SENATOR: Yes, Mr. President, we must get to the dismal science of Practical Republican Political Economy, for, as the Duke of Wellington once lamented, we are much exposed to authors. My difficulty has been to so catalogue the points as to have separate categories of infamy. It will not do to show a very deep understanding of the malady on our part.

PRESIDENT: In an obituary notice, as you say, our administration history could be written in one word-Taxation!

The first session of the Fifty-sixth Congress ended yesterday with a record for extravagance with the people's money which will not soon be forgotten. The appropriations made at this session aggregated $710,000,000 in round numbers, of which $114,220,095 is for the army and $65,080,915 for the navy. These two items must be credited to our imperial policy. They indicate very plainly what our heavily taxed people may expect in the future if this policy is continued. According to Representative Livingston, no part of the cost of warships recently authorized by Congress and estimated at $56,000,000 appears in the total of appropriations made at this session. In addition there is no appropriation for river and harbor improvements, with the exception of a few small items, nor is any provision made for public buildings or for the payment of claims against the Government. If the Senate had followed the lead of the House and passed the Nicaraguan Canal bill, with its provision for an expenditure of $141,000,000 for the construction of the canal, and if the usual appropriations for river and harbor improvements, public buildings, and the payment of claims had been made, the total expenditures authorized at this session would have aggregated $879,729,476. It is not surprising, therefore, that, as much as they desired to pass the Ship Subsidy bill,

the Republican leaders, after securing a favorable report on it in both houses, postponed final action until the next session of Congress. This measure authorizes bounties aggregating $12,000,000. The appropriations at the first session show an increase, as Mr. Livingston points out, “all along the line, while large amounts that must be met have been withheld until the next session," when it is probable the expenditures will be equally extravagant. The Republicans are fast reaching the point when a "Billion-Dollar Congress" will be regarded as an economical body, and "Billion-and-a-Half" statesmen will be the rule rather than the exception. The people are not likely to overlook the fact that the money which Congress is spending with such lavish hand is taken from their pockets by a system of excessive taxation.

SENATOR: This does not prove, then, a moribund condition. The taxation went into the hands of our allies, Jupiter, Uranus, and especially into the pocket of Commander Mars, of Imperial Expansion celebrity. We are not afraid of a billion-and-a-half shortage. Industry, the mortgagor, has already paid the debt to our solitaire magnates, the mortgagees.

PRESIDENT: In order to intelligently present our side we must scrutinize the Democratic side of Republican taxation.

The present distribution of wealth is incontrovertible. Indisputably, the responsibility of that distribution of wealth is a matter of human institution solely. With the interregnum of Mr. Cleveland, the distribution of sixtyfive billions of wealth has been made under the legislative policy of the Republican party. The only open point, therefore, is, What are the potent instrumentalities which enable Republican capitalists to receive two-fifths of the national income of sixty-five billions of wealth, while Re

publican and Democratic labor of all kinds, including capitalists, receive three-fifth? What bureaucratic machinery compels the wealthy Republican classes to pay less than one-tenth of indirect taxes, the well-to-do classes less than one-quarter, and the relatively poorer Republican and Democratic classes more than two-thirds? What is the Republican legislative machinery which grinds out fivesixths of our income to the 125,000 families, but less than one-half of that income to 6,500,000 of the Republican and Democratic poorer classes? By what formidable legislative enigma has the Republican party enabled 1 per cent. of their families to receive nearly one-fourth of the national income while 50 per cent. of Industry receives a bare subsistence wage of one-fifth? If we answer, this exploitation and confiscation is the result of recent economic changes and the evolution of modern capitalism, the people will reply, Americans are no longer independent; they are serfs and lords, vassals and suzerains.

SENATOR: Such an answer would engender only a fierce strife of classes. It would be regarded as an attempt to reconcile irreconcilables. It is a question of right, and the moment there is a question of right intelligence governs, reason comes into play. It will be difficult to find a scientific question of higher character debated by champions worthy to throw light upon it. American Society lives by the spirit which inhabits it. It may for an instant submit to the empire of force, but in the long run it hearkens only to the voice of Justice. In sight of this class confiscation the public will say, Politics is a field which has thus far been traversed only in a balloon. It is time to put our foot on the ground. Instead of dealing with abstractions we must tackle realities. It is an important investigation. It ought therefore to be heard with patience and judged of without prejudice. Our legislation ought to be a plain thing and fitted to many heads.

PRESIDENT: Yes, it is not the corruption of Justice by class legislation, but it is righteousness which exalteth a nation. Both the scholar and the plain man, irrespective of politics, will say, not the private use of public right, but a loyal and honest policy is the only great policy; not the exploitation and confiscation of their wealth, but the safety of the people is the supreme law. The signs of a reawakening in America are apparent. As wise counselors we know the burden of proof rests upon Republicans to show the people with what equity and what justice we have suffered a Power-holding Privileged Class of less than 1 per cent. to exploit and confiscate 99 per cent. of our increasing national wealth, while the appalling burden of two-thirds of Indirect Taxation falls upon Industry; and when we consider the revenues of the Government, the wealthy class contributes less than one-tenth of the indirect taxes and the well-to-do class less than one-quarter, although seven-eighths of Industry holds but one-eighth of the nation's wealth and half the families are propertyless.

SENATOR: The less than 1 per-cent. class of our population are plowing and harrowing the remaining 99 per cent. of the Industrial contingent.

PRESIDENT: In the domain of Direct Taxation such a condition would sweep any party from power. The astuteness of the Republican policy is in its Indirect Taxation.

SENATOR: Imagine the relief and the yield of a direct income tax and progressive inheritance tax upon an aggregate income from a capital of $4,340,000,000!

PRESIDENT: Has any statistician stated it?

SENATOR: No. When our Supreme Court defeated the Democratic Income Tax the public interest received its quietus.

The six great monarchies of Europe, Asia, and Africa

have an income and a progressive inheritance tax, but our Republican oligarchy of wealth, representing 1 per cent. of the people and having prior to taxation an income of 7 per cent. upon sixty-five billions of wealth, are potent enough to defeat an income tax.

PRESIDENT: The stealthy plundering of the poor received its first blow from the Democratic Income Tax. SENATOR: Republicanism and Plutocracy are synonymous terms.

PRESIDENT: The federal revenue in 1860 was $56,000,000; in 1886, $520,000,000 in currency or $420,000,000 in Gold. If the next Administration is a Billion-anda-Half Congress, we shall have to build a national poorhouse.

SENATOR: Trust can so shape indirect taxation as to enable us to build a national poorhouse in every State and still enrich itself. At each successive increase of taxation Trust will grow richer.

The profits of distillers, dealers, and speculators out of the Republican liquor tax legislation between July 1, 1862, and January 1, 1865, were estimated by David A. Wells at about $100,000,000. Congressmen were among the speculators. Those who knew in advance that the tax on whisky was to be raised had only to speculate in whisky certificates to turn their knowledge into gold.

PRESIDENT: The aggregate income from labor prior to taxation we have seen is $6,400,000,000. The total income from Capital and Labor is $10,800,000,000.

SENATOR: Without an income or progressive inheritance tax we can clearly discern why one-eighth of the families in America receive more than half of the aggregate income and the richest 1 per cent. receives a larger income than the poorest 50 per cent. The multitudinous gins and snares of the Mephistopheles of Indirect Taxation mock