INEQUALITY OF TAXATION. 145 



ment as other industries; yet the statistics show the producers (we 

 include in this class, the farmer, the stockman, the fruit-grower and 

 the mechanic), eithei directly or indirectly, pay nearly all the taxes 

 that are required for the machinery of the Government. Our lands 

 are taxed, our stock is taxed, our crops are taxed, our improvements 

 are taxed, and in addition to this we pay most of the tax and tariff 

 which is required by the Government from manufacturers. &quot;We pay 

 in addition to the cost of transportation on all articles which are 

 brought from abroad, whether of luxury or comfort, the revenue 

 which the Government receives from their importation. 



The capitalist who has money invested in bonds or other securi 

 ties, or is engaged in manufactures, compels the party who uses or 

 consumes the same to pay all the tax which is imposed on him, so 

 that it matters not to him how excessive or onerous the tariff may 

 be. All he has to do is to add the percentage necessary to cover 

 this expense and collect it without diminishing his profits. The 

 Government has fallen into the hands of the consumers rather than 

 the producers of the country, and per consequence a system of un 

 just discrimination has been adopted and carried out, which makes 

 the producers mere hewers of wood and drawers of water, to their 

 more favored fellow citizens. 



This state of affairs has been brought about mainly by the fact 

 that the producers, as a class, have had their time so occupied with 

 the attention necessary to the successful management of the partic 

 ular industry in which they are engaged, that they could not or have 

 not taken that active part in the administration and control of State 

 and National affairs which they should. Demagogues have usurped 

 power; chicanery and fraud have been successfully used to control 

 the masses; party tactics and selfish intrigue have been permitted 

 to usurp the place of brain and muscle. 



The remedy for this is for the producers to arouse from their 

 lethargy, to awake from their slumbers, and not only assist but 

 carry out the measures necessary to reform these abuses. Let their 

 power be seen, and felt, and heard in every part of our Govern 

 ment; in the administration of their local affairs, in our legislative 

 forums, in our judicial halls. Let the mechanics and farmers see to 

 it that none but good, honest and true men fill our State and county 

 offices, none but the true representatives of our interests appear for 

 us either in our State or National capital, men who are closely iden 

 tified with the bone and sinew of the land, who have suffered from 

 the same ills as ourselves, who have felt the crushing, grinding 

 power of the monopolies which have weighed us down. 



We respectfully submit as the most practical way to accomplish 

 these objects and secure the reforms we need, that such legislation 

 shall be had as will make in each county the District Attorney ex- 

 officio chairman of the Board of Supervisors, with the power to veto 

 all appropriations made by the Board for the payment of moneys 

 which in his judgment are illegal or not actually necessary for pub 

 lic uses. The District Attorney to be liable on his official bond for 

 any malfeasance in office while acting as Chairman of the Boards. 

 This, we believe, would effectually check the extravagant and illegal 

 appropriations so often made, and provide for the impartial action 

 of bodies which combine the functions of the legislative, judicial 

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