Casper Daily Tribune Newspaper, November 11, 1923, Page 20

Bearers renrm sey fs sda r SE a PAGE EIGHT. ‘TAXES-- A DISCUSSION OF PROBLEM IN MODERN PHASES EDITOR'S NOTE—The follow: mg address on “Taxes” by G, R. Hagens, prominent Casper attor- ney, delivered first before the Casper Literary club and on Fri- Gay of Inst week, in part, before the Caeper Realtors, holds sug- | civilization of today marks the uit! mateness of progress, and that, in fulfilling and satisfying our needs and requirements, we have anticl- pated and met those of coming gen- erations. In an endeavor to carry on, the present borrows from po® be Casper Sunday Cridune First Photo of Germany’s “Man of the Hour” gestions and points @f interest to the great army of taxpayers in its clear exposition of many phases of modern problems. By G, R. HAGENS | We probably read a great deal more about taxes In the newspaper editorials. and in magazines, and | hear this subject more generally dis- cursed in business and political cir cles today than at any previous time in our history. The fact that it 1s becoming more and more a topic of gemeral interest augurs fa- vorably for a better condition. It does not admit of contradiction that the present levies are burdensome on the rich and poor alike It is one of the fundamental causes of the high cost of living, which af- fects everybody, and is an unwhole- some deterrant to business enter prises and success in all lines of bus- ness endeavor. But a few years ago the Federal/ government was wholly maintained out of custom's receipts and excise| taxes. It made no direct levy upon} the people. Local governments/ were largely maintained by license | and franchise taxes paid for special privileges. Only a small property tax to supp’ement these was neces- sary to pay all expenses of govern- ment, ‘This was so small that it/ was hardly felt by the public. ‘The World war brought about an entirely different situation, Not only have most of these sources of revenue, which did not directly bur- den the people, been done away with, but in thelr place have come numerous and much heavier forms of taxation. Whether inspired by the “riotous expenditures” of the general government during the war period, or whether influenced by oth- ee paychological, political or econom- fo conditions, the fact remains that, wince the war, the various govern- mental agencies, such as counties and municipalities, have apparently been vying with each other tn wild orgies of extravagance !n their ex- penditures, seeking to adjust income to expenditures, when expenditures ought to be adjusted to income. Little regard has been had for the ability of the taxpayer to pay, nor to the effect additional taxes have on general economic conditions. In a wholly reckless spirit each govern mental mey has created new forms of expenditures, regardless of the activities of other similar agen- cies, on the th that expenditures for public purposes ate justified and on the plea that the public de- mands them, no matter what they cest. To foot the hill almost diabo!- ngenuity brs been displayed ‘n tevising: Ww and means and ob- ‘ects of taxation. While but a Tew years ago the forms of taxation were few and simple, a ve-itable Purcora’s Box has since been Cp ened. We are afflicted with the Federal Income Tax, in some states a state income tax, poll tax, Icense tax, privilege tax, excise tax, ad va- lorem tax, mortgage tax, transfer tax, succession tax, federal and state inheritance tax, normal tax, surtax, capital stock tax, corporation fran- ehise tax, brokerage tax, transporta tion tax, insurance tax, cigar and tobacco tax, admissions and dues tax, stamp tax, drainage, paving, grading and sewer tax, levee, irriga tion, reclamation, road, park, hos- pital, school, county library, state capitol, state university, and other especial taxes too numerous to men. tion, ‘The president of the State Bar as. sociation of Tennessee, in a recent address before that body, sald. “Un- deniably, the seriousness of the sit- uation is intensified by the incessant- ly increasing rate of taxation. Nor are the augmented taxes of much avail, for disbursements constantly outrun receipts. Our plight is de- plorable, The fruits of the tax le vies are anticipated long in advance of thelr collection and overdrafts have displaced balances. Woe ex- haust the present and disable the future. Egotistically and tn a spirit of selfishness, we assume that the DRINK WATER IF KIDNEYS BOTHER Take a Tablespoonful of Salts If Back Pains or , Bladder Is Irritated Flush your kidneys by drinking a quart of water each day, also take galts occasionally, says a noted au- thority, who tells us that too much rich food forms acids which almost