Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1914-04-08
BRENNAN MAKES REPLY
TO NAGLERS' ATTACK
Offers Some Further Comments
on State Taxation.
And Shows How Recent State Legis-
Iation is Responsible for In
crease in County Taxes.

Louis Nagler, assistant secretary
of state, at Madison, made a rather
bitter reply in The Teller, two weeks
ago, to the published letter of County
Chairman w. J. Brennan on high
taxation matters, to which Mr..
Brennan has made the following
response:
eve are not going back to the
good old Democratic days and the pan
ic of 1893" Thus endeth his plea
for the people and his defense of ad-
mittedly high state taxes. Has it
come to this? Have the attempts of
the state tax jugglers to impress the
people failed and are they now foolish
as to parade before the "Barbaric
Yaps'' the long discredited boyle of
democratic panic? Panic! Would it
produce panic to relieve an overburd
ened people of unjust taxation and
strike down an army of useless
hangers on and officer holders? Yes,
verify it would among the profess
sional benifciaries who draw the IN
necessary excess. And SO comes our
informant, Nagler, beneficiary of
the system, with ideas of panic strong
upon him, not impressioned, fear,
with ideas for the saving of the
people from loss by panic, but rather
for the saving to himself of his long
held political emoluments.
l will follow the suggestion of
l.Harte and, in sympathy meet him
with gentleness:
To Say another is an ass-at least. to all
Nor should the individual who happens to
be meant
Reply by heaving rocks at him to any great
extent
Mr.. Negler, so l learn from the
Blue Book and newspapers, has held
good salaried office at Madison at
least since 1905, is now assistant
secretary of state and is engaged,
besides attending to our foreign poll
cy and signing automobile licenses,
in debating upon high taxes and in
support of them. Presumably he has
the time and certainly the inclination,
to devote himself to detailed matters
of state taxes as expounded by our ex-
pert statisticians but, like the rest,
little time to consider COST of state
government. have neither the time
nor inclination to devote myself great
ly to either and, in as much as the
real cost of administration is either
suppressed or juggled, must depend
largely upon the Blue Book, which
contains much of the autobiography of
our useful statesman and little of de-
finite information. Mr.. Nagler is in
politics. | am not, and would not
have or accept any public office, con-
sequently my only interest is that of
an ordinary citizen.
1t requires no expert knowledge to
discover that the cost of state admit
nistration is grossly excessive and
that the host of office-holders is use
less and expensive luxury to the
people. No figures that | might
state and no Juggling of figures by
tax commission experts can empha-
size or minimize the fact that the
people are grossly overburdened by
public expenditures and taxation.
The taxes speak for themselves we
have just paid them and no amount of
explaining or argument can change
the fact or return the money paid.
Neither are the people foolish
enough to believe that the immense
taxes paid by the railroads, the in
surance companies, the telephone and
telegraph companies and other public
service corporations are not an in
direct burden upon the people and
tax paid by them. The people we'll
know that the corporations add this
excess as a legitimate cost of their
business. Would not the rate com
mission perforce consider it such in
arriving at reasonable rate? For
example: The hardware merchant
some years ago paid eighteen cents
freight on key of nails; now he pays
twenty-three cents, an excess of five
cents to the company to cover the cost
of business. The merchant, necessa-
rily, to keep up his legitimate profit,
adds 4he difference to his selling price
and it is paid by the consumer. And
so are all of these taxes paid Ill
timately. Other state receipts
come directly or indirectly from peo-
pie whether it be in the way of in
heritance or income tax or license
fees.
The greatest imposition is not at
bottom so much a matter of state
taxes as of state expenditures and the