Mountain Home Republican. [volume] (Mountain Home, Idaho) 1915-1946, 1918-03-23

Mr.. Simpkns gazed at rhe portra
on the wall till his eyes filed win
tears II was portrait OF his rather
Colonel Simpkins Tno had four flToss
been promoted for galor DUNG the
Civil War ana rad died braYsly on tnt
field OF action Nj Simpsins throat
achsd now for two reasons FIRST, hs
rsverenced and adored tha memory OF
his father; secondly, his age and his
eyes and his game leg wouldn't let MIN
70 to war himself And as ne observed
the martial bearing and uncompfomis-
ing gaze of Colonel SimpEins ne saw
In Imagination, the khaki-ciad lads OF
the new generation marching rorth anu
crossing three thousand miles OF sea 10
fight, maybe die, for liberty.
Mr.. Simpkins peered around to make
sure that neither Bess nor John twho
were at the teasing ages OF sixteen
and seventeen) were where they could
see him. then he slaughtered and
threw his right arm up for salute
But his equity shoulder twinged and he
groaned. He couldn't even salute.
Damn r. said Mr. Simpkins, and
with his other hand fiercely twirled his
white mustachios
He turned and limped into the IL
brary and sat down creakily before the
mahogany desk on which were lying
the blanks for his income tax state
ment, blanks which he had rather
grumpily got from the Internal Reve-
nue. officer only that day after lunch
con on his way home from the club,
Mr.. Simpkins' income for 1917 had
amounted to just about $4,000, and he
had been rather snappy on the sub
feet of taxes ever since he had dlscov-
cred that the more income man has
the greater the percentage OF II ne
pays In taxes He could think of sew
eral men who, like himself, We're mar
ried and had two children, and yet,
although their incomes were nearly
half of his, they would pay only
small fraction of the amount he paid.
He gloomily drew the blank nearer
and began filling In the information
that 1t asked for.
As Mr.. Simpkins' income was Sl5,WU
he had to figure out the amounts pay
able on each OF the successive smaller
classes of incomes In order TO arrive
at the total due from himself He
passed over the first class who must
pay taxes, that is, single men making
over 1000. esHis calculation for mar
ried men then showed up as follows
First. they pay per cent. (under
the 1915 law on all income over
$4,000, deducting $500 for each of their
children under eighteen years. In Mr.
Simpkins' case this was 1912, which he
put down In the payable column.
He saw next that, under the 1917
law, married men pay an additional z
per cent on all over $2000-with the
same allowance for children. This
added $3.50 to his payable" column.
He then observed that for every
$2,5O0 jump In his income over $4,000
he had to pay Surtax, the percentage
growing larger with each jump This
was $3.50 more added to his burden.
And on top of all this came an "Ex-
cess Profits" tax Of per cent on all
"occupa ton" income over $4,000, max
ing s720 more,
The total, then, he must pay was four
teen hundred and thrty-four dollars.
"Whewl' exclaimed Mr.. Simpktns
angrily. There's young Henry VIII
hins, who married Jake Johnson's girl,
he makes $1,000 and he doesn't pay a
cent OF taxes guess this is his war
as we'll AZ NINE
Thinking OF young Henry wilkins,
he remembered thai Mrs wilkins went
every afternoon 20 make bandsges for
the Red GROSS and that Henry, who
was lawyer, was aiding the Local
Draft Board with its questi0nnaires
well" he admitted to himself
"that makes y difference"
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