The Nevada County picayune., 1918-05-23

Tssss Are No Burden--In . Com munity Where tho Local Town 10
 Dead Taxss Are High.
 Copyrighted, 1914 by Thomas J. Sulliyan.l
 Taxing is an easy business. Any new official can contrive new imposi- tions. any bungler can add to the old, but is it altogether wise to have DO other bounds to your impositions than the patience of those who are to bear them7
 What benefit the government would render the state, the city, the village and hamlet If 1t would but tax vices instead of property! Bonaparts said be found vices very profitable. He got $5.00O,OO0 annually from the lovers of brandy. and he wanted to know what virtue would pay him that much.
 Taxss 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 gIievous to some of us.
 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 tho commissioners cannot ease or deliver us by allowing an abatement.
 The state, county and town levy and exact a certain tax from every piece of property located within tbeir bound aries. the amount depending upon the official requirements. In rich, pros porous community, where marketing and manufacturing lend their stimnlat- 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, it is a 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 Jrson Weeds.
 Then take the other town, the dead town What are the cause and efYectf 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 jay" town In the streets have grown jimson weeds, the side walks have gone to decay, the stores arc vacant. and an air of poverty and dtlaptdation prevails.
 h this latter town and the surround ing community tares are high, prop srty values have decreased. and alto : gether 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 a 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 be makes reply; "The retail catalogue houses Our residents In this community became hyHuot.aed ny their pictures and prices and misrcpresenta- tious, and this is the result. .'
 On the Altar of Greed.
 They sacrificed their own interests and their own town on the nltar of greed and misunderstanding.
 The farmer should easily eompre- bend that when stock of goods in n store k depleted one half or more 1t cannot be taxed for more thaH it's value and in ease the merchant for lack of patronage k forced to retire altogether from business then there remains nothing to be taxed but the building And what can it be taxed at provided tenant who is willing to take a chance with his money cannot he found? Eventually the farmer will have to pay the taxes, This merchant formerly paid. and if the farmer con tinues throwing his patronage to out side concerns he will continue 10 re- duce local values and increase his taxes.
 Reflect Too Little.
 Some farmers read too much and re- fleet too llttle-depend too much upon others, too little npon themselves They make of their heads cold storage warehouses for other peoples ideas instead of standing up in their own Independent. godike individuality Reading and ereading of mail order catalogues leaye man in about the same condition as Mark Twain's toad with it's stomach full of shot
 What do the mail order houses do for the farmer? Do they relieve him