The Brunswick news., 1917-05-24
STUPID AND VICIOUS.

revenue for the Caesarship imposing
1t. but the proceeds are always, in
the last phase. wrung from the sweat
cd forms OF men ane women who
must toll tbat they must live. In
creased production costs means but
tyo things--stationary If not shrunk
on payrolls and an increased cost to
the ultimate consumer And as the
| ultimate consumer is almost entirely
on the national bayroll in this line or
that he. Mr.. Common People in other
words, gets it right and left coming
and going, up the middle and down
the sides, on the bias and by the gore.
Jones, he pays the freight. says the
Macon Telegraph.
OF course, those businesses whose
raw material purchases are increased
to them ten or fifteen per cent by a
surtax before wheel ever turns on
il will eventually get from under
They will lose heavily enough and
their producing revenues will be so
shortened that the government will
moi extract as much from them as
st would by an intelligent system of
income and profits taxation, but Jones
pays the freight. The little fellow
In all the cartoons with the spec
tacles and the mutton crop or side
burn whiskers, whose one-time he
nignity and cheerfulness has given
way to u worried frown that is not
the mere fancy of pen and ink ar
list, for the necessities Of life have
koached such almost unreachable lev
els. is the man who will pay the most
of it.
That salary increase he expected
on the coming OF July !. the increase
he was promised. goes glimmering
with the arrival of surtax on the
business itself, on an increase in its
operating expenses. Everything he
buys goes higher because the tax on
other lines has made them all high
or in the retail markets. And all this
because there is good deal OF
spleen. much mutton-headedness and
very little of the responsibility OF
statesmanship embodied in the rank
and Hle of the men who so to the
pcat American congress.
The damning facts brought out by
Amos Pinchoh> in his address to the
ways and means committee should
bring this emotional and muddlo-
headed organization to something OF
n stop. Any bill, that taxes raw ma
terials or basic materials going into
active production in industry while
there ii still an available dollar left
untouched BY income and excess prof
It's tax the work of either a knave or
a fool. possibly both, for the former
puts the burden ON the already stoor
ing, swaying, reelIng, hungry poor
man aud the latter takes. the toll from
the rich and the strong and those who
will not suffer any real personal hard
ship,
But the coupon clippers and the
diroctorates and the interests oi
great and entrenched and largely UNI
earned incomes are not without re-
sources and influence at Washington,
The lady on the avenue doesn't want
20 give up single tidhit for her halr-
less Mexican wart dog, smuggling into
arms whore baby should be, II she
can possibly help It, and the fact that
the mother of the cottage or the tene
ment must cut down the milk ration
for her baby because il goes up a
cent or so pint means nothing III
her Young life And her lawyers ana
her friends and all those OF her IN
send their money and their agents
and their skilled under the cover
workers to Washington and flood su'
liblo journals with their propaganda
while our congressman listen hSs
owls and fall for the graft. Toe taN
on business operation is passed on ''
those least able to stand it, to thos'
( who have already suffered and paie
| by the sweat Of their work'tHrrowe'