the scale towards
inheritance and income taxes
*49
I 1
;-n accumulate five hundred dollars to his one, but
cause, through the operation of this special privilege,
f is at his, the poor man’s, expense that the rich man’s
^-.cumulation is made. Ex-Governor Long says that
ere will be discontent just so long as certain comforts
; d possessions are within the reach of one class and
*; yond the reach of another class. This discontent
chbishop O’Connell calls the “tumultof theenvious.”
r; it unprivileged men, whether unprivileged rich or
: -.privileged poor/ have not far to look to find that
^: .content and envy start only where skill and enterprise
; ive off and special privilege begins. You are not
vious of Edison or Marconi or Bessemer or railroad
C ignates, or captains of industry; you gladly accord
em princely rewards as public benefactors. It is
si-.ly when the people are called upon to provide an
Hson fortune for every city and town in the country
j; rough privileged exaction that your discontent is
aused. It is only when they are required to super-:■
pose upon an unprivileged steel fortune of three or
f: Jr millions a privileged fortune of a thousand millions,
:-.sed upon economic rent, that the shoe begins to
tch. It is only when the ore baron, the coal baron,
i! e oil baron, the railroad baron, and the land baron
J: 2 privileged to take ten dollars or a hundred dollars
L >m their wages and add it to the monopoly price of
:■ al and iron and oil that men are swayed by the
f-umult of the envious.”
j: Legislation has been busy constituting criminal
_ ences. The air is charged with criminal prosecution
' d conviction where fortunes have been swelled
rough violation of law. But is it not true that neither
'islatures nor courts have seriously addressed
3:
