The Athena press. [volume] (Athena, Umatilla County, Or.) 18??-1942, 1914-07-03

Should Tax Vices Instead Of Property.
In Rich, Prosperous Community
Taxes Are No Burden--In Com
munity Where the Local Town Is
Dead Taxes Are High.
copyrighted, 1914, by Thomas J. Sullivan. ]
Taxing is an easy business. Any
new official can contrive new imposi-
tions, any bunger can add to the old,
but is it altogether wise to have no
other bounds to your impositions than
the patience Of those who are to bear
them?
What benefit the government
would render the state, the city, the
village and hamlet IL 1t would but tax
vices instead of property. Bonaparte
said he found vices very profitable.
He got $5,000,000 annually from the
lovers Of brandy, and he wanted to
know what virtue would pay him that
much.
Taxes Increasing Each Year.
Taxes are the sinews Of the state,
and they are indeed heavy, but if those
laid by the government were the only
ones we had to pay we might more
easily discharge them, but we have
others, and much more grievous to
some of u.s. .,-.
We are taxed twice as much by our
ignorance, three times as much by our
disloyalty and four times as much by
our folly, and from these taxes the
commissioners cannot ease or deliver
us by allowing an abatement.
The state, county and town levy and
exact n certain tax from every piece of
property located within their bound
aries, the amount depending upon the
official requirements. In rich, pros
porous community, where marketing
and manufacturing lend their stimulat-
ing influences, taxes are low. A com
munity where the local town is dead
taxes necessarily are high.
The explanation is easy. The town
which is prosperous has successful
merchants with large and valuable
stocks of goods; 1t has manufacturing
plants and industrial enterprises of
great worth; 1t has newspapers, bank
ing houses and hotels, and, above all,
1t Is marketing center. The large
amount and the high value placed upon
this property materially decrease the
tax demands made upon the farmer in
that vicinity.
Streets Paved With Jimson Weeds.
Then take the other town, the dead
town. What are the cause and effect?
The cause is lack of patronage. lack of
Industrial pride, disloyalty and igno-
rance of ones own condition and best
interests. The effect? The town has
become 'jny" town. In the streets
have grown jimson weeds, the side
walks have gone to decay, the stores
are vacant, and an air of poverty and
dlapidation prevails. ur
ia this latter town and the surround
Ing community taxes are high, prop
crty values have decreased, and alto
scther 1t is an undesirable place to live
in, and the disposition Of such property
Is an impossible feat,
AS we stand and survey the ruins of
once prosperous and promising city
We turn to the once successful retail
merchant, now standing in the door of
his empty store. and ask for the an
SWer.
Briefly he makes reply: "The retail
catalogue houses. Our residents In this
community became hypnotlzed by their
pictures and prices and misrepresenta-
tions, and this Is the result
On the Altar of Greed. -
They sacrificed their own interests
and their own town on the altar of
greed and Misunderstanding. ..
The farmer should easily compre-
bend that when a stock of goods In
store is depleted one-half or more 1t
cannot be taxed for more than its
value, and In case the merchant for
lack of patronage is forced to retire
altogether from business then there
remains nothing to be taxed but the
building. And what can 1t be taxed
ut provided a tenant who is willing to
take chance with his money cannot
be found? Eventually the farmer will
have to pay the taxes, This merchant
formerly paid, and II the farmer con-
tinues throwing his patronage to out
side concerns he will continue to re-
duce local values and increase his
taxes.
Reflect Too Little.
Some farmers read too much and re-
fleet too little--depend too much upon
others, too little upon themselves
They make of their heads cold storage
warehouses for other peoples ideas
instead of standing UP in their own
independent, godlike individuality.
Reading and rereading of mail order
catalogues leave man in about the
same condition MS Mark Twain's toad
with its stomach full Of shot.
What do the mail order houses do
for the farmer? DO they relieve him
OF any of his tax burdens? No; they
Just relieve him OF his money, 1t is Il
case Of representation without taxa
ton, and we fear in time this manner
alld method of doing business will
cause n revolution among the pro-
ducers and consumers which will
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