‘More mighty than the waves of the sea’: toilers, tariffs, and the income tax movement, 1880–1913

Abstract

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Notes Congressional Globe, Forty‐First Congress, Second Session (Washington, 1870), 4716, quoted in Stanley Stanley Robert Dimensions of Law in the Service of Order: Origins of the Federal Income Tax, 1861–1913 New York: Oxford University Press 1993 [Google Scholar], Dimensions of Law in the Service of Order, 22; ‘Congress; One More Effort on Behalf of Tariff Reduction,’ New York Times, 24 May 1870, 5. Popular and even scholarly perceptions of tax history often presume that American political culture has always been opposed to taxation. See, for example, Adams Adams Charles Those Dirty Rotten Taxes: The Tax Revolts that Built America New York: Free Press 1998 [Google Scholar], Those Dirty Rotten Taxes; Beito Beito David Taxpayers in Revolt: Tax Resistance during the Great Depression Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press 1989 [Google Scholar], Taxpayers in Revolt. By contrast, another line of scholarly interpretation has identified how democratic ideals and the search for social justice have shaped the historical evolution of American taxation. See Ratner Ratner Sidney Taxation and Democracy in America New York: Wiley 1967 [Google Scholar], Taxation and Democracy in America; Blakey and Blakey Blakey Roy, G Gladys C, Blakey The Federal Income Tax New York: Longman, Green 1940 [Google Scholar], The Federal Income Tax; Brownlee Brownlee W, Elliot Federal Taxation in American: A Short History New York: Cambridge University Press 1996 [Google Scholar], Federal Taxation in America; and Brownlee ——, ed. Funding the Modern American State, 1941–1955: The Rise and Fall of the Era of Easy Finance New York: Cambridge University Press 1996 [Google Scholar], Funding the Modern American State. The literature of American labor law history has often emphasized the role of the judiciary in influencing organized labor's anti‐statist tendencies. Forbath Forbath William, E Law and the Shaping of the American Labor Movement Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press 1991 [Crossref] , [Google Scholar], Law and the Shaping of the American Labor Movement; Hattam Hattam Victoria Labor Visions and State Power: The Origins of Business Unionism in the United States Princeton: Princeton University Press 1993 [Crossref] , [Google Scholar], Labor Visions and State Power. This emphasis on ‘business unionism’ elides another aspect of the American labor movement's political tradition, one that labor's support for an income tax highlights, namely, labor's demands for positive state action. For more on this second aspect of the labor movement, see Fink Fink Leon Workingmen's Democracy: The Knights of Labor and Working Class Politics Urbana: University of Illinois Press 1983 [Google Scholar], Workingmen's Democracy; Orren Orren Karen Belated Feudalism: Labor, the Law, and Liberal Development in the United States New York: Cambridge University Press 1991 [Google Scholar], Belated Feudalism; Dubofsky Dubofsky Melvyn The State and Labor in Modern America Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press 1994 [Google Scholar], The State and Labor in Modern America; Greene Greene Julie Pure and Simple Politics: The American Federation of Labor and Political Activism, 1881–1917 Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 1998 [Crossref] , [Google Scholar], Pure and Simple Politics; Sanders Sanders Elizabeth The Roots of Reform: Farmers, Workers, and the American State, 1877–1817 Chicago: University of Chicago Press 1999 [Google Scholar], The Roots of Reform. Historical Statistics of the United States, 1106–8; US Department of Treasury US Department of Treasury Statistical Appendix to Annual Report of the Secretary of the Treasury on the State of the Finances for the Fiscal Year Ended June 30, 1971 Washington: Government Printing Office 1971 [Google Scholar], Statistical Appendix, 12. ‘Testimony of Conrad Carl,’ in US Senate Committee on Education and Labor US Senate Committee on Education and Labor Report of the Committee of the Senate upon the Relations between Labor and Capital 1 Washington: Government Printing Office 1885 [Google Scholar], Report of the Committee of the Senate, 413, 415–16, 419. Ibid. Reitano Reitano Joanne The Tariff Question in the Gilded Age: The Great Debate of 1888 University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press 1994 [Google Scholar], The