Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1915-11-12
POLLARD SCORES
TAX-DODCERS
Attorney General Answers
Those Who Threaten to
Leave State
ALL BENEFIT BY Law
Defends Statue and Takes Rap at
Apathetic Electorate. Which Causes
Cowardly Officers.

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who threaten to leave Virginia be-
cause there is a law providing that
banks may &c required to show list
Of their dcpt sitors and the amount
nlaceI to tlleir credit so the State
NAV be enabled to collect taxes on IN
visible property" said Attorney-Gen-
eral John Garland Pollard yesterday,
addressing the Richmond Advertisers
Club, "overestimate the importance
cf their residence in the State, ana
forget that. however, much we would
like tc have them with us, we can
not afford to pay the eXtravagant
price of unjust and unequal taxation.
when the opinion of the Attor-
new General with regard to the right
of the State to demand list OF de-
positors from the banks was published
few DAYS ago, storm OF violent
nrolest broke over the State. Men
said that the government has no right
10 vrv into a mans private affairs,
tha- the State was interfering Where
il has no business. But tell you that
no Commonwealth, in this country.
or anywhere else, has efficient tax
laws that do not provide for a more
or less personal! intimacy with tax
payers property.
Virginia hasn't been hoTcst- WIFE
her Taxpayers. Her laxness has been
responsible !or a generation OF tan
dodgers. The very man who could
best afford to pay his just revenue has
been the one to evade payment. And
vet some people have become very
much disturbed over the alleged hard
shir that the operation of the la"
will work to widows and defenseIess
women. But my opinion is that these
are the very people who will reap
benefit from its operation. In the last
analysis. it means that, with all the
revenue collected. tnat is justly due
the State. flcre will soon come IL
time when the rate of taxation IN
Virginia will be reduced, and then the
moor widow. for whom these people
are so much concerned. will come into
her own.
"Tt is perfectly natural that some
body should get mad. No great wrong
was ever righted without incurring
the i,l-will Of somebody, And that is
why public life has become unattrac-
tive. Unless you enter it with the de-
sire to do a real service, regardless OF
the opproIr;;um that will be heaped
mon YOU from some quarters, there
is little satisfaction in holding office"
NJ. Pollard was telling the adj
vertisers ''What I Think of Mr.. Good
Citizen" and was deploring the ap-
athv # the best element of the cleo
torate toward questions of govern
inert. This condition, ne said, is re-
sponsible for the disrepute in which
the "politic;an." is held. Public men,
Mr. Pollard said, have become
towards because they have not receiv-
ed the support that was due them
from those who are naturally sup
posed to be in sympathy with any
thire that will tend to better the COM
manly. "Rad men," said Mr.. Pollard,
"remember when things have not gone
/! ius. rs they would have them, and
stick together for revenge, while the
best people ere prone to forget and
do not always make a determined
stard for good government"
Mr.. Pollard said that he hope tc
see the dav when those who admins
ter the Affairs of government will be
encouraged 20 take the lead in. ques,
tions touching the public welfare,
instead of waiting to ''feel the pulse
of the people. Not until then, he said
will the "politician" receive his just
need Of praise.