liberal with capital and capitalists than those backed by thrones and enforced by kings. In 1895 a Republican member of our Supreme fittest," destroyed our statute with an hundred years of judicial Court, with a hypercritical fancy for the "survival of the precedent and saved the Constitution. The Democratic party stands for an income-tax law by act of Congress, if it can be had without conflict with the Constitution; otherwise for a constitutional amendment. The Democratic platform of 1890 pledged the party to whatever constitutional power there was criticism of the court the party was charged with the crime to overthrow the court decision of 1895. For that pledge and of high treason. The Republican platform of 1860 and Mr. Lincoln's inaugural address arraigned the court for the Dred Scott decision; and criticisms of the greenback and legal-tender decisions multiplied like leaves in Valambrosa, or boll weevils in the cotton belt. Again Mr. Roosevelt says:

The first purely income tax was passed by the Congress in 1861, but the most important law dealing with the subject was that of 1894. This the court held to be unconstitutional. The question is undoubtedly very intricate, delicate, and troublesome. The decision of the court was only reached by 1 majority. It is the law of the land, and of course accepted as such and loyally obeyed by all good citizens. Nevertheless, the hesitation evidently felt by the court as a whole in coming to a conclusion, when considered together with the previous decisions on the subject, may perhaps indicate the possibility of devising a constitutional income tax which shall substantially accomplish the results aimed at. The difficulty of amending the Constitution is so great that only real necessity can justify a resort thereto. Every ef fort should be made in dealing with this subject, as with the subject of the proper control by the National Government over the use of corporate wealth in interstate business, to devise legislation which without such action shall attain the desired end; but if this fails, there will ultimately be no alternative to a constitutional amendment."

$871, 718
So the President again goes Democratic and modestly dissents
2,354.446
316.336 from that deliverance of the court. The Democratic party be-
559,473 lieves in the equitable distribution of responsibilities and privi-
1,915,063 leges-exonerating the poor from nothing they are not too
poor to bear; exacting from the rich nothing they are not rich
enough to pay. Allured by no idol, dominated by no master,
she will be deterred not from the truth as she sees it, nor from
the right as she knows it. If she must go down in defense of
such principles, let it be remembered that there is no sacrifice
too great for her to make and no time too soon for her to fall
on the altar of the Constitution, and she will go down holding
high the flag of industrial protest and independence forever!
[Loud applause.]

Making a grand total of income tax collected from both corporations and persons of $15,943,748. The Supreme Court of the United States rendered its decision as to a part of this law on April 8, 1895, so that the operation of the law was interfered with from its very beginning. The Commissioner of Internal Revenue for the year 1895 said that if the law could have been enforced without any interruption the taxes from it for the fiscal year ended June 30, 1895, would have exceeded $30,000,000.

There are three income taxes in England. First, the income tax proper, which ranges from one and a half pennies in the pounds sterling on £200 a year up to 1s. in the pound on £700 or more a year. This brought into the English treasury in 1905-6 $6,500,000.

The second income tax is an inhabited-house duty and yielded in 1905-6 something more than $10,000,000.

Lastly, the death duties, the chief of which is the estate duty, ranges from 1 per cent on small estates up to 8 per cent on millionaire's estates. As millionaires do not die regularly, like common people, but in groups, the yield varies considerably from year to year. In 1905-6 it yielded $65,000,000, and in 1906-7 will yield very much more. It has yielded $100,000,000. Mr. Roosevelt in his message to the second session of the Fifty-ninth Congress said:

The National Government has long derived its chief revenue from a tariff on imports and from an internal or excise tax. In addition to these there is every reason why, when next our system of taxation is revised, the National Government should impose a graduated inher itance tax and, if possible, a graduated income tax. The man of great wealth owes a peculiar obligation to the State, because he derives special advantages from the mere existence of governmeent. Not only should he recognize this obligation in the way he leads his daily life and in the way he earns and spends his money, but it should also be recognized by the way in which he pays for the protection the State gives him. On the one hand, it is desirable he should assume his full and proper share of the burden of taxation; on the other hand, it is quite as necessary that in this kind of taxation, where the men who Vote the tax pay but little of it, there should be clear recognition of the danger of inaugurating any such system save in a spirit of entire justice and moderation. Whenever we as a people undertake to remodel our taxation system along the lines suggested, we must make it clear beyond peradventure that our aim is to distribute the burden of Supporting the Government more equitably than at present; that we intend to treat rich man and poor man on a basis of absolute equality, and that we regard it as equally fatal to true democracy to do or per mit injustice to the one as to do or permit injustice to the other. am well aware that such a subject as this needs long and careful study in order that the people may become familiar with what is pro

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Mr. SPEAKER: I am glad to record my vote in favor of increasing the pensions of widows and of removing the previous provisions of law requiring them to possess an income of not more than $250 per year. Last fall, while attending the various soldiers' reunions held throughout the district which I have the honor to represent, I promised that it would be one of my pleasures and my duties after I came to Washington to do all I could for the enactment of such a law. I now have the pleasure of fulfilling that promise.

The soldiers' widows of our country often fought battles of hardship, privation, and sorrow in their own hearts as great as those which their husbands fought on the battlefields of the war. Theirs was the hardship of separation; theirs the tears and the heartaches of the nighttime; theirs the responsibility of raising the children of the home; theirs the shudder at every rustling of a leaf or swaying of a bough, lest it might bring them tidings of death on some far-away field of battle. I honor the widows of our soldiers. I sympathize with them; I want to

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