The St. Mary banner. (Franklin, Parish of St. Mary, La.) 1889-1931, 1909-12-11


tax, they might do well to study the
system as applied in Japan. over
there all incomes of $4,000 and up
wards year are taxed the little tribe
of 68 percent.
DR.. Thomas E. Green, well known
as an author and traveller, has been
making a careful study OF this ana
similar matters, and has reported IN
Hampton's Magazine the extremely I'M
portant results Of his Investigations.
In Japan, he points out, everything is
taxed from the land you own, or rent
and till, to the salt you eat, the Oil
you burn, the railroad ticket on which
you travel, and the laborers employed.
If your business is of sufficient mag
nitude to require additional help, you
must pay a yen tax for every new
hand you take on. You are taxed COM
ing and going, waking or sleeping, lv-
ing or dead. Not because the gov
ern wants to, but because the gov
eminent must. In this connection
Mr.. Tatsugoro Nosse, Consul-General-
at-Large for the Occident, the head
of the consular service of Japan in the
two Americas, made this significant
remark to DR.. Green:
The wonder is that the people bear
it willingly"
There is the land tax. The renter
pays on the basis of his net earnings,
the landlord on the rent it brings him.
A farmer lives with his family on sew
en- tan of land. On what it yields him
he pays q percent to the support of
the government.
There is the income tax, assessed
not upon fanciful and scaled down
statement, but On an estimate made
by the government itself in land
where the government knows.
Previous to the Russian war the
man whose income amounted to or
exceeded $4,000 per annum paid So
percent of it to the government. Now
he pays 6S percent! Out of his $4,000
income he hands $4,000 over to his
country! Was it any wonder, asks
DR.. Green, that my friend, the Consul
General smiled when he said: You
see, we have very few millionairies in
Japan"
There are only two men in Japan
who pay tax on an income in excess
of $4,000. There are only twenty
three who pay on an income of over
$4,000. But the average man pays
an average tax of 80 percent of his
entire income to the government.
Where else in all this wide world do
you know of patriotism SO absolutely
dominating as this?
l have before me the government
schedule, says DR.. Greene. There are
the inheritance tax and the business
tax; the registration tax, covering the
licensing of all profession and the pro-
lection of all patents and copyrights.
There is a tax on sake and beer; a
tax on medicine and tax on soy the
native sauce) whether you buy it or
make it; tax on sugar, on woolens,
on silks; a tax on kerosene oil; a
tax on mines, and banks; tax on
every mile you ride on the railroad
which the government owns. The Yo-
kohama Brewery entered in its year.
ly statement an item of 5000 yen ex-
pended for advertising and the gov
eminent taxed it as an asset! On the
proposition, presume, that advertis-
ing pays!
Then there are the customs, not ex-
cessive, by the way, and having on
books, manure, and the material for
the manufacture Of matches.
And that isn't all. The government
owns other things besides the rail-
roads and the telegraphs. It owns the
tobacco monopoly. 1t compelled the
American Tobacco company to sell its
Japanese properties at fair valua-
ton and to retire from Japan. You
can raise tobacco, if you register your
intention, but you can't sell it, save
to the government, and at the govern
ment's price; and the government
forthwith manufactures and sells at
its own price. No one but the govern
ment can import pound, raw or man.
ufactured, and total of 100000 yen
was the governments profit for last
year.
The salt monopoly has not been so
successful. The people seem to have
been able to quit eating salt! The
camphor monopoly of Formosa is also
in the hands of the government, but
that is largely foreign trade, little be-
ing used in Japan.
When all these things were estimat.
ed and totaled it was found that at
the lowest possible estimate the
budget called for 615,95S,339 yen,
and that the total available in