paralyze the kidneys in their efforts to expel it from the blood. They be- come sluggish and weaken; then you may suffer with a dull misery in the Kidney region, sharp pains in the back or sick headache, dizziness, your stomach sours, tongue is coat- ed, and when the weather ts bad you have rheumatic twinges. The urine gets cloudy, full of sediment, the channels often get sore and frri- tated, obliging you to seek relief two or three times during the night To help neutralize these irritating acids; to help cleanse the kidneys and flush off the. body’s urinous waste, get four ounces of Jad Salts from any pharmacy here. Take a tablespoonful in a glass of water before breakfast for a few days, and your kidneys may then act fine. | ‘This famous salts is made from the acid of grapes and lemon juice, combined with lthia, and has been used for years to help flush and stimulate sluggish kidneys; also to neutralize the acids in the system so they no longer irritate, thus often relieving bladder weakness. Jad Salts is inexpensive; cannot injure and makes a delightful effervescent lthia-water drink. By, all means have your physician ex-j; which n ce aj amine your kidneys at least tw! year —AdverlUsement, terity with small purpose of meet- ing its obligations, and Invites and sanctions bond issue upon bond is- sue, mortgage upon mortgage, pledg- ing the present and chaining the future, until even all eternity, with the aid of our venerable friend Diogenes, will be unable to find an equity of redemption. “There will be no surcease, no staying of the on-ward march of the disease, until there is a restora- tion to sanity in the administration of public affairs and public finances, a rea'ization that expenditures must be fitted to income, and the develop- ment of a spirit of denial in gov- ernment, as well as in private af- fairs. There must be retrenchment and an elimination of duplication of effort, of waste, and of extrava- gance. There must be a recognition that the principle of thrift fs a virtue that 1s as vital to the well being and the success of governmental under- ings as,of individual ambitions. There must be ingrained in the public mind the fixed determination to abandon their present evils, and in a spirit of reform to adopt as a policy that the undertaking of all projects, and the imposition of al! taxes to accomplish the same, sha'l be fitted to the ability of the indi- vidual to meet and discharge the same—not that the individual shall be whipped into meeting the same, regardless of the hardship which it may impose upon him. Before the war our national debt was negligible, and the total munici pal bond issues were comparatively small. Since that time our national debt has grown to some twenty-six billion dollars, although since re duced to about twenty-three billl There has been no cessation in the issuance of munictpal bonds, which process {s still merrily going on, without any evidence that there is any intention to stop. The amount of outstanding municipal bonds in the United States at the present time is about seventeen billion dol- lars. If we total the amount of federal government indebtedness with the municipal bonded debt in this country we have a total bonded indebtedness of forty billion dollars. As against this we have a national wealth estimated at about one hun- dred billion dollars. In other words, we owe in federal and municipal bonds, forty per cent of all that we have. To put it im another way, if a man owns a house and lot worth $5,000.00, there is a first mortgage on it in favor of the government and ts agencies for $2,000.00, and, if he owes a bu‘lding and loan association $3,000.00, he has no equity. A farm- er who owns a farm worth $10,000.00 which he figures ts clear, has in fact & $4,000.00 mortgage upon it. In addition to this funded tndebt- edness, which {s in effect a first len on everybody's property, we have the current taxes and levies to pay, perhaps the most pronounced of which ts the socalled Income tax, levied directly by the federal gov ernment. This tax may well be de- scribed as. “Chaos erected into a system, with no loss of the chaotic and with no system,” As an emergency measure during the war {it became a necessary ex- pedient to collect the necessary rev enue with which to defray the enor. mous expenses of that conflict. As 4 mutter of fact, it is probably still necessary until we can clear away the enormous hang-over of war bond ssues, unless something more prac- tical, sound and sensible can be sub- stituted, which will produce the same amount of revenue, with less expense to the government and less njustice to the taxpayer. And this immediately suggests the Sales tax. It ts unfortunate that the