The commercial. (Union City, Tenn.) 190?-193?, 1919-02-21
Money Cheap as Water.

The Federal Revenue bill make!
an assessment of $4,000, 100000 fol
1919, and thereafter of $4,000, 900,
900 annually. 1t was generally be-
lieved that these taxes would BIZ
levied only for the reconstruction
period, but as no indication of that is
given, it is presumed that this rate
sof taxation is to continue indefinite
ly.
Congress, heretofore intrenched in
a lax system of appropriations, has
brought itself to believe that the
manner of levying taxes in war times
can be continued in peace times.
That body seems to be anchored
in the assumption that the people
have approved that course.
The war is practically. over, at
least many of us feel that way about
it, and yet we are going to be called
on for more money than we have
ever paid before, and this thing
@6eSluS W nave HO emu.
Now we presume that nobody,
lawmaker, official, or whoever he is,
will undertake to deny that we were
'extravagant and wasteful during the
war, but it was really necessary, we
take it, to make haste rather than to
bubble about the quantity and the
prices of things. No men will have
the hardihood to criticisc the war
program. He should not have.
But that we are to continue to
, appropriate in billions end to main
tain government on a war basis is
indefensible, and without apologies
we would say at once that change
of administration would be agreeable
if it were not fact that there are
no prospects, of relief in a change.
This statement is mGdc after having
some years ego been convinced that
there is an invisible political organi-
cation of the leading Democrats and
Republicans in Congress to control
legislation and patronage. We are
further convinced that this state of
things will continue until there is
revolution of some kiRd. l would
not altogether recommend a peace
able movement on the Capitol, but
if the old pile would tumble down
and mangle a few misguided ambi-
lions maybe it would awaken the
conscience in come and in others
realization CT the fact that coming
events cast their shadows before.
There arc 100000 of people
in the United States. 1t is stated
upon competent authority that only
four business persons out of every
one hundred are successful enough to
discharge all indebtedness and pro-
vide for a family. Say half the
population arc adults ubject TO
taxation. Then with this ratio two
millions of people arc paying the
taxes. Two millions of people are
supporting Inc CACCutlVc duu COH-
gressional branches of government,
the war bureaus and interminable
chain of councils and commissions,
leagues, courts, bureaus, and other
bodies commissioned by the Govern
ment. Two millions are supporting
the hundreds of thousands of people
on the Government pay roll, and yet
apparently without competent es-
innate, comprehensive survey, Con-
gress appropriatos as free cs water
hundreds of millions for this, that
and the other branches CT Govern
ment.
One fact is inexorable. There will
come pay day. Those who dance
must pay the fiddler. But while the
mills continue to grind for those who
can make political returns and while
gratuities are made to favored ones,
the conditions are not improving.
So is it strange that we are threaten
ed with the rcd flag and Bolshevism.