National Republican. (Washington City (D.C.)) 1872-1888, 1875-03-24

knaves fail TO pay must be made up by the
honest tax .payers. Consequently it is the
interest and the duty of each honest citizen
10 report any attempt at evasion or delin-
quency upon the part Of another which may
come within his knowledge.
We are somewhat inclined to dwell
little upon this subject, or rather upon this
point of the general subject, for the reason
that we wish to disabuse the minds of the
people ofthe prevailing idea that govern
mcnt is common prey; that whatever can
be obtained from government is so much
clear gain 10 the party receiving it, and no
loss 10 any one else. In this idea alone do
we see the germ of the disiutegratIon of re-
publican Institutions. Its prevalence is q
sure indication that the community has be-
come dead 10 the old notion that this coun:
Try is governed by the people for the peo-
pie. Politics are regarded by too many as
a game TO be played; as commodity to be
sIeculated or gambled in. These ideas are
demoralizing almost beyond expression.
Hence we regard with favor almost any
policy which will lead the people back to
realizing sense that the government is
theirs, and that they are in a great measure
responsible for its management. They
must be made in some way 10 feel that they
have no right to farm the entire govern
ment out TO that set of politicians which
tells them the most romantic tales; makes
them the fairest promises. There is nothing
which will bring about this realizing sense
of responsibility so quickly and so effect
ually as a personal tax. We are apt to
value things in proportion to their cost; in
proportion to the labor and suffering which
they cost us. According as we value them
do we foster cherish, protect, preserve
them. All can understand this reasoning.
Our physicians tell us of the ineStimable
sanitary value Of the insensible perspira-
ton; they say We could not live without it,
and they 60 into calculations to convince
us of the vast amount of impurities ex-
hailed in this manner from our bodies which
confined by a stOppage of the pores of the
skin would cause immediate illness. We
can scarcely credit such stories until we
are convinced by the prostration of disease.
Then We know il, from the dry and burn
ing surface Of the skin; the consuming
fever. Just so it Is when we pay our taxes
insensibly by slight addition to the price
of each article Of consumption, and of
house rent, We gradually become Invested
of the idea that we are paying them at all,
and when we see them expended for i'm
provements, and for all the various OUTLAWS
incident TO government, we cease to feel
that ii is our money that is being wasted or
iDjudiciously paid away. With this per-
sonal tax will return the feeling Of in
dividual responsibility, which is one of the
necessary adjuncts of a popular form Of
government. The real estate owner can
no longer spurn you as one who lives upon
his bounty, because forsooth he Is taxed to
support the schools at which your children
are educated, You may hold up your head
and proudly assert that you also pay your
proportion Of the means for their susten-
ance and maintenance. While we are fully
aware that all pay their proportion just the
same by the insensible process, we contend
that this fact is not brought home practi-
cally to the feeling and comprehension Of
the taxpayer, so as 10 make him exercise
due vigilance over public expenditures as
being his own and made from his own
money, and for his own benefit, by that
method, as it is when he puts his hand into
his pocket and pays the tax from his hard
earnings in lump.
There are some features of direct taxa
ton which are unpleasant. The public
inventory Of ones personality, the exposi-
ton of his private affairs, his Indebtedness,
his income and his expenses; in short, the
extent Of his private fortune and his means
Of subsistence are all more or less involved
in this personal tax, and are all distasteful
TO the fastidious and sensitive. But we
shall all find that the officers as well as our
selves and our neighbors will have too many
other things personal TO their own matters
to attend to without criticising the affairs
Of each other Those of us who are not
sailing or attempting to said under false
colors need fear nothing from the exposures
incident 10 personal tax. The credit of
substantial business men will suffer no dan.
gerous shock, but will gain additional
strength by the official statements of their
affairs involved in the assessment Of their
personal effects.