benefits the Sales tax are not better un- derstood. The most contemptable and unpatriotic of all persons, en- titled to style himself an American citizen, the long-haired, self-const! tuted, unscrupulous, weather vain politician, has done much to give the public the wrong impression of the character and effects of this tax. He has gone into the high ways and byway telling the peo- ple that it is a tax that comes out of the pockets of the consumer and that the rich can’t consume any more than the poor and, belng much fewer in number, therefore, the poor man pays this tax, while the rich escape. As we are all consumers, most of us are not rich, and we do want anything more added to the already high cost of lving, we do not want a Sales tax if it ts go- i to add anything to our grocery !bill. This is, therefore, good mo- lasses, Which will catch many files, and ‘an unscrupulous _ politiclan wants just that kind of molasses. And what is more, if he {s an un- scrupulous politician he wants just that kind of molasses. And what is more, if he is unscrupulous, he will use the argument, whether St is best for the people or not, just so it will get the votes. We have a great many good 100 per cent able Amert- can citizens in public office today, but it ts equally true that we have some yellow dogs in our kennel of St. Bernards, It has been recently estingated that where it would cost the govern- ment 15 cents to collect one dollar} under the present tncome tax law, it would cost only 6 cents for every dollar collected under a Sales tax. While people have often been re- quired to pay an unjust tax under the income tax law on “theoreti- cal profits,” which were never real- ized, and have not been permitted to take deductions for losses actually suffered, under a Sales tax each one would pay a fixed percentage of sale. It would have the added advantage of having It definitely de termined at the time when the trans- action is fresh, instead of having {t opened up years after the transac- tion was cle rounding facts have been forgotten. There are many other advantages ht be enumerated. to the argument that the pays this tax. Now ultim: cor umer ed and when the sur-} Arrow points to Herr Deckers, a German merchant, who 1s one of the leaders in the Separatist movement. Photo shows Herr Deckers leaving the headquarters of the New Rhineland Republic at Aix-les-Chapelle. Note his bodyguard. The guards ‘This sounds well when spoken by he man who is barterin To analyze this proposit the ultimate consur r? er is not the only consumer, nor s the laborer, nor the great middl class, nor the so-called capitalist.} Everybody {8 @ consumer, and! therefore, foretend towards thrift—| something which is more sadly Iack-| ing and something wh is more se-! riously needed in governmental mat- ters and in private affairs in these United ates today, than any one other single thing, except reverence for God and our standard of moral- ity, There has been considerable clam- or for the income tax and the ex- cess profits tax on the theory that these taxes will be paid by the rich corporations and the rich people, while in practice it has no such ef- fect. If carried to its logical con. clusion, and if the assessments are} made heavy, under present condi- tions {t will wipe out the great mid dle class and leave only rich and the very poor. rich individuals out of first mortgages and indus- trial securities and invest their money in tax-free mun'c bonds. That's one reason there is so much demand for them, and they sell so ily and, consequently, why so many are created That leaves only the large corporations, the middle class and the socalled poor ma ‘the large corr ion to con te exist must ve'l its produc " the consumer, If you pease, for tere is no ons else to buy) ‘or what it cost so make the arti cluding cost of raw material, overhead, income tax and a fair turn to the stockholders. If the consumer does not pay enough to cover these items of cost, the com- pany will be losing money and then it is only question of time when it will be forced out of business. There is only one way, therefore, that the big corporation can keep on doing. business in the face of mounting tax levies, and that !s by adding this additional, cost to the cost of the articles manufactured and sold, and in the very nature of things this additional cost must be paid by the consumer. In the final analysis, the big corporation, who is in position to dictate the price, does not pay the tax, In fact, !t can't and stay in business. The ul timate consumer pays the tax, the same as he always pays every tax, except a confiscatory tax, which simply takes away all of a man’s property, The so-called poor man, if he fn really a poor man, pays almost no tax. der the so-called income tax law, this leaves the large middle class to carry the burden of its as sessments. He is usually in no po: sition to add the price of the in- come tax to the product of his ef- fort. Neither is he in position to Mrs. C. A. 