The St. Louis Republic. [volume] (St. Louis, Mo.) 1888-1919, 1904-10-16
TIE PLEASURE OF rAxPAY1NG.

There is eternal entertainment in the contrariety
of human nature. Feelings, motives and aspirations
cross in the same person, and very often it is diff
fcult to form a decision among confronting plans
or conflicting theories; ore idea or purpose is often
As good as another.
The amusing phase Of this inner controversy
with self is brought out quite distinctly in the atti
tude taken in regard to taxpaying. The same man
who understands the necessity of supporting the
government, and who believes that his ~neighbor
should be glad to share in the public expense, and
who likes to have pleasant and healtl,ful surround
ings, lifts his eyebrows, SHES and hits his desk upon
reading the bill for his own dues. When govern.
mental requirements crawl into his wallet and get
out with some of the contents, his heart is wounded
and he becomes a victim of a form of melancholia.
Were this mans nature consistent he would take
pleasure in paying taxes. He would stand at the
front door, and wait, smiling, for the postman de.
livering the bill. He would open the envelope care
fully, extract the bill tenderly, issue a check at once
in an easy flourish Of penmanship, hasten to the
Collectors office with all speed, and graciously turn
the check into the treasury: following which. he
would go home light of heart and peaceful in mind
and confdentially tell his wife what a glorious
world this is-in which a man may pay taxes.
Every man cannot be as happy as the Astors and
the Nanderbilts; for every man does not pay as
large tax bills. and tax bills are the financial stand
ard Of measurement Of mundane happiness. New
York reports aver that William Waldorf Aston paid
$4,000 in taxes last week. the Vanderbilt family
100000. John Jacob Astor $500 % and a few other
individuals and families such Insignificant amounts
as $4,000 or 10000. Mr.. William Waldorf Astor's
assessed property in New York is valued at S31, OOO.-
600; and it is not surprising that he departed for his
English home after issuing a check for $4,000
taxes.
But, If every man cannot be rs happy as the
multimiIlionaircs he still can be %happy-if he pays
taxes. The only human n%oDentity is the creature
who is so much of nothing and has so less of any
thing that his name does not appear in the official
tax list. The only condition about which he can be
glad is that of living; inasmuch as, next to paying
taxes. it is sometimes we'll TO exist, existence being
the lesser of two blessings.
The reason that taxpaying is an agreeable duty,
a pronounced pleasure. is that it is, at best, but a
meager compensation for innumerable general and
special advantages. The man who finds taxpaying
uncongenial has hardly the state Of mind or soul to
appreciate his possessions, even when they are
greater than his neighbor's. There should be a law
that, If a person grumble about taxes, his property
should be coniscated to the citizen who would be
most gratifed to give a percentage of his profits to
the government. This law would be the better if it
would contain a provision that a taxpayer should
not depart for a foreign home after issuing his tax
payment check. without incurring a penalty. say, of
disfranchisement