The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1888-01-05
THE SURPLUS

To the Editor.-Mr. Schuette's plan
for the disposition of the annual surplus
furnishes a fresh illustration of how
radically unsound successful, practical
business man can be when he leaves his
accustomed paths and plunges into the
domain of political economy, just as fair
ness urges me to add, we frequently find
economic soundness among men who
have not made brilliant success in bust
ness. Mr.. Schuette not only violates
that fundamental law, incorporated in
the constitution and repeatedly affirmed
by the courts, that taxation is justifable
only when the tax is levied and used for
the expenses of government and the
common defense or the general welfare"
but he does violence to what am sure
would be his own sense of right and
policy were the question withdrawn from
that mistiness which so generally en-
shrouds questions lying beyond ones
immediate horizon, and were made con-
crete by application either to his own
business affairs or to the affairs of his
county. Were he member of the county
board and that body should ascertain
that the common rate of taxation had
more than provided the means of defray-
ing the expenses of the county, I doubt
not that his business training would
compel him to urge, not distribution of
| the funds among the villages ca the
county in proportion to their population,
as to bring the income down to the ex-
| pense and the application of the present
surplus to immediate needs. He would,
| I think, be the first to oppose his own
plan applied locally. He would urge on
the board that this surplus came from
all the people of the county, not willingly
but under compulsion; that it was their
money and not the boards, Tor was it the
money of the favored people whose good
fortune permitted them to live in the
| villages; that it was taken from them
under mistaken idea that it was neces.
sary for public purposes and that if not
presently needed, the only honest course
would be to use it for coming needs and
prevent for the future, that amount from
being taken. I doubt very much if Mr..
Schuette has drawn his plan from his
own business methods or that he con-
sidered it sound if applied to them. He
has had in his mill and store frequent
opportunities to deal with surplus
derived from his customers in his deal
ings with them. He has found that
from one or another reason, his profits
were larger than fair dealing demanded
and that he was getting surplus y
Had some visionary from the Jim Blaine
school of economy proposed to him to
take this surplus and divide it among
those of his customers whose trade with
him had exceeded say $500, I have nc
doubt its unfairness would strike him at
once and he would, as he frequently has
DONE reduce the price which had created
the surplus. This would be good bust
ness policy, and what difference save
only in magnitude is there between the
affairs of nation and those of a county
or private business. Isn't the source
of Mr.. Schuette's error to be found in
the common mistake that the affairs of a
nation are not similar to those of the
people but are Of a distinct and separate
nature and that nation can safely snd
properly adopt course that would be
ruinous in the municipality or the
individual? P.J. S.
| Caledonia, Mimi, Jan. 1, 1888.