The Punta Gorda herald. [volume] (Punta Gorda, Fla.) 1893-1958, 1919-03-06
STUpENDOUS BURDEN
LAID ON THE PEOPLE
BY the Government Because o1
the War
NO ONE ESCAPES TAXATION
A Billion Dollars a Year for Twen-
ty Years Required to Pay the
Huge National Debt.-Warning
to Legislators.

The earnest attention of tax
payers in general and of members
of the legislature in particular is
urgently directed to the follow
ing editorial from the Times--Un-
ion of Feb. Oath. Commenting up
on the speech made in the nation
al house of representatives by
Hon. Martin Dies of the second
Texas district, in which he warn
ed congress that the outrageous
and unparalleled extravaganza Of
that body and of the heads of
the departments and bureaus in
Washington threatens disaster to
the country, that great Florida
daily says:
This country is at the fork of
the roads. Either road will furn-
Isl: rough travelling for a while,
but one will furnish rough travel
ing to the end, while the other
leads to prosperity and to the
freedom which the founders of
this government planned and
fought for for their descendants.
We are burdened with a debt
heavier than anyone five years
ago ever dreamed of as being
placed OH a nation. 1t matters
not that it is smaller than some
other nations are carrying. This
is our burden and every man in
the country feels it. The only
thing to do with it is to get rid of
it by paying the debt in full.
The interest on this debt is as
large as the total expenses Of the
government were few years ago.
The payment of the interest and
the support Of the government as
it has been supported in the past,
makes it necessary for the people
to pay twice as much in taxes as
they have paid in the past. We
must make provision for paying
it. We ought to pay it at the rate
Of billion dollars a year, and, if
we do this, we must submit to
taxes three times as high as we
have carried in the past. In this
way. twenty years we will be free
again and, with out increased
wealth, the weight of taxation will
lie lighter than it has been in re-
cent years.
As Mr. Dies says, the United
States has not dollar of its own.
Every dollar it spends it gets from
the people If it spends what it
gets in meeting the necessary ex-
penses of the government econom-
ically administered and in paying
the principal and interest of the
nation s debts, it spends it in the
interest Of its owners--the people.
This is no time for taking on
new plans and expanding the ac-
tivities and expenses Of the gov
ernment. Congress should not ap-
propriate a dollar to an umeces-
sary purpose. With one hundred
people straining to pull
the government out of hole, it
is criminal folly to sink it deeper
by piling on extra burdens in the
of any class.
Mr.. Dies speaks of the income
tax reaching one man in eleven,
but, as a matter of fact, it reaches
eleven in eleven, though not in
equal proportion. The income tax
that the wool producer pays
makes him try to sell his wool for
a little higher price. Then the
buyer pays an income tax and
must charge the manufacturer a
little more. The manufacturer
tries to shift his burden on the
wholesaler who pays an income
tax and charges the retailer a
little more to make up for it. Then
he pays an income tax and tries