St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1912-02-21
PRESS COMMENT
MP. FIetcher's Tax Inventories.


What do you most admire in a
man? Isn't it sincerity?
The Phoenix has received commu.
nications from people in Cavendish
| questioning the record of Allen M
Fletcher of that town as a taxpayer
In announcing his candidacy for
the republican nomination for gov
ernor last November Mr.. Fletcher,
in outlining the policies which he
favored, said that special attention
should, be devoted ito the removal
of the inequalities in the burden OF
taxation"
The best test of Mr.. Fletcher 5
sincerity in this matter would be a
free and frank statement of his own
record as a taxpayer.
| Mr.. Fletcher is reputed to be a
man of great wealth, in fact he is
frequently referred to as a million
aire. The complaint is often made
that the great difficulty with the
operation of our tax laws is that
the people of large wealth seem to
escape their fair share of the burden
of taxation.
Inasmuch as the record of Mr..
Fletcher on the tax question has
been raised in his own town it would
be entirely proper for him as a can
didate for the highest executive Of
fee in the state, to take the people
of the whole state into his conf
dence and to tell them exactly what
the facts in the case are.
If Mr.. Fletcher or any of his
staunch supporters will tell just
what he has done in making our his
inventory of taxes since he became
a resident of Cavendish The Phoenix
will gladly publish his statement
vermont Phoenix.
Doing Printing at Loss.
This is the season of the year
when the country printer is work
ing for others; working anywhere
from ten to eighteen hours a day
printing town reports, in nine cases
out of ten, at cost or an actual loss.
Why?
For two reasons:
1. Local pride in doing the work
of their town.
2. Because they do not know
what the work actually does cost
them.
The old way was to figure the
number of hours actually spent at
just what each man was paid; the
actual cost of the stock and binding
and that all over that was profit.
The method is living lie. 1t has
beat the printers of Vermont out Of
thousands of dollars.
1t is not actual cost.
Every job must carry its proper
ton of the cost of unproductive
labor, rent, heat, lights, taxes, in
surance, interest on money invested
in business, pay of owner at price
he would have to pay anyone for
doing his work, depreciation on
pIant-and type wears out fast and
must be replaced often.
The United Typothetae, which is
the name of the organization of ali
the employing printers of the coun-
try, has perfected a system so that
any printer can now figure the actual
cost of every job he does in his own
Office, and know what the average
cost of that job would be in all
printing offices in the country.
Measured by this system town re-
ports have been printed at an actual
loss by nine out of ten Offices for
the past ten years.
One dollar a page will simply
cover the actual cost of good work,
good stock and good binding for 800
copies.
Anything less is an actual gift to
your town, and, it is not appreciated
either.
No wonder that a majority of
printers are half fed, half clothed
and invariably poor.
Town officers must do their duty
and place the town printing where !
it can be had the cheapest in price, |
provided the quality is maintained. |
They are not to blame. It is
the printers themselves.
The worst of it is, that the loss
Is made up in a majority of cases,
BY soaking some one else on other
charging twice or three
lines what it should COST Nor
.isvilIe Messenger.
Two Vermont Laws.
Here are a couple of Vermont
avs that are sometimes overlooked:
Billiard and Pool Rooms.
Sec. 5673 of the Public Statutes
f Vermont reads as follows: Al
owing minors to play, against par
nts' request; penalty. The owner
r keeper of a public bowling al