The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1911-09-18
KANSAS COMMENT
FINED FOR HIS INDUSTRY.

A~NA~AO Ok HIS l1N0O01G
There are some queer things about
our system of taxation. Here is an ex-
ample: Once uCon a time the editor
OF TINS paper became possessed of the
laudable ambition to own a home
Having managed to save up few dol
iars' ne purchased upon the payment
pan some property which had been
! taken in on mortgage by an eastern
| investment company
/ The house was in such bad repair
that it was not fit for occupancy. The
cellar was full of stagnant water,
weeds grew rankly about the house,
the porches We're rotted and sagging,
/ the house unpainted The lot was q
couple of feet above the sidewalk and
the earth had washed and caved. MAX
ing it impossible. The place was an
| eyesore and a menace to health; we
wanted a home and saw its possible
tiles.
It was located in a good neighbor-
hood, and from it we had a beautiful
! view over pretty valley. Being rather
handy with tools, we went to work be-
fore and after office hours. We re-
paired the porches, painted the house,
sodded and terraced the yard and
drained the cellar and put in curbing
and parking. We worked early and
late, until at last we had, as many
homes in the town-and then the as
SCISSOR came around and doubled our
taxes.
We were fined because we had
worked hard and converted disorder
into order, ugliness into beauty, and
had wiped out a. plague spot in the
neighborhood. 1t is also true that the
owner of a few vacant lots adjoining
our place Immediately advanced them
in price, but neglected to cut the tall
weeds which grew on them. It may
be added that his taxes were not in
creased, Notwithstanding that he held
his lots at a higher price.
We have told this story because the
statement itself ought to cause some
one to do some hard thinking There
surely is something radically wrong
with a system of taxation in which a
person is fined for merely being indus
trious.-Delphos Republican.
BETWEEN THE HOOP AND HOOK.
Texas cattle men have been in SEES
sion at Fort Worth this week and one
point of great interest was the high
price of beef on the hook
When hogs were selling at 10 cents a
pound, the hog raiser understood that
pork must be very much higher than
when hogs sold at six cents. What
puzzles him later is that when the hog
declines to six cents, the drop in pork
is slow and not in proportion to the
slump in hogs
But beef has not been quoted very
much higher on the hoof 1t is true
that baby beef and corn fed steers have
brought higher values in markets. but |
the butcher stuff, the beef which sup
plies the average city hook, is not dear !
Four cents a pound on hoof is the |
price paid the cattle raiser for the |
class Of beef Westerners eat 1t is a |
poor animal which will not dress so |
per cent, making the beef cost the pack !
er eight cents a pound. Allowing him |
lis reasonable profit, the butcher should |
fill his hook at 10 or II cents per pound. |
The retailer must have two or three I
cents a pound for cutting, weighing /
and delivering. This makes the retail /
price 10 to IA cents.
Now there are many parts of the an
ma1 which cannot be sold even at what
they cost, so the best cuts have to sell |
for enough more Ito cover losses on
poorer cuts In large cities the demand
ior these best cuts exceeds the supply
md they soar beyond a proportionate
cost on the hoof.
But III Wichita and western cities
the price of beef on the hook
s not excessive. The man who will
Eat no beef except the IT bone" 6he
stealx), must not look at
he price of the COW on the hoof.-Wich-
ia Beacon.