The Greenville journal. [volume] (Greenville, Ohio) 1850-1918, 1907-10-17
ALL AFFECTED
BY the Operation Of the Taxa.
tiOn Laws.
PROPERTY is NOT A SIGN
The Consumer Of Any Article Helps
Pay the Taxes In In
creased Cost.

Frequently we see articles in the
newspapers signed Taxpayer" It is
comman thing for a man to get up
in public meeting and begin his re.
marks by stating that, inasmuch as he
is taxpayer" etc There seems to
be an opinion to the effect that if one
can sign his name Taxpayer" or
make the statement that he is 'tax-
payer" his opinions ought to carry
especial weight and his wishes be
especially respected.
. Well, every mans opinion ought to
carry weight and every mans wishes
should be respected-just in proper
tion to what they are worth. The
term taxpayer" should scare no one
for one man in this country is as much
a taxpayer as another. 1t is true that
the courts take notice of the taxpayer
to the extent that they term a taxpayer
a person who pays taxes up, property
assessed for taxation, but, wise as they
are. the courts do and say some very
foolish things. Jus how any man can
live under our present system of gov
ernment without being a taxpayer,
whether he owns property or not, is
hard to understand.
If he eats or wears clothes or boards
at hotel or clearinghouse; if he
lives in a rented home or one that
belongs to him; II he rides upon the
street cars or steam cars or goes to
the theater-he Is a taxpayer. Some
of the people who exhibit big tax re-
ceipts and claim that they ought to
be heard because they pay taxes upon
dozen pieces of property, do not pay
taxes upon any of the property-as
suredly they do not If the property
is rented. Every lawyer or dentist
occupying space in one of the big
buildings in this city is paying taxes
upon the building-just in proportion
to the amount of space he occupies.
The owners of the skyScrapers are not
philanthropists. They are not paying
llG ldAto vi luC -lOi ny any
means. The people who own the street
railways, or the places Of amusement,
or the factories, are not paying other
peoples taxes. 1t costs five cents to
ride upon the cars, because a part of
that five cents goes to pay taxes. 1t
costs certain amount to attend an
amusement, because it takes part Of
that certain amount to pay the taxes.
A plow costs nine dollars, because the
manufacturer has to have portion
taxes; he could sell the low for eight
dollars and ninety cents if he had no
taxes to pay-so the farmer pays ten
cents of the manufacturers taxes
when he buys a plow.
A suit of clothes costs more be-
cause the merchant has to pay taxes,
and the boarding houses have to
charge in proportion to the rent they
pay and they have to pay rent in pro-
portion to the amount of taxes the
landlord has to pay. Always you will
find a property owner figuring upon a
certain investment after the taxes
are paid"
That some people are compelled to
pay more taxes in proportion to the
amount of property they own than
others, there is no question. We are
not arguing that point We are only
attempting to show that lot Of the
people who clamor about being taxpay-
ers and who expect to receive consid-
Grafton because of that fact, are poor
reasoners If any class of people want
to step in and pay all of the taxes Of
this city and run the city the way
they want it run, that is different. But
so long as all of us pay taxes let a
man be heard because he is citizen
and not because he is taxpayer
Dayton (O.) News.