The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1913-05-05
KANSAS CONAENT
MORE oUTRAGEoUs sPYING

MORE OUTRAGEOUS SPYING.
The forty-six thousand spies employed
by by the fed. federal government e must keep
are constantly at work prying into the
business, the business methods. the corre-
spondence and the private conduct of ciu-
zens of the United States. They nearly
always get something any man who Is
unfortunate enough to attract their at
tention. paid spy can be depended on
to make a case strong enough to secure
an indictment against suspected person.
The grand juries are constantly busy with
the besmirchment of men who are later
indicated by trial jurieS in the courts but
are always afterwards remembered as
having been in trouble with the federal
authorities.
The latest and one of the most outrage
Gus examples of this abuse of the spy
system, which reached its present perfec-
ton during the administration of Theo-
dore Roosevelt, is the Indictment of Dr.
R. A. Schwegler of the University of Kan
sas for receiving an unavailable book
through the mails. There is no finer,
cleaner, or better man in Kansas than DR..
Schwegler. He has long been one of the
most popular and useful teachers and
lecturers connected with the university
Al who know him respect his high char
preciate the valuable work that he has
done and is doing for the state.
certain German man Scientific work on pSysi-
ology that had been called to his attention.
He had never seen the book but in his
chosen field he needed more knowledge
and he thought there was something in
that particular book that would help him.
He ordered it through the mails; In due
course he was indicted, arrested, and
placed under bond like a common criminal
for no other offense than using the malls,
Illustrated in some part of its context by
the use of a picture that the postoffice in
spectors declare is obscene.
In October, this high minded, unselfish
teacher, respected, honored, and loved by
all who know him, must go into court
and defend himself from the prisoners
ALL tNzef he
charges of a government spy who keeps
busy to keep his job. This infamy has
occurred not in tyrannical monarchy but
in our own free republic that now EN-
ploys more spies than the czar of Russia.
How long, Oh Lord how long?-Salina
Union.
TAXES BREED TAXES.
It is not at all uncommon, but is
rather the rule, that a tax leads to a
tax. If it were not for the necessity
to raise an annual tax, the offices
of the county treasurer, county asses
sor, and half the work of the county
clerk could be saved. That is, to
every tax must be added the cost of
collection. But that is so necessary
that it needs no explanation, and COM
ment seems superfluous.
The principle of tax causing tax is
clearly illustrated in the license of
twenty-five dollars assessed against
every insurance company doing bust
ness in Wichita. n theory the COM
panies pay the Incense fee, and as
there are 104 companies doing bust
ness in Wichita, the city receives ST.
600 a year from this source.
The Beacon noted a fire insurance
policy today on business property. and
in fixing the rate was the sum of
five cents upon the 500, marked 'for
municipal tax" The company charged
that extra five cents on each hundred
dollars to meet the license fee of $25.
Without going into exact details, The
Beacon learned that the 104 companies
are carrying more than $4,000 900 in
surance on business property. At five
cents per hundred. that means SIS, 900
that the insured of Wichita pay the
companies to reimburse them for the
$4,000 they pay the city. Thus the COM
panies collect a tax on a tax which
nets them $4,000 a year, above what
they would earn if the license fee were
abolished The insured man pays a
double tax in order that the city may
derive the single one.
For every five cents the state de-
rives from its sand tax, the man who
sells the sand will collect at least 7k
cents, thus making the state tax an ex-
cuse for himself levying an additional
one upon the consumer.
1t requires a liberal education and a
philosophic mind to comprehend taxa
ton in all it's phases and remain calm
and mentally serene.-Wichita Beacon.