Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1890-08-01
FORTY DOLLARS PER FAMILY.
That Will Be the Average Burden of
Federal Taxation
For the Next Fiscal Year i'll the
United States,
According to the UnanSwerable Rea-
souing of David A. Wells.

! David A. Wells in the New York Evening Post.l
| In view of the almost universal COM
| plalnt-more especially by the agricultural
interest of the country-of the burden and
| inequality of federal taxation, it seems I'M
portant that certain points connected with
| the same, not Immediately bearing on the
| the questions of free trade or protection.
| should at the present time be especially
pressed upon the attention of the American
public.
The amount OF money necessary to meet
the expenditures of the federal govern
ment for the fiscal year commencing July
l, 1890, was estimated BY Secretary Win
dom in his report for December, 1899, at
| S34l 400, 900. The appropriations already
authorized by the present congress, or GER
tain to be authorized, will increase these
figures to an excess of 800, 200, 900. But
for the sake of argument, and in order to
avoid anything of hypothesis, let $780,
600, 900 be assumed as the correct figures.
Now as the federal government never
has any money except that which the peo-
pie give 1t through the agency of taxation,
and as the people as whole never have
any money to give except what comes to
them as the result of their work. or from
an exchange of the products of their work,
it is clear as Mr.. Atkinson has shown in
one of his recent essays, that what the
government really wants of its people,
when it calls upon then for taxes, Is work,
and that the methods of taxation are only
methods for collecting and using the pro-
ducts of work If we assume that the
average earnings of the larger part of the
people who work with their hands in the
United States are one dollar per day land
this is an over estimate, for the average
wages of those who follow agriculture for
a living are not III excess of eighty-fve
cents), then four hundred millions of ex-
penditure by the federal government next
year. will mean four hundred millions of
day work; or in other words, for every
dollar that the government of the United
States eXpends, somebody must do whole
days work to furnish it.
Even if the highest estimate be put upon
the
PER CAPITA PRODUCT
of the whole country-incmdirg valua-
tion of the domestic consumption of far
merS and farm laborers-the average earn
ings of each person, occupied for
gain In all arts and all branches
of mental, manual, or meceani-
cal work cannot exceed two dollars for
each working day, or $500 a year, on
which three persons depend for their sup
port, giving a gross product of siXty-siX
and two-thIrds cents each. Deducting the
domestic consumption of farmers, the cost
of state and municipal government, and
the necessary addition to the capital of the
nation, the net average earnings of the
whole population from which national
taxes are to be taken cannot exceed fifty
cents day, or what fifty cents day will
buy. Multiply by three, and the maxi
mum average wages or earnings of every
one occupied for gain, from the president of
the great railway system covering thOus-
ands of miles to the scrub who washes
the floor of the station cannot exceed 81 so
per day. How unequally this is divided
every one may estimate But is the bur
den of national taxation which taxes six
dollars worth of the work out of each one
hundr ID and fifty of product, or thirty
dollars worth of product for each family
of five persons who live on an income of
seven hundred and fifty dollars year, APP
portloned equltably in respect to income?
Far from 1T; for, as matter of fact, the
cost of the national government, estimated
at S40O, 900, 900 per annum, represents not
less than twenty days work at 81 so day
out of 300 days in the service of each fami
ly of FIVE persons; and the less the income
the greater the burden of work required.
The question which next naturally sug-
gests itself is. What are the people who
will worF next year 400 100000 days-in
heat and cold, on the farm, in the forge,
mine. factory, shop, and counting-room, in
the cab of the locomotive, or on the deck of
the vessel, with pick and shovel, hammer
and Chut+Ia with MIN, bia FIN ckilIf,,I
pen, and educated brain-in order to give
their government the money it says it must
take from them next year