Tariff Question in the Gilded Age, 72–73; Wolman Wolman Paul Most Favored Nation: The Republican Revisionists and U.S. Tariff Policy, 1897–1912 Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press 1992 [Google Scholar], Most Favored Nation, xix. For more on the importance of the tariff to the Republican Party in the late nineteenth century, see Bensel Bensel Richard, F The Political Economy of American Industrialization, 1877–1900 New York: Cambridge University Press 2000 [Crossref] , [Google Scholar], The Political Economy of American Industrialization, Ch. 7, 457–509. ‘The Functions of Law,’ Journal of United Labor, 16 April 1887. The editors elaborated that ‘legislation by the people presupposes intelligence and education. Ignorance can find no place in a government such as this. … There is no ban on study and no bar to a wise and even comprehensive view of social and political economy; and labor journals alone offer to the diligent reader all that is needed to inform and enlighten.’ Ibid. For more on the Knights of Labor, see Fink Fink Leon Workingmen's Democracy: The Knights of Labor and Working Class Politics Urbana: University of Illinois Press 1983 [Google Scholar], Workingmen's Democracy. Sisins Sisins Merlinda ‘Farmers and Mechanics, Likewise Laborers, All Interested in the Question of Taxation, Letter No. I.’ Journal of United Labor 23 June 1888 [Google Scholar], ‘Farmers and Mechanics.’ In addition to critiquing the national system of tariffs and monopolies, Sisins also laid equal blame for the working class's subordinate position on what she called ‘the devil’s trinity—the indolence, extravagance and intemperance' of many individual farmers and workers. Sisins, ‘Two Heavy Burdens.’ Sisins's letters in the labor press demonstrate not only how the Knights reached out to working women, but also how issues important to women often stretched well beyond hearth and home. Although temperance and suffrage were arguably the dominant concerns among labor feminists, taxation was an economic issue that confronted them as consumers and property holders. Early suffragettes demonstrated how their property holdings and their payment of property taxes entitled them to the franchise, and in their roles as consumers women confronted how the tariff silently and insidiously affected the prices of common everyday goods. But as the example of Merlinda Sisins demonstrates, working class women were not just passive consumers; they also helped shape the social response to the regressive system of taxation. Levine Levine Susan Labor's True Woman: Carpet Weavers, Industrialization, and Labor Reform in the Gilded Age Philadelphia: Temple University Press 1984 [Google Scholar], Labor's True Woman, Ch. 5, 103–127; Jeffrey Jeffrey, Julie Roy. (Fall 1975). ‘Women in the Southern Farmer’s Alliance: A Reconsideration of the Role and Status of Women in the Late Nineteenth Century South.'. Feminist Studies, 3(no. 1/2): 72–91. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar], ‘Women in the Southern Farmer’s Alliance.' The connection between gender, the early suffrage movement, and the property tax is a more complicated issue which has been addressed by legal historians. Jones Jones, Carolyn, C. (1994). ‘Dollars and Selves: Women’s Tax Criticism and Resistance in the 1870s.'. University of Illinois Law Review, 265: 265–309. [Google Scholar], ‘Dollars and Selves;’ Kerber Kerber Linda No Constitutional Right to Be Ladies: Women and the Obligations of Citizenship New York: Hill & Wang 1998 [Google Scholar], No Constitutional Right to Be Ladies, Ch. 3, 81–123. Sisins —— ‘Two Heavy Burdens; High Taxation and Organized Monopoly Destroying the Farmer and Wage‐Worker.’ Journal of United Labor 30 August 1888 [Google Scholar], ‘Two Heavy Burdens,’ emphasis in the original. The Congressional Record during this period is filled with proclamations by lawmakers in response to petitions by their constituents; see, for example, Congressional Record, Fiftieth Congress, First Session, 564, 1487. Sanders, Roots of Reform, 160–61; Bensel, Political Economy of American Industrialization, 457–58. Furthermore, the revenues generated by the tariff were used by the federal government to pay pensions to Union army veterans, thereby insuring that this important voting constituency continued to support the tariff coalition. Ibid. ‘The Dangers of Politics,’ Journal of United Labor, 10 December 1885; Fink Fink Leon Workingmen's Democracy: The Knights of Labor and Working Class Politics Urbana: University of Illinois Press 1983 [Google Scholar], Workingmen's Democracy. The Knights' national motto of ‘Agitate, Organize and Educate’ summarized the national leadership's emphasis on uplifting the conditions of the producing class rather than challenging the existing structures of economic and political power. The concept of taxation and the rights and obligations it implied were not foreign to many members of labor organizations. The Knights' General Assembly, for instance, collected a per capita tax from its members, and in its numerous demands for legislation in the realm of industrial relations, education, immigration restriction and even temperance, Knights often appealed to their status as ‘citizens and taxpayers’ when they called for state action. Knights of Labor, ‘Constitution of the General Assembly,’ Philadelphia, 1888, Article XVIII; ‘Resolutions,’ Journal of United Labor, 13 October 1880; ‘What Is the Province of Government?’ Journal of United Labor, 25 December 1884; ‘What to Do with the National Surplusage,’ Journal of United Labor, 12 February 1887. Members of the Knights, and other social associations, were thus inculcated into a tax‐paying culture; they understood that taxes were part of the obligations of belonging to a larger community. In their position as consumers, moreover, laborers came into contact with national taxation on a daily basis. In fact, because the tariff disproportionately affected the working class more than the affluent members of society, taxation could become the rallying cry, many including Merlinda Sisins contended, to unite the producers against the plutocrats. Merlinda Sisins Sisins Merlinda ‘Farmers and Mechanics, Likewise Laborers, All Interested in the Question of Taxation, Letter No. I.’ Journal of United Labor 23 June 1888 [Google Scholar], ‘Farmers and Mechanics.’ Wolman Wolman Paul Most Favored Nation: The Republican Revisionists and U.S. Tariff Policy, 1897–1912 Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press 1992 [Google Scholar], Most Favored Nation, xx; Sanders, Roots of Reform, 218–19. For their part, Republican lawmakers argued that one way to address the issue of budget surpluses was to increase the tariff, and thereby reduce imports and customs revenue. Irwin Irwin, Douglas, A. (1998). ‘Higher Tariffs, Lower Revenues? Analyzing the Fiscal Aspects of “The Great Tariff Debate of 1888.” ’. Journal of Economic History, 58(no. 1): 59–72. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar], ‘Higher Tariffs, Lower Revenues?’ ‘Protection v. Free Trade,’ Journal of United Labor, 9 April 1887, 2348. At other moments the editors of the Journal of United Labor were more forthright in their defense of protectionism, but again they deferred to education as the means for achieving aims associated with tax policies. ‘Free Trade v. Poverty,’ Journal of United Labor, 6 August 1887, 2466. Other leaders of the Knights took a more pessimistic approach to the debate over protectionism and free trade. Ralph Beaumont, the Knights' Washington lobbyist, agreed that most people discussing the issue of free trade would be ‘blind as bats as to whether either or both ends [of the debate] will benefit them or injure them.’ But rather than encouraging members to educate themselves on the important issue, he declared that in the end the tariff—like all political issues—would only redound to the benefit of the government and its wealthy supporters. Beaumont Beaumont Ralph ‘Washington News Letter: Tariff Discussion in the House Ended.’ Journal of United Labor 26 July 1888 2669 [Google Scholar], ‘Washington News Letter,’ 2669. Fink Fink Leon Workingmen's Democracy: The Knights of Labor and Working Class Politics Urbana: University of Illinois Press 1983 [Google Scholar], Workingmen's Democracy, Ch. 4, 66–111; Bucki Bucki Celcelia, F ‘The Workers’ State: Municipal Policy, Class and Taxes in the Early Depression.' In Labor Histories: Class, Politics, and the Working‐Class Experience edited by Eric Arnesen, Julie Greene, and Bruce Laurie. Urbana: University of Illinois Press 1998 [Google Scholar], ‘The Workers’ State.' Congressional Record, Fiftieth Congress, First Session, 4406. In their petition, workers from the Ohio trade unions acknowledged that ‘we receive our share of the benefits of protection on the industries we represent. We therefore emphatically protest against any reduction of the duties that will bring us on a level with the low price paid for labor in Europe. We insist upon the maintenance of a strong protective tariff in order to maintain an American standard of wages for American workingmen.’ Ibid. Taussig Taussig FW The Tariff History of the United States 8th ed. New York: Capricorn 1964 [Google Scholar], The Tariff History of the United States, 252–55; United States Tariff Commission US Tariff Commission The Tariff and Its History Washington: US Government Printing Office 1934 [Google Scholar], The Tariff and Its History, 76–77. Bensel, Political Economy of American Industrialization, 476. ‘Testimony of Mr. Adolph Strasser,’ Washington, DC, 8 May 1899, 267; ‘Testimony of Mr. George J. Thompson,’ Chicago, 29 March 1900, 722, in Report of the Industrial Commission. ‘Testimony of Mr. A.M. Hammett,’ Washington, DC, 4 October 1900, 925; ‘Testimony of Mr. James Campbell,’ Washington, DC, 9 March 1899, 45–46 in Report of the Industrial Commission. Appeals to the protective tariff's ability to maintain high wages for the working class have been a part of American tax policy from the beginning of the republic, and continue into the twenty‐first century. Pincus Pincus JJ Pressure Groups and Politics in Antebellum Tariffs New York: Columbia University Press 1977 [Google Scholar], Pressure Groups and Politics in Antebellum Tariffs; Wolman Wolman Paul Most Favored Nation: The Republican Revisionists and U.S. Tariff Policy, 1897–1912 Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press 1992 [Google Scholar], Most Favored Nation; Reitano, Tariff Question in the Gilded Age. ‘Testimony of Mr. Horace M. Eaton,’ Washington, DC, 21 September 1899, 360–61, in Report of the Industrial Commission. Carroll Carroll Mollie May Labor and Politics: The Attitude of the American Federation of Labor Toward Legislation and Politics Chicago: University of Chicago Libraries 1920 [Google Scholar], Labor and Politics, 133–34; Lorwin Lorwin Lewis, L American Federation of Labor: History, Policies and Prospects Washington: Brookings Institution 1933 [Google Scholar], American Federation of Labor, 436–37. George George Henry Progress and Poverty ; An Inquiry into the Cause of Industrial Depressions, and of Increase of Want with Increase of Wealth—the Remedy San Francisco: W. M. Hinton & Co. 1879 [Google Scholar], Progress and Poverty; Young Young Arthur, N The Single Tax Movement in the United States Princeton: Princeton University Press 1916 [Google Scholar], The Single Tax Movement; Speek Speek Peter ‘The Singletax and the Labor Movement.’ PhD dissertation, University of Wisconsin, Madison 1915 [Google Scholar], ‘The Singletax and the Labor Movement.’ To understand George's ideas within the context of late nineteenth‐century American thought, see Thomas Thomas John, L Alternative America: Henry George, Edward Bellamy, Henry Demarest Lloyd and the Adversary Tradition Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press 1983 [Google Scholar], Alternative America. Knights of Labor, ‘Constitution of the General Assembly,’ Demand IV, Preamble. Ely, quoted in Foner Foner Philip, S History of the Labor Movement in the United States 2 From the Founding of the American Federation of Labor to the Emergence of American Imperialism New York: International Publishers 1955 [Google Scholar], History of the Labor Movement, 120. Shaw Shaw Samuel, B ‘A Single Tax.’ Journal of United Labor 6 June 1889 [Google Scholar], ‘A Single Tax.’ ‘Give Back the Stolen Land,’ American Federationist, January 1896, 1. Ritchie Ritchie M ‘Whose Fault Is It?’ American Federationist August 1895 102 [Google Scholar], ‘Whose Fault Is It?’ 102; Gay Gay Sara Mifflin ‘Is the Single Tax Enough to Solve the Labor Problem?’ The Arena May 1896 956 59 [Google Scholar], ‘Is the Single Tax Enough?’ ‘Single Tax, Limited and Unlimited,’ Journal of United Labor, 22 August 1889; ‘Is The Single Tax Sufficient?’ Journal of United Labor, 19 September 1889. The single tax also had a similar hold upon that amorphous category of reformers within the radical middle class. Johnston Johnston Robert, D The Radical Middle Class: Populist Democracy and the Question of Capitalism in Progressive Era Portland, Oregon Princeton: Princeton University Press 2003 [Google Scholar], The Radical Middle Class, Ch. 11, 159–176. ‘Is The Single Tax Sufficient?’ Journal of United Labor, 19 September 1889. ‘The Land,’ Journal of United Labor, May 1883; Ware Ware Norman, J The Labor Movement in the United States, 1860–1895 New York: Appleton 1929 [Google Scholar], The Labor Movement in the United States, 365. Phelan Phelan Craig Grand Master Workman: Terence Powderly and the Knights of Labor Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press 2000 [Google Scholar], Grand Master Workman, 33. Powderly Powderly Terence ‘Equitable Land Taxation,’ Journal of United Labor 9 no. 4 (Summer 1888?) [Google Scholar], ‘Equitable Land Taxation.’ He urged members of local assemblies to ‘call a town meeting and appoint a committee to go through your town and find out how many men are holding on to lots with a view to speculation; then go to the assessor’s office and see if they are paying taxes according to the price they ask for their lots, and, if they are not, insist on their doing so.' Ibid. ‘Powderly’s Warm Words,' New York Times, 2 November 1886, 2; Foner Foner Philip, S History of the Labor Movement in the United States 2 From the Founding of the American Federation of Labor to the Emergence of American Imperialism New York: International Publishers 1955 [Google Scholar], History of the Labor Movement, 122–23; Greene Greene Julie Pure and Simple Politics: The American Federation of Labor and Political Activism, 1881–1917 Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 1998 [Crossref] , [Google Scholar], Pure and Simple Politics, 57. Powderly —— Thirty Years, 1859–1889 New York: A. M. Kelly 1967 [Google Scholar], Thirty Years, 293. Speek Speek Peter ‘The Singletax and the Labor Movement.’ PhD dissertation, University of Wisconsin, Madison 1915 [Google Scholar], ‘The Singletax and the Labor Movement;’ Scobey Scobey David ‘Boycotting the Politics Factory: Labor Radicalism and the New York City Mayoral Election of 1886.’ Radical History Review September 1984 280 325 [Google Scholar] ‘Boycotting the Politics Factory.’ Foner Foner Philip, S History of the Labor Movement in the United States 2 From the Founding of the American Federation of Labor to the Emergence of American Imperialism New York: International Publishers 1955 [Google Scholar], History of the Labor Movement, 120. George George Henry Progress and Poverty ; An Inquiry into the Cause of Industrial Depressions, and of Increase of Want with Increase of Wealth—the Remedy San Francisco: W. M. Hinton & Co. 1879 [Google Scholar], Progress and Poverty; for a concise biography of George, see Barker American Federation of Labor Report of the Proceedings of the Annual Convention of the American Federation of Labor Washington, D.C.: Graphic Arts Printing Co. 1906 [Google Scholar], Henry George. ‘A Just Distribution of Wealth,’ Journal of United Labor, 24 September 1887. ‘Taxpayers v. Jay Gould et. al.’ Journal of United Labor, 25 April 1886. Cigar Maker's Official Journal, April, May, 1887, quoted in Foner Foner Philip, S History of the Labor Movement in the United States 2 From the Founding of the American Federation of Labor to the Emergence of American Imperialism New York: International Publishers 1955 [Google Scholar], History of the Labor Movement, 148; Speek, ‘The Single Tax and the Labor Movement,’ 116. Bell Bell Stephen ‘A Monopoly of Wisdom, Honesty and Honor.’ American Federationist July 1897 98 [Google Scholar], ‘A Monopoly of Wisdom, Honesty and Honor,’ 98. ‘Note,’ American Federationist, July 1897, 98–99. Knights of Labor, ‘Constitution of the General Assembly;’ Sanders, Roots of Reform, 38; American Federation of Labor American Federation of Labor Report of the Proceedings of the Annual Convention of the American Federation of Labor Washington, D.C.: Graphic Arts Printing Co. 1906 [Google Scholar], Report of the Proceedings of the Annual Convention; James James Edward, T ‘American Labor and Political Action.’ PhD dissertation, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass 1954 [Google Scholar], ‘American Labor and Political Action,’ 386–47. Hicks Hicks John, D The Populist Revolt: A History of the Farmers' Alliance and the People's Party Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press 1931 [Google Scholar], The Populist Revolt; Foner Foner Philip, S History of the Labor Movement in the United States 2 From the Founding of the American Federation of Labor to the Emergence of American Imperialism New York: International Publishers 1955 [Google Scholar], History of the Labor Movement; Goodwyn Goodwyn Lawrence Democratic Promise: The Populist Moment in America New York: Oxford University Press 1976 [Google Scholar], Democratic Promise; Fine Fine Nathan Labor and Farmer Parties in the United States, 1828–1928 Berkeley: Center for Socialist History 1984 [Google Scholar], Labor and Farmer Parties; Sanders, Roots