THE QUESTION OF TAXATION.

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The question of taxation is one that constantly demands the attention of all organized bodies of men. The question of "What shall be taxed, and how much?" sometimes creates, sometimes divides, and sometimes destroys parties. If governments have any rights, they have the right to tax property to any extent that their necessities may require. Policy demands that this tax shall not be such a burden upon enterprise as to compel stagnation. The theory of taxation has been largely in the direction of obtaining the revenue of the government from those articles of least importance to the community at large. It is safer to tax the surpluses than the necessities of society. Wines, spirits, cigars and other luxuries are taxed on the theory that civilization can continue without their consumption. Upon this theory and fact, the Knights of Labor ask that a graduated income tax be levied; in other words, they ask that the surpluses of past accumulations be taxed out of existence; that small enterprises and property-holders be practically exempt, while the mammoth fortunes from the investment of incomes be taxed in increasing ratio to their amounts. This is considered by some as agrarian legislation; and yet, as will be noted, it is not the taxation of a necessity, but the taxation of a kind of luxury that threatens the existence of the Republic, the luxury of a monopoly.

The Knights of Labor, in common with the old National Labor party, deal not only with the question of industrial reform, but place two planks in their platform of principles bearing upon the question of finance. This work has been devoted wholly to the consideration of the question of the industrial movement and industrial reform. The question

of finance in itself has found many powerful writers of pronounced views. The space of this article will not warrant any discussion of the merits of the different systems. The demand of the Knights in this direction is patriotic, and measurably practicable. National banks and bankers have little favor with the Knights of Labor. The present system of filtering the national currency through the national-bank sieve to the profit of the banker, and the loss to the people,

has few friends in this organization. They demand "a national monetary-system, in which the circulating medium, in necessary quantity, shall issue direct to the people, without the intervention of banks, and that all the national issue shall be full legal-tender in payment of all debts, public and private, and that the government shall not guarantee or recognize any private banks of credit, or any banking corporations, that interest-bearing bonds, bills of credit or notes shall not be issued by the government, and that when any emergency shall arise, shall issue a non-interest-bearing money." As the national banks are founded upon the national debt, wisdom demands, and statesmanship should provide, some method by which the bills and coin should serve their purpose without giving power to chartered corporations to interfere with the control of the currency, or to receive undue payment for any service rendered. It is not expected that the people can receive printed national legal-tender notes for the asking. But that some system can be devised, better than the present, and more in accord with our republican institutions, is believed by many, not only within, but without the organization.

That the demand for the prohibition of the importation of foreign labor under contract is a just one, is now confessed; but, though "confession" may be "good for the soul,” the reiteration of the sentiments against this importation will not restrain unscrupulous contractors and employers from bringing into the country, from the most pauperized and degraded of the human race, laborers contracted for under misrepresentation of facts and conditions, and bringing them here as enemies to our high-wage civilization. This requires not only legislation, but enforcement; and such enforcement as shall absolutely protect the American wage-worker from this danger. And it is even a question if legislation will not be demanded by other than wage-workers to prohibit, for a time at least, the importation of the cheaper class of laborers, whether under a contract or not. If protective tariffs can be advocated as a means to uphold the wages of American labor, whether truly made or not, labor and all lovers of republican institutions have the right to demand that this artifi

SHALL CORPORATIONS CONTROL GOVERNMENT?

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cially stimulated immigration, largely consequent upon the misrepresentations of the protectionists themselves, shall be absolutely prohibited. The defence of such a course must be founded upon the right of self-protection belonging to classes and communities and governments. To enact such legislation is a confession of the failure of our statesmen to anticipate societary effects from societary causes. As the physical man is strengthened by what is digested rather than by that which is consumed and undigested, so nations grow in strength as fast as the immigration from other lands is assimilated to the native institutions. The necessity for immediate attention to the prohibition of Chinese labor is set forth in the chapter devoted to that subject. As the first sentence of the preamble calls attention to the alarming development and aggressiveness of great capitalists and corporations, so the last demand upon the government refers to the same question, and demands of the government the possession, by purchase under the right of eminent domain, of telegraphs, telephones and railroads.

In the days of the struggles of the abolitionists, propositions were made for the purchase of the slaves by the government, and then their emancipation; so now the Knights of Labor, witnessing, as we have described, the power of these corporations over the government, and over their employees, equalled only by the power of the Czar, propose their purchase,-not their seizure, but their purchase and control; and the question will soon force itself upon the republican citizens in this form: "Shall these great corporations control the government, or shall they be controlled by the government?" The terrible condition of servitude into which the employees of these vast enterprises have been forced, and the endangering of the public peace, caused by the natural and proper unrest of the wage-workers, as well as the danger to traffic and the numberless industries dependent upon uninterrupted transportation and communication, is the warning-cry that justice must be done to the poorest, and that this justice cannot be expected under the present system of greed. The control of railroads, telephones and telegraphs, and their operation by