The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1911-01-17
The Case Of John Jones.

on money, enforced W means of the
convenient ferret. actually drive
men and money out of Iowae
1t surely does.
Take the case of John Jones, the
worn out farmer. who decides to sell
the farm and come to town to live
on his money As things are at pres
ent he would better rent the farm
and receive a moderate income from
1 it, paying the moderate real estate
/ tax on fraction of its actual value.
| But Mr. Jones doesn't want to be
i bothered with renters. He doesn't
want to see his nice farm run down
during their occupancy of it. And
above all he doesn't know what the
tax ferret is going to do to him. So
| he sells out his fat farm for $4,000
1 in cold cash. 1t is his plan TO deposit
/ it in the bank and draw per cent in
terest on it, That will give him an in
come OF $1,000. upon which he can
live comfortably in the county seat,
without q care to disturb his sleep o.
nights. The idea of paying interest
on his capital doesn't enter his calcu-i
lations. Most of the men with money
that he knows do not pay interest on
their capital.
The retiring farmer follows his pro-
gram as far as he can without the
interference of the ferret. He sells
his place for cash and deposits it in
hon 10 h1n No. full L.
willing to pay the per cent interest
he had counted on. Enter the ferret.
His keen eye has caught the real
estate transfer in the columns of the
newspaper. He looks it up in the re-
corder's office. Yes, it has been made
There is none recorded. The inference
lis that the farmer has received cash
for his farm. What did he do with it,
The ferret noses around and finds it
has been deposited in the bank. The
ferret lists that little bunch of capital
for taxation at the regular rate. 1t is
only a small fraction of the cash
slowed away in that bank, but the
farmer has been unfortunate in ac-
quiring his capital by route that
could be traced by the tax sleuth.
The retired farmer cannot swear
away that assessment. He has been
caught with the goods. Other men
can escape paving taxes on their
capital, but not he. So he walks up to
the treasurer's office to settle. He is
ready to pay taxes ON his money. How
much will it be? The treasurer makes
out the receipt. 1t calls for approxi-
mately per cent OF TIE whole $685.
900. That will be $500.
John Jones is dazed. That $500 is
half of his whole income from his
capital. IT he pays the tax he will
have only $500 year left. He can
not live on $500 year. Moreover, it
is utterly preposterous 10 ask him
to pay an income tax amounting to 90
per cent of his income. He protests to
the treasurer. He points out that
While he was on the farm, paving
taxes on his possessions in the form
OF real estate and personal property.
he did not pay any such enormous
tax. His tax in the old days. real
estate. cattle and hogs and all, ayerag-
ed around 500 year, sometimes a /
little more, sometimes a little less.
He will gladly pay the same tax on
his wealth in its new form 1t is I'M
fair and unjust to tax him so heavily |
merely because he las traded real /
estate for gold. He simply cant af-
ford TO pay $500 year for the privi- /
lege of living in town. Will the treas
urer accept a check for 500, or, at
the outside 1920? No, the treasurer
will not-he cannot. He gets down the [
code and shows the retired farmer
that the law says he must pay the
full tax on every dollar of cash in his
possession.
The farmer pays the tax-once.
And then he proceeds to revise his |
program, taking the tax ferret and the I
tax on moneys and credits into ac-
count this time. He inquiries among
his friends Do they know of any place
where man With a little money will /
be welcomed and treated as well as
a man with little real estate? Yes.
they know Of such places There are |
lots Of them. And little later the To- [