of Reform. Hicks, Populist Revolt, 433–44. In fact, a whole host of third parties, such as the Greenback Party and the Socialist Labor Party, included a graduated income tax as part of their official platforms well before the more mainstream Democrats absorbed the issue into their national agenda in 1896. Johnson Johnson, Donald B., ed National Party Platforms 1 1840–1956. Urbana: University of Illinois Press 1978 [Google Scholar], National Party Platforms. Hoffman Hoffman Charles The Depression of the Nineties: An Economic History Westport, Conn.: Greenwood 1970 [Google Scholar], The Depression of the Nineties; White White Gerald, T The United States and the Problem of Recovery after 1893 University, Ala.: University of Alabama Press 1982 [Google Scholar], The United States and the Problem of Recovery; Livingston Livingston, James. (1987). ‘The Social Analysis of Economic History and Theory: Conjectures on Late Nineteenth‐Century American Development.’. American Historical Review, 92(no. 1): 69–95. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar], ‘The Social Analysis of Economic History and Theory.’ Brownlee Brownlee W, Elliot Federal Taxation in American: A Short History New York: Cambridge University Press 1996 [Google Scholar], Federal Taxation in America, 38. Kansas Farmers' Alliance of Riley County to Hon. John Davis, 18 January 1894, Fifty‐Third Congress—Petitions; Ways and Means (HR 53A‐33.10), Box #180, Folder ‘Tax on Incomes, September 9, 1893—April 30, 1894,’ National Archives and Record Administration, Washington, DC (hereinafter ‘NARA’). The House Ways and Means Committee received petitions not only from taxpayers and their voluntary associations, but also from other national political leaders supporting the income tax; see Senators and Representatives from Arkansas to Committee on Ways and Means, 5 December 1893. Ibid. H. J. Witmark, Secretary of Granby Massachusetts Grange, to Samuel W. McCall, 25 January 1894, Fifty‐Third Congress‐Petitions; Ways and Means (HR 53A‐33.10), Box #180, Folder ‘Tax on Incomes, September 9, 1893‐April 30, 1894,’ NARA. Other representatives of the producing class, particularly operators of local building and loan associations successfully petitioned Congress to obtain an exemption from the 1894 income tax law. As one such petition put it, because ‘the money invested in these associations’ are ‘wholly the savings of thrifty wage earners. There is no class of corporations that are so much entitled to exemption as these, and there are no men, and women so deserving of Congressional consideration as those who compose these Associations.’ John R. Forman, Secretary of Francisville Building and Loan Association of Philadelphia, to Honorable John E. Reyburn, 27 January 1894. Ibid. Memorial from the Chamber of Commerce of the State of New York, 1 March 1894, Fifty‐Third Congress—Petitions; Ways and Means (HR 53A‐33.10), Box #180, Folder ‘Tax on Incomes, September 9, 1893—April 30, 1894,’ NARA. This New York petition became the template for dozens of other local chambers of commerce and boards of trade, who submitted nearly identical petitions to the Ways and Means Committee. Ibid. Stanley Stanley Robert Dimensions of Law in the Service of Order: Origins of the Federal Income Tax, 1861–1913 New York: Oxford University Press 1993 [Google Scholar], Dimensions of Law; Kolko Kolko Gabriel The Triumph of Conservatism: A Reinterpretation of American History, 1900–1916 New York: Free Press 1963 [Google Scholar], The Triumph of Conservatism, 112, 129; Sklar Sklar Martin, J The Corporate Reconstruction of American Capitalism, 1890–1916: The Market, the Law, and Politics New York: Cambridge University Press 1988 [Crossref] , [Google Scholar], The Corporate Reconstruction of American Capitalism, 422–23. Buenker Buenker John, D The History of Wisconsin 4 The Progressive Era, 1893–1914 Madison: State Historical Society of Wisconsin 1998 [Google Scholar], The History of Wisconsin, 510–11. For more on the origins of the Wisconsin income tax, see Brownlee —— Progressivism and Economic Growth: The Wisconsin Income Tax, 1911–1929 Port Washington, N.Y.: Kennikat Press 1974 [Google Scholar], Progressivism and Economic Growth. 