Morgan County republican. (Versailles, Mo.) 1906-1914, 1909-04-29

to pay the governments operating
expenses this year, while liquor IL
being sold, is no less than it would
be under prohibition. II we would
have q wartime taxation today
through the adoption Of prohibition,
Il follows that we must already be
paying wartime taxes, because the
total amount to be raised by taxation
is the Same whether people are drink
ing liquor or water. The greater
part Of the governmehts income is
derived from taxation. One of the
principal taxes is the liquor tax.
The .peepae 4pay shis liquor tax
exactly as they pay any other indirect
tax. Wiping out this source Of
revenue does not increase the total
amount Of money that must be raised
to pay the governments bills; it only
requires a readjustment Of taxes. IN
the end, the people will pay no more
per capita under prohibition than they
do now under the licensing Of the
liquor traffic. And il the people
have to pay adyway, what difference
does it make, 30 far as the paying is
involved, whether the settlement is
made across saloon bar OF across a
department store counter1 Pay they
must, in some manner; there is no
dodging that.
The taxation bugaboo is a creature
Of the imagination, designed by the
liquor interests to frighten 'timfd' per-
sons who might otherwise support the
prohibition cause. The argument
that is used is based on a false pre-
sumption, i. e., that the people do
not now contribute the license money
that the government derives from
granting permission to private parties
u sell liquor. We are told ty the
liquor interests that "they" contri-
buted such and such sum of money
last year toward the maintenance OF
the government. One would
imagine, from listening to their story,
that they personally dig down into
their pockets and hand this money
over to the federal and to the state
and city governments. Tommyrot!
The brewers and distillers contribute
not one cent more out of'their own
pockets to fedora. revenue on accoun,
of being brewers and distiilers than
any other class OF men contribute who
consume the product Of breweries and
distilleries. The man who buys the
stuf IS Me one who pays the tax,
And the revenue from this tax, from
the federal government standpoint, i.
large or small according as the con.
sumption of intoxicants is large OF
small. Ifthe people should tomor'
row refuse to drink or use alcohol OF
ANYTHING that contained alcohol, SC
that not one revenue stamp should he
again sold in this country, wha
would the brewers and distillers
boast Of "contributing" to the sup
port of the government amount to
The amount Of the revenue is solely
dependent on the quantity Of intoxi
cants consumed. We DO not have
two sources Of revenue, one from thu
people and one from the brewers
therefore it follows that II we elimi
nate the revenue from the licensiul
of the liquor business we do no
eliminate a soIrce of financial return
to the government. We have no
eliminated the people, and it is tn,
people who pay. What we hav,
done is merely to eliminate one OF th'
METHODS of making payment
We have made necessary an altera
ton in the remittance system,
The liquor tax system (Which i
simply device for paying taxation