Fort Worth weekly gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1889-07-18
TAXED TO DEATH.
The Extraordinary Burden Which is Put
Upon Property in Egypt.
Why the People of the land are Poor.
The Wonder is that They Live
at All.


extent that they could barely live.
Ismael Pasha, the last khedive, would,
am told, often collect taxes twice
year, coming down upon the farmers for
regular amount If they were not able
to supply it the tax gatherers sold their
stock at auction, and he had the right to
make such as he pleased work for him
for nothing. At present there are about
five million acres of land under cultiva-
ton in Egypt, and there is an agricult-
ural population of more than four mil
lion. This gives less than one and one
fifth acres per person, and the taxes
amount to from four TO nine dollars an
acre. The best lands of Egypt pay SO an
acre, and this is only one form of Egyp
tian taxation. Just outside of Cairo
there is a government office, through
which every piece of produce brought
into the city for sale must pass, and
every article is taxed. The farmer who
brings donkey load of grass to the city
for sale must pay percentage on its
value before he can go in with it. 1t is
the same with a chicken or a pigeon, a
basket of vegetables, or anything a
FARMER raises. 146u I0oT6 Is IL
tax upon date trees amounting to
5000 900 year, upon salt of more than
Million upon tobacco and slaughter
houses, and in fact upon everything
under the Egyptian sun. The donkey
boy here pays a tax, the store-keeper is
taxed and there is, in addition to this, a
general tariff of about s per cent. on
all imports. There are taxes on sheep
and goats, which are paid whether the
animals are sold or not. There are taxes
on wells, taxes on fisheries, and taxes
paid for lands which Egypt once owned,
but which she gave up with the loss of
SOudan 1t is no wonder that the
Egyptian people are poor. 1t is a wonder
that they can exist at all.
The bulk of this money goes out of the
country and the natives of Egyt are
growing poorer instead of richer. ""Such
taxation, said our consul-general,
''would create revolution in the United
States, and there is hardly a country in
the world which would stand it. Not
dollar of all the money which is thus col
lected is expended in public or private
Improvements among the hard-worked,
over-taxed people from whom it has been
wrung -
Egypt pays every year more than three
million dollars to Turkey. Why she
continues to do this is not understood the
world over. If England and Europe
would shake their heads she would throw
off the Turkish yoke, but the sultan of
Turkey owes some large sums to the
European bankers. The European
bankers want this three million of dol
lars, and it comes to them through the
sultan. This is the way in which the
Rothschilds grind the fellahin. The
total revenue collected last year was
nearly fifty million dollars, and of this
more than twenty millions went to pay
interests upon debts, which were entered
into by the Egyptian government in the
past.
New York contains about four times as
much farming land as Egypt. Suppose
the farmers of New York, irrespective of
the capitalists and town people, had to
pay tax of 1925 1000 200 a year, they
would be as heavily oppressed in proper
ton to their lands as are the Egyptians.
If they had to pay simply the tax of
from four to nine dollars an acre they
would have to mortgage their crops, and
if, in addition to this, they had to pay
import and export taxes, and taxes on
their sales, the result would be
an almost immediate bankruptcy.
Egypt is not much bigger
in reality than Massachusetts,.
It is only about the size of Maryland
Suppose that Maryland had a population
of 900 900 to live off her farming land,
and should tax them at the above rate,
and you get the condition of Egypt to-
day. Verify, the pound of flesh of the
Shylock of Venice was not more rigidly
enacted than is now being cut off the
pounds of flesh of the Egyptian peasants
no iSI of
itors.
These creditors watch the condition of
their debtors, and they see that all of the
proceeds go into their pockets. Each of
the cabinet officers of the khedIve has
sub minister under him who is a foreign
er, and the proposition for nearly every
thing passes through the hands of this
sub-minister before they get to the
Egyptian who Is the khedive's counsel
or. The most of these sub-ministers are
English, and the Egyptians are now
practically controlled by England. En-
gland dictates the ministers the khedive
shall take into his cabinet; it dictates the
rate of taxation, and, in fact, is the
controller of all state matters in Egypt.
The khediYe, am told, would do much
more for the people if he could, ont he
has to submit The English officers fe-
C6lN6 1dIS6 SdldEiSSs anu LuOuSH LI1k dtss5
numerically and in the matter of owning
property in Egypt fewer than eitfsr tfe
French, the Italians or the ,FGReelss,
they are in the influences and dictH-
torial power the leading EuTQBean nAEon
of Egypt Through the Ital5aff cQnEA at
Alexandria. l find that there aFe 20 900
Italians in that city alone, and many of
the best stores on the Mooski of Cairo
are now kept by Italians. French is the
chief language in use by foreigners in
Cairo You find Frenchmen IN all kinds
of business. French officers manage the
Suez canal, and the French own many
fine houses there.
Among the wealthiest of the foreign
ers, however, are the Greeks. They are
the grocers of the country, and they con-
stitute the aristocracy of Alexandria.
They live in European style here in
Caro-, drive fine turnouts and own mag
nlffcent mansions. Many of them are
bankers, and nearly all the money
changers on the streets, each of whom
has little glass counter filled
with the various kinds of coins on q stand
beside him, are Greeks. These Greeks own
a greater part OF the land of Egypt. The