158 US 601 (1895). Scholarly interpretations of Pollock have varied over the years. To an earlier generation of progressive scholars, Pollock symbolized the epitome of laissez‐faire constitutionalism. See Paul Paul Arnold, M Conservative Crisis and the Rule of Law: Attitudes of Bar and Bench, 1887–1895 Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press 1960 [Google Scholar], Conservative Crisis and the Rule of Law, Chapter 9, 185–220; McCloskey McCloskey Robert, G The American Supreme Court Chicago: University of Chicago Press 1960 [Google Scholar], The American Supreme Court, 140–41; Ratner Ratner Sidney Taxation and Democracy in America New York: Wiley 1967 [Google Scholar], Taxation and Democracy in America, 193–214. Other scholars have described Pollock as the culmination of the nineteenth‐century neutral state. Horwitz Horwitz Morton, J The Transformation of American Law, 1870–1960: The Crisis of Legal Orthodoxy New York: Oxford University Press 1992 [Google Scholar], The Transformation of American Law, 20–27. For more recent revisionist scholars, the Pollock decision has been seen as a Jacksonian attack on ‘state capitalism.’ Stanley Stanley Robert Dimensions of Law in the Service of Order: Origins of the Federal Income Tax, 1861–1913 New York: Oxford University Press 1993 [Google Scholar], Dimensions of Law, Ch. 4, 136–175. Hoefgen Hoefgen SB ‘Income Tax Decision.’ American Federationist June 1895 58 [Google Scholar], ‘Income Tax Decision,’ 58. Ibid. ‘The Income Tax Law,’ American Federationist, June 1895, 71. Ironically, while labor unions and others sought to create a tax preference for income generated by labor, the historical evolution of tax policy moved in the opposite direction, providing a tax preference for capital gains throughout most of the twentieth century. For more on the origins of the capital gains tax preference, see Kornhauser Kornhauser, Marjorie, E. (November 1985). ‘The Origins of Capital Gains Taxation: What’s Law Got to do with It?'. Southwestern Law Journal, 39: 869, 869–928. [Google Scholar], ‘The Origins of Capital Gains Taxation.’ George McNeil of the AFL described the moral underpinnings of the income tax in one of his commonly cited quips: ‘Those who feel the halter draw have poor opinion of the law, and those who oppose the income tax prove their morals very lax.’ McNeil McNeil George, E ‘Short Sentences, but Great Truths.’ American Federationist March 1894 3 [Google Scholar], ‘Short Sentences, but Great Truths,’ 3. Pomeroy Pomeroy Eltweed ‘The Concentration of Wealth, and the Inheritance Charge.’ American Federationist July 1895 1 [Google Scholar], ‘The Concentration of Wealth, and the Inheritance Charge,’ 1. Ibid. Johnson Johnson William, H ‘Economic Fallacies—Indirect Taxation: Its Iniquity.’ American Federationist June 1895 58 [Google Scholar], ‘Economic Fallacies,’ 58. Ibid. Ibid., 59. Johnson went on to give a numerical illustration of how indirect taxes ultimately fell on consumers and hence were regressive taxes. ‘Suppose A’s income to be $100,000, and his expenditure $10,000. Since he is taxed only on the things which he buys, nine‐tenths of his income escapes taxation, and this annual surplus quickly rolls up a splendid fortune. B has an income, let us say, of $900, of which all is expended in buying the necessaries which his family requires. He pays taxes, therefore, on his entire income. In other words, government exacts a tribute from him on every dollar which he earns, while it takes from A only one dollar of every ten coming in to him.' Ibid. Ibid. Johnson Johnson, Donald B., ed National Party Platforms 1 1840–1956. Urbana: University of Illinois Press 1978 [Google Scholar], National Party Platforms; Brownlee Brownlee W, Elliot Federal Taxation in American: A Short History New York: Cambridge University Press 1996 [Google Scholar], Federal Taxation in America, 39. Hicks, Populist Revolt, Ch. 13, 340–379; Foner Foner Philip, S History of the Labor Movement in the United States 2 From the Founding of the American Federation of Labor to the Emergence of American Imperialism New York: International Publishers 1955 [Google Scholar], History of the Labor Movement, 332–44. For more on the political and cultural history of monetary reform during this period see Ritter Ritter Gretchen Goldbugs and Greenbacks: The Antimonopoly Tradition and the Politics of Finance in America New York: Cambridge University Press 1997 [Crossref] , [Google Scholar], Goldbugs and Greenbacks. Bensel, Political Economy of American Industrialization, 482–84. Buenker —— The Income Tax and the Progressive Era New York: Garland 1985 [Google Scholar], The Income Tax and the Progressive Era. ‘Labor Pays the Taxes,’ Washington Post, 30 November 1906, 6. One socialist reader of the Post responded to the 1906 editorial with an enthusiastic letter reaffirming the points made by the editors, and taking them a step further by arguing that even the profits earned by capitalists like Wanamaker were a kind of tax on labor. ‘Every mouthful of food [the ordinary worker] eats or ounce of coal she uses must pay its tribute to the rich in some form or other as dividends, as freight, or in the profit that is imposed by the middleman through whose hands they pass from the producer to the consumer.’ ‘Labor Pays the Tax; W.S. Boyd Indorses the Post Editorial,’ Washington Post, 2 December 1906, 10. Less than four years later when the Sixteenth Amendment was going through the ratification process, the editors at the Washington Post once again reiterated the importance of labor as a source of tax revenue. This time, however, they seemed more optimistic, perhaps overly so, that once lawmakers got the ‘tax question settled precisely,’ we ‘will have Utopia’ and all of us will be ‘happy and honest.’ ‘The Defeated Amendment,’ Washington Post, 19 March 1910, 6. ‘Gov. A.E. Wilson on the Income Tax Amendment,’ New York Times Sunday Magazine, 26 February 1911, 13. Like Governor Charles Evans Hughes of New York, Wilson's greatest fear about the federal income tax was its ability to ‘destroy the power of every State, county, or municipality to borrow money’ by taxing the income from government securities. Buenker, Income Tax and Progressive Era, 254–57. Labor exhibited a similar fear of the administrative state when the AFL supported a universal minimum wage in the Fair Labor Standards Act as opposed to an industry‐specific, adjustable minimum wage. For more on the legislative history of the Fair Labor Standards Act and its influence on the formation of the American welfare state, see Ruth O'Brien, ‘“A Sweat Shop of the Whole Nation”: The Fair Labor Standard Act and the Failure of Regulatory Unionism,’ Studies in American Political Development 15, no. 1 (Spring 2001): 33–52. ‘How an Income Tax Would Work,’ Wall Street Journal, 24 July 1909, 6. The editorial also noted that with an income tax and a general property tax, ‘the American workingman would find his burden doubled … were he the owner of real estate.’ Wells Wells, David. (1880). ‘The Communism of a Discriminating Income Tax.’. North American Review, 130: 236 [Google Scholar], ‘The Communism of a Discriminating Income Tax,’ 236. Marshall Marshall Edward ‘Champ Clark Talks of Divorce and Religion.’ New York Times Sunday Magazine 26 February 1911 13 [Google Scholar], ‘Champ Clark Talks of Divorce and Religion,’ 13; Buenker, Income Tax and Progressive Era, 196–97. Quoted in ibid., 153. ‘Tariff for Revenue,’ New York Times, 9 July 1912, 8. The editors of the Times were long‐standing opponents of the income tax, and even when it was tied to tariff revisions they argued that income taxation was ‘not a tax for needed revenue, but a tax for politics, and revenge upon the rich.’ ‘The Federal Income Tax,’ New York Times, 5 July 1911, 10. Berger Berger Victor, L The Wool Schedule: Protection, Free Trade and the Working Class, A Socialist View of the Tariff New Castle, Penn.: Free Press 1911 [Google Scholar], The Wool Schedule. Pub. L. No. 63, Statute I—1913, Chapter 16, Sections II‐A, II‐C, Statutes at Large of the United States of America. ‘Income Tax for Revenue; Kansas Senator Thinks the Law Eventually Will Furnish Most of the Country’s Income,' Wall Street Journal, 3 September 1913, 7. Congressional Record, Sixty‐Third Congress, First Session, 1246. Ibid. For more on organized labor's response to the First World War, see McCartin McCartin Joseph, A Labor's Great War: The Struggle for Industrial Democracy and the Origins of Modern Labor Relations, 1912–1921 Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press 1997 [Google Scholar], Labor's Great War. Additional informationNotes on contributorsAjay K. Mehrotra Ajay K. Mehrotra is an Associate Professor of Law and an adjunct member of the History Department at Indiana University, Bloomington. Correspondence to: Ajay Mehrotra, Indiana University School of Law, Bloomington, Law Building, 211 South Indiana, Bloomington, IN 47405‐7001, USA. Tel: 812‐855‐7443; Email: amehrotr@indiana.edu Ajay K. Mehrotra is an Associate Professor of Law and an adjunct member of the History Department at Indiana University, Bloomington. Correspondence to: Ajay Mehrotra, Indiana University School of Law, Bloomington, Law Building, 211 South Indiana, Bloomington, IN 47405‐7001, USA. Tel: 812‐855‐7443; Email: amehrotr@indiana.edu