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He must sell what he has got, wheth- er it be goods, nds, or services, for what he can get, and he must buy what he needs for the price asked or go without. He has ho way to pass the income tax.on to someone else. He must pay it him- self and it tends to exterminate him. The income tax is unjustifiable, ex- cept to meet an emergency. It de- moralizes thrift, energy and ambl- tion. It has placed shackles on the hands and feet of the young man of this generation who seeks to lay up a competence, without touching the accumulations of previous gen- erations. It places a premium upon mediocracy, thriftlessness and in- competence in private life, as well as fraud and disrespect for law in governmental affairs, It js founded on one of the basto principles of Marxian philosophy, which Carl Marx figured would destroy all capi 1, putting all people on an even basis, It tends to eliminate the mid- the very ‘le c'ass, leaving only the very rich The very |4nd the very poor, If the constitution were amended so a8 to eliminate the tax-exempt features from municipal bonds, and if a sales tax were adopted, there would be less of municipal bond ex- penditure: there would be more money invested in first mortgages and industrial securities, the cost of TO DARKEN HAIR APPLY SAGE TER Look Young! 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Phone 467-W eral government under the provis- fons of the leasing act of February 25, 1920, gets directly 37 1-2 per cent of all the oll royalties taken out of the state and, indirectly, a part of the 52 1-2 per cent set aside for reclamation purposes. Already a sum in excess of seven dollars has been accumulated in the permanent “school fund” from the sale of state lands and oil royalties from these lands—mostly from o!] royalties, the income from which alone can be used to pay on current schoo] expenses, In addition, last year there was paid out the govern- ment oil royalties, which are collect- ed “ in Meu of taxes” the handsome sum of over two million dollars, out of which was paid about a million and @ quarter dollars directly into the current expenses of the public schools. This year out of the first six months a million and a haf has been paid. About 50 per cent of the current expenses of all the public schools In Wyoming last year were paid out of this oll royalty money, and did not have to come out of the pockets of the taxpayers. Countt in this state, who never produced a drop of oll received tremendous ben- efits. One county tn this state last year received from the government ofl royalty fund over $147,000.00, and, in addition, received over $72 000.00 from the permanent state school land fund, which, together, make up more than one-half of her current schoo! expenses. There are million SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 11, 1923 reduced federal government expenti-| present day thought, others ‘Will be tures, some notable examples of put in their places, who do. Men state executives may be cited. Sev-|of the bar, both in office anq out eral years ago, ex-Governor Lowder | of oftice, have a 1: * of Illinois, set about a program of! 4 responsibility rigid economy In state expenditures | *"4 ® Steat opportunity in doing and reduced something over a hun-| their full share to correct the dan. dread state bureaus and boards to} gerous tendency to reckless'y ey. seven in number, and in other ways! pena the publ: : stopped the leaks on state expendi-| oo Pig He money, which sti) tures, saving the taxpayers hundred’ tea.) Most local governmental of thousands of dolars. Recently reg ee agencies shoulg Governor Pinchot of Pennsylvania "4 {he public by precept and ex. reduced 102 tax-eating agencies to Sioa’ of waitine cng COnomy, in twenty-one, abolished and consoli- Tio Cnea by Ing for the pubiic, dated officers and estabimshed a bud- 7° i. oil af Fencecenhhy to call a halt does not wu: a get system and reduced appropril-| stand all the intricacies of the ma, tions $30,000,000.00. ent day varied forms of tax The country does not need more ‘The issues are oft. levies. taxes, but less expenditures. The| and mischievously ence Cw power to tax is the power to destroy. | signing and unser It"le eaay tor public officiate to cre-| zt is the ra ry /Tigies bearer ate more taxes, and then to create lawyers and all good pera more public offices, and to fill these think rightly