Again, we should not overlook such items as license fees, financial, mercantile and franchise taxes, which, while levied by the city, state or national governments upon some particular person, firm or corporation, are really added to the cost of production or operation and ultimately paid by the general public. For instance, during the political campaign of 1904 in New Jersey, when equal taxation of railroad property was the burning issue, the Republican candidate for governor, in a speech at Trenton, stated: “No matter how high the tax on railroad property is made, the people who pay the freight rates and passenger fares will, in the end, pay it.” As a railroad director, he undoubtedly knew whereof he spoke. Like the salesman’s expense account—which included an overcoat, although it didn’t show—the freight and passenger rates also include the franchise taxes, which tend to increase the cost of everything we eat, everything we wear, every article of use or adornment in the home, every portion of the material required in building the house, which ultimately has its effect on the rent the tenant must pay. In the light of these facts it would seem that, instead of there being question as to “who pays the taxes,” the problem is to discover the man who does not pay taxes in some form. Again, there are thousands of Americans who do not own one dollar’s worth of real estate, and many of them very few household goods, but who have a birthright in this free land by reason of descent from the heroes who pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor for the liberties we now enjoy; who fought and bled and died for the principle of equal rights, no taxation without representation, and who established upon this continent a “government of the people, by the people, for the people.” And the men of ’61! Have they not as much right to a voice and vote in the affairs of the nation as those who remained at home and laid the foundations of a fortune during that critical period? Had the soldier remained at home, perhaps he too might now be a heavy taxpayer, or tax-dodger. But he answered the nation’s call in the hour of need, he sacrificed his opportunities and offered his life upon the altar of his country. And, if he escaped with his life, he returned home, after years of privation, suffering and hardship, probably ruined in health or crippled for life, compelled to make a new start. Has he not discharged his obligation to his country? Who are the men who would rob an American of his birthright, who insist that none but property owners should vote or hold office while all others—the payers of rents, of the tariff, of the internal revenue, of franchise and stamp taxes, etc.—should be disfranchised? Can they show a better title than the men, or their descendants, who do the work in time of peace and the fighting in time of war, but who may not have been able to secure any real property—honestly or otherwise?