The Pacific commercial advertiser., 1893-03-16

pectant mood with your hands i'll
your pockets. What are you waiting
for?"
"What are we waiting for?r they
reply, "Why, what should we be wait
ing for? You surely don't expect us
to coin money. Waiting for? We're
waiting until your 20O0 ratepayers
come up to our bars and pass over ten
cent pieces sufficient to make up 500
for each of us. When you do this
you'll get your $4,000 for
your treasury, and not before.
Your can each of you drink some
thing when you pay over, in order to
make believe you are getting value
for your money. Come, hurry up"
So the treasurer reports. The rate
payers make a wry face and say they
supposed the $4,000 was to be paid
by the 100 business men and not by
themselves. But they "eat the leek,"
and step up to the bars and pass over
the money enough to make 500 for
each of the one hundred men.
The one hundred business men then
gatherup the 500 out of each till, and
hand it back to the treasurer and say,
"here is your $10,000-you see that as
soon as you gave it to us, we were in
a position to pay it back to you ~
And the two thousand rate payers
look at their pocket books, and shake
their heads and dolefully declare,
900; these fellows simply collect it
from us. That is all. OF course we
drank Cheap of whisky" to make
ourselves think we received some
thing in exchange. But we should
have been far better off if we had
drunk none of it,"
But events thicken.
The 100 men are still standing be-
hind their bars in an attitude of ex-
pectancy. They are not making
shoes, aXe-handles or furniture; not
planting, sowing, or reaping. There
they stand, with their hands still in
their pockets, waiting. By-and-by
some of the citizens approach them
and say, 'well, why aren't you at
work, how do you propose to get your
living if you don't do anything ?
What are you waiting for nOww
"What are we waiting for? What
should we be waiting for? You've
brought us here and we've paid you
our fees; now we are waiting for our
living. Do you suppose we can exist
on air That we and our families can
live and clothe ourselves for nothing?
Waiting for, indeed we're waiting
until the 1000 rate payers step up to
our bars and pass dimes and dollars
over them sufficient to keep ourselves
and our families for this year. We've
gathered your taxes for you, now the
tax gatherers want their living"
There is no help for it, and so the
rate payers have to step up to the
bars day after day and pass over suf-
ficient to keep the one hundred tax
gatherers and their families for the
whole year.
Of course they drink cheap of
whisky" to persuade themselves that
they are getting some value for their
money, but confess that they would
be infinitely better off if they had
drunk none.
How then stands the account?
There were two methods by which
the amount could have been raised.
The first was by direct tax. Each
payer would have been called upon
for So, and the 1900 rate payers would
have paid only $4,000. The second
was to pay the tax indirectly, through
the medium of the dram sellers as tax
gatherers. These collected $4,000
from the tax payers and then gave it
back to the city treasurer. They then
collected from the rate payers their liv-
ing and profits for the year, an aver
age of fully $500 for each dram seller
"a total of $25O,0OO. Upon this they
lived, kept their families and laid up
their profits. The whole amount
gathered by them from the rate
payers was $26O,OOO, and this was all
taken from the pockets of the people.
First method, direct payment:
The city pays So for each rate
payer......... ......................$ 10000
Second method, payment
through dram sellers:
The city pays $3.50 for each
rate payer. 49,. 49,. ........ 100000