Bisbee daily review. [volume] (Bisbee, Ariz.) 1901-1971, 1910-07-16
THE CONCEALED BURDEN
OF THE FEDERAL TAXES.

Inc second session OF the SlRty-nfSt
Congress of the United States which
has just closed. voted away one bill
lien dollars of the peoples money. It
should have been the first session of
President Taft,s administration, but
it is the second, because he had no
sooner seated himself in the executive
chair than he called a special session.
which revised the tariff. The regular
session. which has just come to an
end performed the extraordinary feat
Of voting away billion dollars, and
as another regular session Is to as
semble next December the Sixty
first Congress will be able to make
a record.
A congress lasts two years. usually
with two sessions and only a few
years ago loud explanations at the
national extravaganza were called
forth when a two years congress APP
propriated a billion dollars. Now how
ever, billion dollars a session seems
to be the rule, which means a two
billion dollar congress.
The New York World. which has
been looking up the figures of past
appropriations and making COMPARE
sons. finds that during the four years
of Grover Cleveland's second admin
istration the total appropriations made
by congress amounted to s1.795,s sS..
0Is.
During the last four years of Roose-
welt TAFT and my policies" the to-
tai appropriations made by congress
amounted to So 7ss,O2s.2s2. This is
more than double the Cleveland ap-
preparations : an increase of nearly
50 OOO 100000.
The World mentions that Senator
Aldrich the republican leader of a
republican senate has said that the
affairs Of the National Government
could be run for sS0o.ooO.OOO a year
less than they are now costing. If
the American people think they are
not paying for this waste and extrav-
agance and jingoistic folly. will they
explain who is paying for it? If they
think these swollen expenditures have
no relation to the increasing cost of
living then where is this money COM
ing from? When. in addition to 10
cal and state taxation. congress is
also spending a thousand million dol
lars year somebody has to provide
the money and we have yet to hear
of a Carnegie or a Rockefeller endow-
ing the Federal Government.
While this is all true. the Ameri-
can people have made no complaint
of the vastness of the amounts that
are poured out of the National Treas
ury because they believe that its
proper function is TO pour out money
and benefits. They do not seem to
notice that the money which goes into
the treasury is derived from taxation
and comes out Of the peoples pockets.
The money which the people see and
handle is paper with the national i'm
print and they have a sort of indis-
tinct notion that the government
makes it, and can make unlimited
quantities at the cost only of the
paper and the printing. Moreover,
they do not realize that they are pay
ing taxes at all. as the tax is included
in the prices Of their food and cloth
ing their rent and their liquor and
tobacco
Therefore the Federal tax being con
cealed in the tariff and internal rev
enue charges is not noticed like the
state and city taxes. which are levied
direct on their homes. farms business
and personal property.
1t is the state and local taxes Of
which the people complain while the
enormous burden of the Federal tax
is lost sight of, but it is there all the
time. Some day but not soon the
masses Of the people viii wake up
to the serious situation.