Omaha daily bee., 1902-11-16

GOODS ON II STREET.
idle the tax officials are notified and the
tax Is not collectable.
In Lyons all buildings are free from tax
alton for two years after their erection, no
matter whether they are rented or not
This is to stimulate building. and to en-
able the owner to get back something OF
the first cost.
The policy of the government is to make
every man pay taxes in proportion to the
benefit he receives, and this policy extends
to the smallest of such benefits. For this
reason every chair and table which is
placed on the pavement outside a store or
restaurant must pay its tax. Sometimes
cafes and restaurants thus monopolize the
whole street, but the people do not grum-
BILE, for they know the owner is paying
for the privilege.
Every plant set out on the street pays a
tax, as well as every counter for the sale
of goods. Many of the large department
stores of Paris and other cities use the
streets during bright days to show goods
and sell them. The wares are spread out
upon tables and the clerks stand there and
hawk them out to passersby. When the
goods are so displayed the merchants are
taxed, but when taken in they are not
charged.
There are such counters about the Bon
Marche and Au Printemps, two of the lar
gest stores of Paris, and also about a
great department store near the Hotel de
Vile. Some stores have movable counters,
on wheels, as large and as long as the
counters inside, which are pulled out dur
ing the shopping hours and pushed in at
night, thus increasing the working space
ahpt.f IN nnn oonk III Dou.-- l. 49,,
de Vile has three sides facing the streets
and its ~pavements are filled with goods. l
looked over the counters and found many
American articles. There were cheap
watches, carpenter tools from New Eng
land, American ink and American canned
fruits. AS l waited the bell rang for
closing the store and the clerks showed
the counters from the street inside, and
within five minutes the great building was
surrounded by blank walls of steel, which
had dropped from above, covering the win
dows. The next day was rainy, and when
l came past the store at noon the business
was all inside, and l was told that no tax
was collected except for such times as the
street was so used.
1t takes an army Of officers to collect
such taxes, and hence France has a large
offceholding class. There are families of
professional officeholders who feed at the
public crib from generation to generation,
being backed by political influence.
In France even government bonds are
taxed, but nearly every issue has a lottery
attachment. City and municipal bonds
bear low rates of interest, but there are
always a number of prizes connected with
them and the lottery element is as great
an attraction as the investment itself. The
Paris exposition bonds were issued in this
way, as were also those of the exposition
of 1889, Lotteries are instituted for all
sorts of purposes and are generally patrCn-
lied. They are operated fairly, and the
prizes sometimes go to the rich and some
times to the poor, A coachman at Lyons
lately drew 100, 900 francs, or 800, 900, and
the Rothschild brothers more recently got
$4,000 from tickets in a lottery organized
for the support of INDECENT artists. The
Rothschilds refused to take the money and
gave it over into the hands of Coquelin.
the French actor, who had charge of the
fund.
The United States would never permit its
government bonds 10 be issued with a lot,
terry attachment. 1t is contrary to our
ideas of the right. But there are many
things outside this which the French can
teach us as to handling our finances. They
~ ~" ~ N'Np NuNll W utDlS among
their own people, and when they annually
pay out 81 per head in interest they have
the satisfaction of knowing that it all goes
back into France. Their bonds are of such
a nature that every French family, how
ever poor, owns some Of them. This might
be done in America if our bonds we're in
small denominations, and it would un-
doubtedly tend to bind our people more
closely together and to make them better
citizens and more enthusiastic patriots.
FRANK G.. CARPENTER,