Arizona republican., 1912-05-13
Simple Plan of Arranging Payments Leads Rich Men to Fight for
 Privilege
YELLOW PERIL
 HAS VANISHED
Graceful Act by Japan Helps Dissipate War Scare; Other News
 of Gotham

NEW YORK, May 12- As the re- suit of the introduction of new system of collecting taxes, New York is now enjoying the unique spectacle of a mad scramble among her many milliOnaireS to see who shall be first ! to turn into the city coffers the money due on their large holdings Heretofore. particularly among the more wealthy the annual city tax has been an item to be sworn off if possible or failing this to be paid at the last possible moment But by the new system Father Knickerbock- CT has succeeded in hitting the ul- tra- wealthy in their most sensitive i point, that is the pocket book, and 1 as a result has had them actually | begging for an opportunity to dis ! charge their obligation in this con-
 nectiOn to the city. The new sys- tenn is so simple that it is surprising
 that has not been tried before. It consists merely in making taxes pay l able in two installmentS, six months apart, with a provisO that there will | be a rebate at the rate of four per | cent a year on the second install 1 ment provided it is paid with the i first As this amounts to more than | one per cent on the whole tax for 6 year. a figure considerably in excess | of the tax rate, the result is that ] the largest property owners are max 1 ing every effort to get their money i into the hands of the city as rapidly
 as possible On the first day of i tax collections under the new system 1 a line nearly a sixth of a mile long i obStructed the sidewalk in front of 1 the collectors office and of the Sl5o. l 0O0,0OO due it is estimated that more l than twenty million dollars were paid | in. How different this situation was ] from the old one under which delays and populations until the last mom- ent were the chief feature is indicat- ed by the fact that in spite of every effort it was impossible for the city 1 officials to check up and deposit more | than one fourth of this amount Ten l million dollars in collections were re- i ceiVed during the first two hours af- ter the opening of the office and so ] great was the rush that the clerical force numbering seventy-five was lit erally SWamped. Altogether if the first day collections under the new
 plan is an indication if it's efficiency, it will not only be continued in thi.
 city but doubtless copied widely
 throughout the country.
 The latest tabulation of figures at this port serves sharply to accen- tuate one of the changes in the vast tide of immigration that flows into 1 the United States from Europe every
 year which has puzzled and alarmed 1 students of this subject of late More
 than four-fifths of all the immigrants
 arriving here fifty years ago came
 from the countries of northern Eur ope with Germany in the lead where
 as at present an equal proponder- ance comes from southeastern Europe With the SlavOnic races and Italy SUD-
 plying fully three -fourths of the total 1 Many studies have been made and 1 many theories advanced to account
 for the change. The latest of these
 is put forward by an expert who has just returned from prolonged study of economic conditions in northern
 Europe. While it seems somewhat
 startling at first blush, agricultural
 authorities here agree that it is we'll
 founded This observer asserts in
 short that the responsibility for
 changing the currents of European
 migration so remarkably rests with
 no more formidable agent than the
 sugar beet which he points out has
 revolutionized the agriculture of Ger
 many and to great extent of all
 northern Europe 'The reason the
 Germans and their neighbors formerly
 came Hooking over here" he says
 was because their fields couldn't pro
 duce enough to feed them Since
 that time they have trebled their grain yield per acre through system ; attic use of the sugar beet in rota- tion with other crops, and, as this en- |, ables them to live comfortably and even prosperously at home, naturally , they have stopped seeking new coun-
 tries. The sugar beet industry is not
 adapted to southern Europe and con-
 sequently there has been no such az
 ricultural improvement there and the
 people of these countries are crossing
 the Atlantic in steadily increasing
 numbers While the knowledge of
 these facts may not help us much in
 changing the character of our immi-
 grafton. we may at least profit by the lesson of Germany and by en-
 couraging the cultivation of the hum- , ble beet stimulate our declining ag-
 ricultural production so that we will be able to feed our rapidly increas- 1 IDoo