The Advocate and news., 1898-10-05
Taxation and Government Expenditures

@. T. PIERCE.
Senator Mills, Of Texas, in a recent dis
cussion in the Senate, declared that
exhaustive taxation is eating away the
Is stopping the wheels Of industry. Keen
ing men out OF employment, forcing
down the prices of farm products, fore
ing up the prices Of manufactures
Dulldlng up monied aristocracy and
lic."
And yet no political party seems TO have
due appreciation of these facts and the
abuse goes on. Taxes are increased I'm cIty.
municipality and county, State and nation
with the temporary exception, perhaps, Of
Kansas under Populism) with each sue
ceeding year, till now a thousand million of
dollars will not discharge our annual gov
ernmental obligations, in time of peace.
And this, with the interest on thirty-one
thousand millions Of dollars Of public and
private debts of the country, as shown by
the Republican chairman OF the Coinage
committee Of the House Of Representatives
and the tribute Of three hundred millions
paid to European holders OF our bonds and
investors in our railroads and other in
dustries, and two hundred millions per an
mum paid to foreign ship owners who con-
duct our commerce (for all but 12 per cent.
of 1t Is carried In foreign bottoms) must
inevitably crush all thrift and enterprise
and keep the country in straitened cir
cumstances and In debt And yet we seem
dead to this state of things and no effort
Is made to counteract the further tendency
In this direction or to stop the drain on
labor and products.
Legislators and members Of Congress are
all intent, not in economlzng, but in spend
ing in order to satisfy their constituents.
Each one labors and tolls to get an apprO-
priatlon for his CITY, district or State for
some purpose or other, no matter whether
Of any practicable use and value or not
The appropriation for the survey OF the
Neosho river with q view Of making II
navlgable is an example; and the member
who proposed 1t is now running again and
will probably claim votes on that account,
whereas 1t ought to condemn him for per-
petrating a fraud on his fellow members
and the country, because he knew It was q
fake from the very beginning. There are
hundreds Of just such imposltions worked
Off on Congress and our State Legislatures
by members and others designed to swell
their own pockets or those Of their poltl-
cal heelers and friends.
For example, that great and flatterlng
enterprise worked up and engineered by
our own Parkinson, known as the Fort
Scott sugar works-here is the end of It, as
given In the papers:
The last piece or machinery or the
sorghum sugar industry in Kansas.
upon which the government spent $780,
600 in experiments was sold at Fort
Scott and taken to Nebraska"
And here is another as reported in the
press OF recent date:
est. Paul, April 1.-The United States
Engineering department has decided
that the dam situated in Winnebago-
shish lake, at the head-waters of the
Mississippi river, must be abolished and
the water emptied as soon as possible.
The reservoir was built In 1891 at a cost
of $216,000 and has cost $100 900 a year for
maintenance since that time"
And the State Of Kansas has had her full
share Of public fakes and frauds in irri-
cation plants and experiment stations and
other financial devices to rob the taxpayer
and producer. The last I notice is the silk
mandatory, etc, at Peabody, where silk
was made at q cost to the State of s.
pound, now abandoned and for sale. AS in
the case of the Fort Scott sugar enterprise,
the State may'count the silk experiment
loss without other Offset than lot of vaf-
liable experience. But the experience will
be of little avail for the system Of legisla-
tive imposition and fraud will go on, crop
ping out in various and innumerable shapes
and forms, enabling the politicians to fill
their pockets and fatten on the spoil
Where Is the end?
OsaWatomie, KaS.