Salt Lake evening Democrat. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1885-1887, 1885-05-01
TAXES AND WORK.

Supervisor of Streets is sending his
notices for poll taxes around, and request
ing people to be at the City Hall with
shovels and picks, prepared to labor
upon the public roads. The Super
visor only does his duty when
he sends his notices around, but
surely the Supervisor is no psychologist,
else he would know that the very sight
of pick and shovel units most men to |
labor. and so far as a pick and shovel be-
ing a preparation for work, they are the
things which kill the most generous as
pirations. The mere sight OF a Roman
soldier upset all Of Archimedes' calcula-
tons, but picks and shovels upset the
Roman Empire, and if such was their
influence upon the greatest empire the
world has ever seen, what then must be
their effect upon an humble citizen? 1t is
true that Holy Writ says that by the sweat
of his brow shall man earn his living,
and from this We must conclude that the
great first condition and requirement is
to sweat. Now Adam and Eve got their
living free at first, and there was nothing
said about labor or sweat, and had Eve
been less inquisitive and Adam more of
man, they might have continued to live
withou labor, and much less sweat, and
the generations which have been since
would have had the benefit of a free
lunch stand. The same thing might
have been accomplished if Adam, like
Washington, had had a hatchet and
had cut down the tree of the
forbidden fruit. But there is
some excuse for Adam not having
hatchet, as he lived before the Iron Age,
although if he had had the hatchet,
doubtless he would have cut down his
fathers favorite tree. To the disobedi-
ence OF Adam and Eve, then, must We
trace the origin of the poll tax. Looking
at things as they are, and not as We would
have them, the question naturally sug-
gests itself, is it not sufficient to sweat to
get poll tax receipt? Itwas certainly
decreed that man must earn his bread by
the sweat of his brow; and in those early
times, before labor-saving machinery
was invented, labor was the best
known method by which to make
man sweat, while now sweat can be OBJ
tanned in a much easier way. Man must
sweat is certain, as it was so decreed, but
we should remember that sweat is the
great object to be attained, and labor is
only means of attaining it, and if a
reader way of obtaining it can be devised
it should be adopted. With most people,
and we claim to be of the people, the
thought of labor will produce the great
object of labor, and has the great
advantage OF being instantaneous in
its action, for if thought can trans
port the mind to the realms
of the stars upon moments
notice, then how much more quickly can
it reach the labor which is prepared for
all at the City Hall. The Supervisor
should think of these things; and follow
ing the notices for poll taxes to be worked
out on the public roads, he should send
the receipt which says it has been done.
1t is probable that he will not do this,
and if he won't, the people who receive
the notices and have not time to perform
the work themselves, should not pay cash
into the City Treasury, but hire some
of the many men who are idle
upon our streets and seeking work
at any price. That there are plenty
who would gladly perform the work upon
the streets, and bring to those who have
been notified, their poll tax receipts, We
firmly believe; and every man who pays
his poll tax in preference to working it
out, ought to look up some of these idle
men, idle from necessity, and furnish
them with a couple of days work 1t
would benefit the city and the men who
perform the work. Let the men them
selves 90 around to those whom they
think would prefer to pay than to per-
form the tax work, and solicit it. At
least let all consider the matter, and if
the suggestions above made are carried
out, they will give to many family few
dollars in these dull times.