Page:Wilhelm Liebknecht - Socialism; What It Is and What It Seeks to Accomplish - tr. Mary Wood Simons (1899).djvu/65

 is independent of the person. With an income of the latter kind the graduated tax must he higher. In other words, one who has an income from fixed property must be taxed more than one who has no property income.

Of the inheritance tax it is demanded that the graduated increase be measured not merely according to the extent of the inheritance, but also according to the degree of relationship.

I come now to the second part of the special demands—namely, those which we make specifically for the defense of the laboring classes. There is not one among these that requires minute discussion. I will merely state that we were obliged to strike out the proposal which was submitted that we demand political guarantee against unemployment. We did this unanimously, since we reached the conviction that such a demand could not be carried through.

The attempt has been made by the miners' unions in England to secure a guarantee against unemployment. There it has been proven that merely in the organizations of those trades in which on an average the pay is high and the number of idle small can such a guarantee be made effective—only in those labor groups that need it the least. To all other labor unions in which to-day the idle count to the thousands the attempt is of no avail. And if we should demand such a proposition of the state we would do our cause a bad service.

As already said in the demands referring to the laboring class, we as a labor party must avoid all mistiness and that which cannot be carried out. What we demand in this part of our platform is highly practical and in great part already realized in other lands. We must not weigh down these demands with such as make it easy for our opponents to say: "You ask the