The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-08-30

A ' M on religion. politics or the prop
 ! CT way of driving golf ball. there is one topic on which they are all in one accord. Taxes are too high" But do you know why taxes are too high? It Is because of human nature just plain human nature.
 Human nature Is the most expensive commodity on the face of the earth. You will believe that when you have stopped to think Do you know what would be the average tax rate-to fix upon one of the effects of human na- ture--if every man in the world were absolutely honest? That Is, If every man came right out fat1y and declared the real value of his taxable possessions? The rate would be just five mills-$5 thousand Instead of that 1t averages nearer $20 a thousand. That is because l 1t is just plain human nature for a man to shade down the real value of his earthly goods. He thinks he's rather clever when he gets away with 1t. It seems to him that he's been pretty smart about showing a little of the tax bur den on some other fellow. But, unfor- tunately. that is every mans tendency. Somehow it is human nature to want to squeeze down your taxes all you can. Yet when everybody does 1t the only effect is to push taxes all the higher. The cost of running the community or the state is always high or going high er-another effect of human nature; and when everybody tells the asses sors he has only $10.Oo0, when he really has twenty, the tax rate has to bs 1 high to raise the necessary money for l the state or the community.
 And why is the cost of running the state going higher all the time? Be-. cause it Is human nature-a fine side of human nature-for every citizen to want the state to build new orphan asylums, new insane asylums, new hospitals, institutions of every variety,
 better roads. new bouIevards. It is hu-
 man nature in us that everlastingly
 craves improvement. We are properly proud to achieve improvement. The only trouble is that we seem to inn prove everything except human nature. l Because it is human nature for some man in the states employ to give his brother -in-law a fat contract instead of letting 1t out to the lowest bidder,
 we stumble and fall in our very acts of improvement.
 | Pennsylvania has one Of the finest
 bodies of police in the world-the
 mounted constabulary. The whole couh- try is proud of it. New York and Mas sachusetts are aching to have an exact copy of that superb organization. And yet it is, when you think of 1t, unfortu- nate that any state has to have such
 a body of men. Wherever you go on the
 face of the earth you will find elaborate police systems to keep you in order. Ard yet if human nature were only little
 better, if it were not so prone to steal
 and kill, think of the policemens wages
 that might be saved and spent on things l that would make life far better.
 If you think this Is an extreme or fanciful view, let's go back to simpler illustrations. It is calculated that every year we burn up about $250,000,0 900 worth of property. Most of the fires that
 cause that huge loss are preventable, | Still 1t Is in human nature for us all | to be careless with matches and cigar | ettes And so human nature costs us i s250 0cO, ,000 a year in fires alone. Nay, it costs us more besides. No prudent
 property without having it insured. H.
 may own that property all his life, all the while paying good insurance money on it, without having the misfortune of a fire; he has been insuring him. self against human nature, his own and somebody's else. But only think of the huge sums we should have .l blow on more amuseins and improving things than fire insurance, If human nature were good enough. let us say, so that we could halve the insurance bill That is not too great a degree of per lection to demand of human nature lcertainiy.
 Just now state after state is trying Ito knock out rum by one or the othe, stringent measures of prohibition. Will
 that really knock out booze entirely!
 Never. Not until something substantial
 is done to knock out the idea of run
 in human nature. It isn't the law. it's human nature that permits the salocr to exist. If you are after temperance you must go deeper than to knock out the saloon; you must get after the pro-
 pensity to drink. But again it is hu- |, man nature in us that makes us want things done in hurry, and so we go
 for the saloon rather than for the slow
 process of education that is necessary
 before we can eradicate the propensity
 to drink That process Is too slow t. suit human nature.
 Every now and then some high mind cd philanthropist knocks down a row } of dingy tenements, and in their place builds model row of houses, fit fol anybody to live in, with plenty of bath. 5 rooms and with geraniums in the win dows It is fine. We can't have too many model tenements. And yet if the pee. , iple who occupy those tenements ar, t not keyed up to geraniums and c1eanli ] ness they will either flee your tene : ments or let the geraniums die. It. human nature. The place where you'v,
 got to begin building your model tene
 Iments is in the minds and hearts Of tn,
 poor. If you don't begin there the. won't be able to live up to your fin, buildings. There Is another slow pro
 cess of education asking to be started