The weekly true Democrat., 1908-12-11

Iae W Eof Low laAAs
taxes are not conducive 10 pub
nerity. People high taxed are
well and proftably employee
ue Democrat
people might take ite1e
oVe proposition. and some
lake it as q personal grieY-
say that the editor had no
70 be expressing such sentl-
ient8 and encouraging the despOtie
powers ab0veus 10 give the screw one
more twist 70 squeeze further tribute
Dut Of u9.
As the aforesaid de8potic powers are
eFeatures Of our own creating and their
earnest and constant desire Is 70 recon-
nerd themselves FOR continued lease Of
pliiee at the hands Of their creator the
Great People I'VE may at once dismiss
this latter view Of the case and be very
glad that no taxes except those just and
necessary will be imposed upon rs,
But Is it not q fact that low taxes
do not cOnduce 70 public prosperity
and that high taxed people are generally
we'll and prOfitably employedI II you
will 20 through the various States OF
the Union, gentle reader, and note the
communities In which there is the high
est degree Of prosperity and the great
est industrial activity, you will md II
almost invariably the case that high
taxes are an Indispensable condition
precedent to that state of affairs. And
the people are willing in such instances,
because they understand that without
such taxation the causes which produce
the high level Of their prosperity would
not be operative.
High taxation legitimately imposed,
with the graft and Doodle element elimi-
mated, is both the result and the cause
of conditions which imply a busy intel
ligent and progressive people IN towns
and country alike, where all are hopeful
and where improvements and develop
ment are the characteristics along every
line Of activity. We cannot have a
good article Of goods without paying
good price, but we can get the shoddy
article any time for half price or less.
Just so in government, which is a com
plex and costly machine, whose infu-
ence is entering more and more into our
daily activities as population grows
more dense and our human necessities
are correspondingly increased.
We may talk about JetfersOnian sim
plicity as much as we please, but until
some cataclysm destroys about three
fourths of our people and the pressure
of living has been diminished in like
ration, we will see no more Of that kind
of simplicity. And the community or
State which seeks to restore the Jeffer-
sonian age of the republic by insisting
on the tax rate Of that day to pay the
price of government many times more
costly land necessarily SOY, simply con-
Oans itself to stagnation, slOth and
ignorance.
We can hold our public servants to
rigid accountability in imposing, col
lecting and disbuTsing our taxes, but
I'VE can no more grow great and rich
and prosperous as people by eternally
our poverty and raising the spiritless
pauper cry Of low taxes than the little
fellow Of short vision in the marts of
trade can double his wealth and COM
pete with the broader minds around
him by pursuing the picayune methods
of his ancestors who exchanged goods
for pelts and had scant competition to
meet.
The breech-clouted Indian in the
primeval forest paid no taxes at all, and
that Is the ideal condition which some
of the tax-kickers would have now, but
we can't have modern civilization with
out paying the price and we can't feed
all these scores Of millions Of mouths,
and elothe all these scores Of millions
of bodies and educate all these scoresJ
of millions of minds and find work for
all these scores of millions of hands in
q highly organized state of society
without submitting to taxes correspond
ing to the necessities of such a state
while we also reap the advantages re-
sulting from IL.
Low taxes means a cheap people, and
cheap people are always poor and get
ting poorer. Pensacola Journal.