STRUGGLE FOR EQUALITY 89 



What is here recognized as an afterthought, it is hoped direct 

 primaries, the initiative, the referendum and the recall will compel every 

 politician to keep uppermost in mind. It is clear that the efficiency of 

 these institutions depends upon the intelligence and good sense of the 

 people. Unless used with discretion, they will prove to be as useless as 

 a rusty knife. Conspicuous instances of their utility, however, are not 

 lacking. But for the referendum the Cincinnati Southern Eailway 

 would have been sold away from the city for a tithe of what it was 

 worth, just as the streets of the city were handed over for fifty years as 

 a gift to a street railway monopoly. Lecky tells us : 



In England, a large class of politicians are now preaching a multiplication of 

 small democratic local legislatures as the true efflorescence and perfection of 

 democracy. In America, no fact is more clearly established than that such legis- 

 latures almost invariably fall into the hands of caucuses, wire-pullers, and pro- 

 fessional politicians, and become centers of jobbing and corruption. One of the 

 main tasks of the best American politicians has, of late years, been to withdraw 

 gradually the greater part of legislation from the influence of these bodies, and 

 to entrust it to conventions specially elected for a special purpose, and empow- 

 ered to pass particular laws, subject to direct ratification by a popular vote. 11 



Among other things expressive of the spirit of the times is the reduc- 

 tion of tariff duties, the movement for currency reform, the reform of 

 the general property tax, the income tax and socialism. The first aims 

 at taking the determination of tariff schedules out of the hands of special 

 interests, or, at least, at imposing some restraint upon them other 

 than their own moderation. There is no more reason why the benefi- 

 ciaries of the tariff should be given a free hand in fixing tariff rates than 

 there is why one business man should permit another with whom he 

 deals to fix the price without let or hindrance. The second aims at pre- 

 venting the general distress which the collapse of our banking system 

 now and then occasions. It also seeks to prevent the concentrated con- 

 trol of banking in the hands of the few and to place the facilities of 

 credit at the disposal of every one entitled to them. The third and 

 fourth seek to distribute the burden of state and federal taxes in a more 

 equitable manner and to tap additional sources of revenue. The general 

 property tax in many states involves gross inequality in the assessment 

 of realty and the total escape of the bulk of personalty from taxation. 

 Much is to be said in favor of the income tax in comparison with the 

 tariff on sugar. The sugar industry does not promise to become self- 

 supporting. As a young industry, therefore, it is hardly worthy of further 

 protection. The whole of the income tax will go to the government, 

 whereas part of the enhanced price of sugar has gone into the pockets of 

 the sugar producers. Moreover, sugar is an article of general consump- 

 tion and an import duty upon it is practically a capitation tax. On the 

 other hand, an income tax is based roughly upon ability to pay. If col- 



11 "Democracy and Liberty," Vol. 1, p. 282. 



