(Editor's note: This is Part 2 in series on Taylor Caldwell's commentary, "The middle class must not fail or all will be lost." The following includes an excerpt of the Caldwell column. Read Part 1 here.)
Hate and envy
The elitists were anxious to promote the Marxist notion of demanding tribute from the people, for only through forced tribute could freedom be destroyed and the people reduced again to forced labor for the benefit of the elite. Only thus could the middle class be eliminated. So, we have Karl Marx's infamous notion, "to each according to his needs, from each according to his ability." That is a foundation for slavery and tribute. Marx and the elite had a juicy bait for the workers, who were deluded to envy and hate the middle class which had freed them. If the riches were taken away from the middle class, then the workers would become their equals. Marx called this redistribution of wealth. Not wealth from the elite, with their vast fortunes in every country of the world – inherited fortunes which would not be taxed as income – but wealth from the strong middle class, which would be robbed in the name of the people. Only earned income would be vulnerable to seizure.
But in the way of all this happiness for the conspiring international elite, and the slavery of the people, stood the United States, the British Empire, and czarist Russia. They would have to be destroyed.
Britain had only a small income tax, used for the armed forces, for roads, for the maintenance of law and order, and for the payment of a tiny body of bureaucrats.
Over and over, in America, the elite tried to establish their federal income tax, but they did not succeed. The people were too vigilant, too jealous of their freedom, too proud, too respectful of themselves. They embraced the ancient proverb, "to work is to pray," and they guarded the fruits of their labors. No, America had no graduated income tax to drain the capital of the hard-working middle class, and so she became strong and rich and powerful, the envy of nations which had exacted tribute and forced labor from their people. Attempts were made to exact such tribute from Americans during the Civil War and the war with Spain, but each time the Supreme Court declared that our Constitution prohibited it. As late as 1902 the graduated income tax was again declared unconstitutional, and the Chief Justice observed: "It is a method to enslave our people, and deprive them of their liberty and right to the fruit of their labors."
The conspiratorial elite fumed. How best, now, to institute their system of tribute and slavery? The solution was war. During wartime, governments were better able to tax the people, harnessing their patriotism to maintain enlarged armed services.
And so the elite began to prepare America for war, and conspirators of the French and German and Russian and English elite worked with them – for the destruction of their own nationals and the elimination, once and for all, of the defiant middle class. The American elite, under advice of their brother conspirators in other nations, proposed an amendment to the American Constitution – a graduated income tax, just as Karl Marx had proposed. To support this the elite were very busy, through their henchmen, the socialists and the populists, and through their secret Communists, in arousing the envy of the workers against the middle class. They told the workers that they would never be taxed, "only the rich," and even then the highest rate would be only 2 to 3%. And the taxes would go to "our exploited workers," through all sorts of governmental benefits. The unthinking, the envious, the stupid, and the malicious thought this was wonderful. They supported the 16th amendment – the federal income tax – and it was passed into law in 1913.
Now the stage was set for war, the attack on the British Empire, czarist Russia, and the German Empire. The major thrust of the effort to destroy the freedom of the whole world, and reduce it to total control by the elite, had begun. The rest is said contemporary history. Few in America heeded what Thomas Jefferson had said long ago, that when we are taxed on our earned incomes, in our food and our drink, in our coming and going, in our property, we would face the return of slavery and the reestablishment of an all-powerful and despotic elite. So it is that we of the middle class are being destroyed through the exaction of tribute, resulting in an ever-increasing power and despotism of a central government controlled by a conspiratorial elite, and everlasting wars to subdue us and drive us to our knees.
Never again?
Do not believe for an instant that the world's conspiring elite in every nation has so much as a serious quarrel among them. They have just one object: control through tribute. Your slavery, through tribute, and mine. And they use wars for their purposes just as they use the inequities, harassments, bullying, capriciousness, and extortion of their graduated income tax. The system of taxation with which they have yoked us is really forced tribute from the hard-working and especially from the middle class, who are slowly being eliminated.
Behind this attack are the self-styled elite, secure in their own power and riches. Most of them have huge fortunes which are tax exempt. But every man and woman of us – we of the middle class – are taxed in our food and drink, in our property, in our incomes, in our comings and goings. The harder we work, the more tribute we have to pay, for the elite are determined never again will a middle-class challenge them, and never again will we be able to save money and so rise to power, and never again will we protest the slavery they have planned for us. But many of us still dare to protest and will continue to do so while God gives us breath. To be effective we know we must direct our attacks on the real criminals, the wealthy and powerful and secret elite of all the world – the conspirators laboring night and day to enslave us. Even our own government is now their victim, for it is the conspiratorial elite who choose our rulers, nominate them, and remove them by assassination or smear.
I have fought these enemies of liberty in every book I have written. But too few have listened to me, as too few have listened to others who have warned of these conspirators. The hour is late, Americans must soon listen and act or endure the black night of slavery that is worse than death.
Sure answers a lot of questions doesn't it? Based on some of the latest socioeconomic statistics and trends, she could have been looking into a crystal ball. The Founding Fathers warned us against government. It isn't government over the people, but as Lincoln so eloquently stated, it is "government of the people, for the people, by the people."
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