Vernon County censor. [volume] (Viroqua, Wis.) 1865-1955, 1904-02-10
SUGGESTS ECONOMICAL MANAGEMENT.
Dr. Porter Directs Thought to the Subject That In.
terests Every Citizen.

terests Every Citizen.
EDITOR CENSOR; When verv young
my good grandmother endeavored 10
beat into me the cstechism, believe it
was, and one of the questions was,
What is tle chief end of nanP" The
answer ITO glorify God" etc, is all that
| remember. Since the tax collector sat
down to collect his yearly tribute mon
ey, good many of us feel that the chief
end of man in this locality, and for the
best part of this winter, is not so much
to glorify God as it is to dig out money
to pay an oppressive and ever.increasing
tax. 1t may be to Gods glory that we
work so much of the year to save enough
money to pay our taxes, but 1 do not
look at 1t that way, Take the people of
this so called rich and prosperous coun-
ty and average the time that they are
saving mp money to pay taxes, after
paying their other necessary running
expenses, and how much of their year
will IL take" have talked with mer-
chants, with farmers, poor old pension
ers and widows owning humble homes,
and they tell me that 1t takes the savings
Of months of each year to pay their
taxes 1t takes all that / can save for
fourth or third of the year to pay
the taxes on Hard Scrabble Farm,
which on the land alone are more than
dollar per acre. 1t is getting oppres
sive. 1t is getting worse every year,
and would like to find cause for it.
often wonder if we are not in school
district, town and county affairs, get
ting to be extravsgsnt. Ipsid s97 school
tax on Hard Scrabble" farm and the
personal property upon 1t That used
to be money enough to run school dis
trict for whole term, and 1 doubt not
the pupils then learned far more rapid
" than they do today in our fine school
houses, am told our school plant has
used already nearly 1875 tons of coal this
school year. ! see almost every day q
cloud of dense black smoke a quarter
mile long coming from the school house
chimney. There Is evidently waste Of
fuel Can it be stopped and the nearby
residents be rid Of the smoke?
The Mormon church as well as DR..
Dowie's, exacts tenth Of mans net
income yearly. The tax collectors exact
little more than tenth of ALL the
money have received from the farm in
1908 am told by a reliable man that
there are families in this county actually
suffering for the necessaries of life be-
cause they are making every effort to
raise money TO pay the high taxes i'm
posed upon them. Is it not possible to
economizs somewhat in the future in
the matter of propriating money to
erect new county buildings and buy land,
adding machines, etc? For one, feel
like thanking the eipht worthy super
visors who voted against buying that
| 1915 adder.
| As the asylum property represents an
investment of $97, 900, how would it dc
! TO ask the able managers to hereafter
declare dividend of one per cent on
the investment annually and turn it into
the county treasury, and give them the
remainder of the earnings to spend for
| internal improvements
The worst thing about this tax bust
| ness is there is no end to the enterprises
projected. Get one set of bonds paid
off and some fellow ia eager to get an
other set TO pay off There is boom or
| in this section now and business has beer
good in the county. Tobacco raising
has set our people crazy and land values
have doubled. This condition will not
always last. There may be drop in
| the price of tobacco there is one al.
| ready-and hard times Will be the re
suit The great corporations all over
the country are exercising economy and
we had better do the same. Mr.. Ben
nett's letter in the CENSOR was read
with pleasure by many. / sincerely hope
the owner of mortgages will have to pay
| his share of the taxes-somewhere II
not at home.
Town election comes off in a few
| months. Let us elect conservative mon
| for supervisors-mc who will exercise
rigid economy in the matter of appro
| pristions of money These high taxes
are all right for the few favored ones
who have a firm hold on the organ that
furnishes the public pap, but for those
who have to go 1t alone and dig their
money from Mother Earth. it is becom'
ing akin to serfdom c. Y. PORTER.
Viroqus Feby l, 1904.