Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1895-03-02

y" nat VIII tne voters say TO 1tI
United States. The feeling that the au-
thorities are after your pocketbook comes
rather through a series Of petty annoy
ances and half pleasing. half displeasing
curiosities when you are once inside the
country. Your hotel bill comes to you re-
ceipted-and stamped. You cash a check or
draft with banker. ''Will you please
write your name again, here, across the
revenue stamp" Why are they SO careful
with the Jumps of sugar in the restaurants
and cafes? There is special tax upon the
sweet commodity. And why do they always
give us sulphur matches? Because matches
are dear, being manufactured only by the
government.
Do you desire to play game Of cards?
You may, for nothing, in the brasserie
where you take your evening beer. The
waiter brings the cards. But they are
dirty. Bring US a clean pack" Then you
will have to buy them, and the cheapest
kind costs fifty cents. There Is a special
tax on playing cards. 1t Is not only tax,
ranging from fifteen to twenty cents a
pack, but the manufacture of all playing
cards is under rigorous state supervision,
as to quality, colors and designs, the lat
ter with an idea to possible political dis
turbances. Billiard tables are taxed, doors
and windows are taxed, bicycles are taxed,
tourist has his first experience with that
state manufacture.
Where the state leaves off, then the city
begins, and you are taxed from early morn
till deWy eve. The city's chiefest hold upon
the stranger is its "octroi,' set Of high
municipal customs duties on all food, drink
and fuel. But the city shares with the
state in most Of the little perquisites al
ready mentioned, in the profits Of the ex-
elusive government pawn shops, the ex-
elusive funeral service. the tax on theater
tickets, and the tax on dogs, even though 1t
were the dog Of a tourist. or, so to speak, a
he 70 v1-hi
tourist feels. But the native the citizen Of
Paris, could tell him, There are others"
Taxes in France are called "contribu-
tions," and they are O direct and 2) in
reaching the average sum of 2,495, 100000
Of francs yearly, as against the direct taxes
of 553,OOO,OOO Of francs. This inequality
has struck the socialists, and at about the
same time as the deficit in the budget
called loudly for the attention of the legis-
lature. The question of an income tax Is
now being fought over, not only an income
tax, but progressive income tax, which
would indeed strike a hard blow at 1.-The
dirty bourgeoisie' and the "exploiters of
the proletariat."
The figures above given are lower than
those in the present inflated budget for
1895, against which there Is a considerable
uproar. In theory the direct taxes are
fixed and invariable: but 1t Is in the power
of the chamber of deputies to augment or
decrease them by means OF the device
called the 'centlmeS addltlOnal, or ad-
ditional pennies" They are of two kinds:
Those voted by the deputies. to be at the
disposal of the general government, to
meet special and varying expenses. like
primary instruction, aid to farmers when
their crops have suffered from hail storms.
fire CT flood, the reduction of other taxes,
losses, deductions and deficits and the
costs of collecting all other taxes; and
those voted by the departments (counties)
and towns and cities, within fixed limits.
for their ordinary and extraordinary ex-
penses. In the budget for 1895 the fixed
portion Of the direct taxation was put at
Ago, 900 900 francs. But the additional pen
Mes had brought the total up to S34, 0OO,-
600.
OF these direct taxes there are four. the
fonciere, or tax on real estate; the person.
nelle-mobiliere, or tax on personal prop
erty; the portes-et-fenetres, or taxes on
doors and windows, and the patentes, or
commercial licenses.
The only thing peculiarly interesting to
Americans in the French real estate tax
is the principle that when house or even
part of a house ian apartment or flaD
has been empty for a year it pays no tax
that year. This principle, which Is favor
able to capitalists, is one often attacked by