and to speak fry offices with needy friends at the and freely, to the end that mon. expense of the public, and thereby | essary public expenditures mens create ® powerful political machine, | severely curbed, that burden to elect the aforesaid officials again! and blighting tax laws may 1. to public office. However, that does| pealed.and that additional icaas not tend to promote the public weal. ovary ee It tends to kill the goose that lays | ee SRY sreatod, the golden eggs, It takes men of vision, conviction and of resolute courage to inaugurate and carry out the policies of Harding, Lowden and Pinchot, but !f the public is once aroused to the Inevitablé dangers of our present course, those in office will respond to the popular aed and if those in office are so dense fous iS to be ManyBusiness Folk a know that SCOTTS ZL MULSION &® increas 5 Energy six other counties in the state pro- ducing no oll, but all counties in the state recelved proportionate amounts. Yet our school taxes have not been reduced. They keep ever mounting higher, “disbursements constantly outrunning receipts,” In this county we had an assessed valuation in 1907 of $3,000,000.00. Now we have an assessed valuation of over $73,000,000.00, and yet tn the city of Casper the rate of assess ment has Increased from 21 mills to mills, besides special improve: collecting the tax would be material- y reduced, and the tax itself would much more widely distributed, a large amount of financial ns which now unjust'y es the man who now carries the c f ment assessments. Our county's burden of the tax wou'd be mate-} bonded indebtedness {ts nearly $1 rially relieved, and, according to the] 090,000.00. In the city we have out-- its received, the cost of ilving standing bonds for sewer, water and fire apparatus In a sum of nearly $2,000,000.00. Special improvement bonds issued-and tn process of be- ing issued will probably be in ex- cess of $3,000,000.00, a total of be- tween $5,000,000.00 and ~ $6,000,- 000.00, with an assessed valuation of about $27,000,000.00, In other words, we are now bonded to the extent of about 20 per cent of our assessed va'uation, which is about the average throughout the country. Taking our local indebtedness and our portion of the national debt, we are pretty much in the same posi- tion as every other fellow in the country owning property. He thinks he owns ft free from debt, but, as a matter of fact, there ‘s a plaster on it to the extent of about 40 per cent of its value. And, typical of conditions in most communities, no schools, the university, the roads] provision has yet been made to re- ind other public institutions, In ad-| deem our first sewer bond Issue of dition to this, “in Heu of sea which becomes due next year. 1 ex-President Harding was making his last and fatal trip through the country last summer, in one of his speeches. “Fig- s furn'shed me by both the Treas iry and Census bureau make it per- fectly plain that, whereas the cost of the federal government fs being teadily reduced, the cost of state tnd local governments is being just us steadily increased year by year.” Let us look at our own local situ- ation. The state of Wyoming ts the richest state in the union per capita, As a state it owes less money than any other state. Under the provis- ions of the act of admission, she was granted Mberally hundreds of thousands of acres of lands, includ- ing Some of the most valuable lands in the world, for the support of its tir which the state would have realized] Outside of the federal budget (supposedly) if the lands had been] system, inaugurated by ex-Pres'‘dent permitted _to go to patent, the fed- Harding, which has tremendously Don’t Buy Your Cleaner Before November 15th OUR Pre-Christmas Campaign STARTS ON and we shall quote extra special terms as is our custom during the sale. The HOOVER SWEEPER : IT BEATS—AS IT SWEEPS—AS IT CLEANS There are hundreds of satisfied users among the housewives of Casper “Ask the Woman The wise purchaser huys from a concern which he KNOWS i ; ql is i k in business locally and which is obligated to maintain the terms cEdenienee guarantee. Buy your cleaner from a concern maintaining a service department right here in Casper. send out of town for repairs and parts. NATRONA POWER CO. Phone 69 that they do not see the trend of’ Of Inestimable Value HE modern well-appointed \ funeral home that we place at the service of those we serve is of tremendous value in the majority of cases. No ordinary home is suited for the exacting requirements of a funeral service, and hence the funeral home is greatly prefer- red. There is no charge for its use; it is an integral part of our service, THAT DATE Who Owns One’’ Don’t be forced to