The Washington herald., 1915-03-16
The High Cost of Government.

The administration is in the position of the
young man who inherited fortune which he
thought it impossible to spend when he received
la notice from his bankers that he had overdrawn
his account. Three years ago when the Demo-
Gratis met in Baltimore, they denounced the
Iprofigate waste OF the money wrung from the
Ipeoplc by oppressive taxation through the lavish
appropriations OF recent Republican Congresses"
and they promised to return to that simplicity
and economy which BELTS Democratic govern
Imcnt" There a surplus of SI66 100000 in the
Treasury when the Democrats came into power.
They feared surplus and proceeded to reduce
it both by checking the inflow OF revenue and in
creasing the out-go OF expenditures, and Chair
man Fitzgerald now points to the danger OF a
huge deficit the issue of bonds. and the possible
increase OF vexatious taxes In two years the
Democratic Congress has appropriated $2,231,-
900 900. or nearly S2oo,oooooo more than its most
extravagant Republican predecessor, and the ad-
minstraion made strenuous efforts to secure
about SIooooo,ooo more. This same Democratic
Congress changed customs taxes which did not
reduce the cost OF living, and introduced new and
vcxatious taxes which call for an inquistion OF
every mans income. Then it added more vex-
atious taxes in time OF peace, and at the
close finds that it has used up all it's and
S1o5, 100000 OF the nest egg left by the Rcpubli-
cans in the Treasury.
The Democrats have learned how much easier
il is to spend money than it is TO get it. The
lesson is not alone TO the men in control OF the
administration and Congress. The impression
that Uncle Sam has inexhaustible fortune and
that money flows from the Treasury like a river,
has been growing with the people. 1t has been
preached from the pulpit, from the lecture plat
and
schools. The swelling chorus has been for ap
preparations and also for the restriction and
abolition OF vcxatous taxes though the two
do not 60 together ard taxes must first supply
the revenue before can be appropriated. This de-
:uaud that government shall be Little Father
10 the people has reached not only Congress but
the State legislatures and city councils until in
1913 the government cost IN the Inlted States,
as given by the Census Bulletin Wealth, Debt
and Taxation amounted to Sr,9o699-,S25 or $50. sol
per capita. Stuyvesant Fish estimates that the
government cost to the residents OF Greater New
orN. national. State and municipal, amounts to
S467I per capita, and to each head OF family OF
fyc $4,000 or IS cents a day.
Ii the tax collectors called upon each in
divdual citizen to collect $4672 there would be
howl OF Indignation sweeping over the land, but
thousands OF people who never the tax col
lcctor imagine that they ;rc not contributing
any OF this large cost, bat putting it the
prosperous and wcll-to-do citizens. Mr.. Fish
thinks these people mistaken. and that every
time taxes imposed upon business, bust
ness collects the taxes at the source and increases
the cost of living.
The predicamert of the present administration
in Washington is the predicament that will face
any people who go the theory that they can
spend without producing. 1t is the told story of
the and the grasshopper, but that story is so
old that il has been cut out OF the schoolbooks
to give place to un-to-datc literature telling how
a man lit himself over fence by his boot
straps.