Twice-a-week plain dealer. (Cresco, Howard County, Iowa) 1895-1913, 1903-02-17
The Tax Rudren.

The Tax Budren.
The amount of tax levied for state,
county, school and other purposes ip
this county by Its board of supervisors
aggregates the sum of S132,S3l.
The population If the county &C.
cording to the last census was 14,5l2,
which made the per capita trifle
over 90 Is. But the taxes levied by
the board of supervisors for these pur,
poses are not levied upon the indiyid-
ual but upon the lands and property
each may own.
These facts make the tax payers
watchful against extravaganza and
needless expenditures Of the public
money and the same facts also make
the supervisors careful and prudentl
alike for their own regulations and
the good of their constituents.
Where the cost Of government isl
borne by a tax levied upon the proper
ty of the people, every tax payer is in
terested in having the tax levy as light
as possible aLd1 to that end fav,Is
economy in public expenditures.
Nopart OF the cost of the Fed,ral
government is borne by tax upon
property of and description. The av-
erage farmer, laboring man or me-
chanic, who supports himself and
those dependent upon him with the
necessities and comforts of life, pays
as much toward the cost of the FEEDER
al government, as does any one IF the
multi-millionares If the country. The
farmer, the laborer and the mechanic,
the wealth producers, are Interested
in having the Federal government, as
well as their state and local govern
ment, economically administered. Not
so with the millionares. A vast gov
eminent debt, whose untaxed bonds
they hold and own;:extravagant ex-
p.nditures, whereby in single bond
deal millions are made in exploiting
the government and plundering its
treasury, tend to their enrichment
hence their Indifference to the cost of
billion dollar administration and
congress. 1t is the meat upon which
they feed, The per capita cost Of the
Federal government, estimating the
population at 80 million, is $40. to
eadh individual.
1t is fair to presume that the 14,5l2
people in Howard county consume
their full proportion of the articles
upon which the internal reve nueS and
tariff tax is collected, thus contribut-
ing the sum of $290,240 annually to
support and defray the expenses Of
the national administration at Wash
ington. Should the board of super
visors Of this county levy tax that
amounted to the sum of 500 against
each individual in the county, people
would fall over each other in getting
to the ballot box to hurl them from
office and the trusts they had dishon-
ored. And yet, strange as it may ap-
pear, these same voters annually go to
the ballot box and by their SURFACES
eneo s,.this extravagdnce:byiendor
the republic IN administration at tn,
Federal capital.
II the national revenues we're col
lected in the way that local tBxes are
instead Of from internal revenues and
tariff, the immense fortunes accumu-
lated through special privileges, grant,
ed through legislation, would have to
pay taxes which are now paid by the
increased cost Of articles the people
use and consume. In other words,
the people pay the taxes which ex-
empts the property OF the rich from
assessment. And strange as it may
seem, these same people are shocked
at the thought of an income tax upon
the milliong accumulated through I'M
just laws discriminating in favor of
the rich.