Sharp County record., 1891-06-18
TAXES PER CAPITA.

TNSNf-S @iA
gurdei of Taxation on Each Man-What
the Tariff Tax Amounts to.
The Pittsburgh Dispatch, a repub-
iican journal, has been calling atten-
ton to the enormous taxation per capita
which the country is now paying, and
TO the fact that the example set by con-
rress causes an increase in state and
.ity taxes. The Dispatch says:
The extraordinary action of congress in
calling for one thousand million OF dollars
for its appropriations this year appears to
have set the pace through the country, and
it is not alcne the gentlemen in the saddle at
Washir gCon who can ride hard and last
wheii the popular check rein is loosely set.
The Dispatch then estimates the tax
alton paid per capita by the people OF
Pittsburgh as follows:
i. The congressional appropriation calls
for thc equivalent of per capita tax OF
about SIS upon each of the population OF the
country.
2. The state of Pennsylvania appropria-
tions are reported as being likely call for
near SIS, ,O0lO 900, which, if SLOWED, would rep
resent a per capita tax OF % on the populI-
tion of the state.
g. The city of Pittsbarghs appropriation OF
1880, ,OC0 for the year is almost 2J per capita
on thc population Of the city.
1 Allegheny county tax, say 50 per capita
popuation of the county.
How these taxes accumulate for the
working and producing members of the
community may be seen from the fol-
lowing concluding reflections of the
Dispatch:
Tnese rough but sufficiently close esti-
mates show for the current year the cquiva'
lent of a total Per capita tax of s47 for resi-
dents of our own city. Allowing for infants,
Tor, the helpless, incapacitated and unem'
ployed, the usual average of four to every
adult wetkingman, and it appears that on
the labor of the latter there is total yearly
taxo5S25
gut there is one side of the question
which the Pittsburgh paper does not
touch upon. The tax of SIS per capita
levied by the last congress in the two
years of its existence represents what
is actually paid into the United States
treasury in tariff duties and m
1ernal revenue taxes on whisky and
Sobacco. This estimate leaves out Of
account the increased cost of domestic
wommodities by reason Of the protective
tariff. 1t has been estimated by care
full statisticians that for every dollar
that goes into the treasury S3 goes into
the pockets of private individuals. In
this way many people not only escape
the payment of their SIS in national
taxes but even fill their pockets under
the forms of law from the earnings of
other peoples labor.
laritf taxes alone amounted during
the fiscal year 1890 to 1925, 900, 000 If
we estimate that every producer has
four other persons dependent upon his
labor, this sum would give a tariff tax
of about SIT for each producer Com
biping with this the tax which goes to
p,ivate protected individuals, estimated
above to BE- three times as great, we
have total tariff tax of SOS per year
for each man who labofs
Now that so many people are trying
to find out the cause of agricultural de-
preston would it not be we'll to turn at
tention to the S6S in tariff taxation? To
show how it works take county of 90
600 people. In this county it may be
roughly estimated that one-ffth or H.
900 men, are workers Sixty-eight dol
lars for each of these would amount to
&72,oOO for a single county for one
year, apart from state and county taxes.
Clearly the people of this country are
taxed too much; and there can be no
doubt that excessive taxation is prime
cause of hard times.