Speech #670283650

President. if the Congress would grant to me the right to tax every man. woman. anfl child in America the price of one drink at a sodawater fountain. 5 cents. out of the over 100.000.000 people that reside in the United States. they would convert into my pockets for that year. taxing each man. woman. and child in America 5 cents. an ultimate tax of $5.000.000. and when the Senator defends this bill by saying: " On this item and that item the tax resting on the American people is infinitesimal. we are going to give it to these special interests. because it only amounts to a sodawater drink or the price of a movie to each of the American people. and therefore it is infinitesimal." it is not infinitesimal when you put it in the aggregate and by law convert it into the bank account of some man or some special interest in the United States. That is why this bill is Indefensible. that is why this bill is infamousbecause it is exercising the power of the Government. to take from the whole mass of the American people their hardearned pennies and dimes and dollars to reward special interests in the United States. and this item shows it. When the matter is discussed generally before the American people. the advocates of this measure or similar measures say that they levy the tax to protect American labor from the pauper labor of Europe. to protect American industry from disastrous competition. to protect the American farmer in a market in which he is in danger. That is all talk. Those are sounding phrases.