Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1919-02-16
Mr.. COMMON CITIZEN TO GET
j a JAR WHEN HE SHOPS ON MAY Il
Jaunt About the Stores Will Show That
When He Buys Necessities Uncle Sam
Has Taxed Them as ''Luxuries.

you had to pay 10 per cent tax on
| the excess; petticoats and waists you
! paid a tax on where they cost more
| than So each, and on nightgowns
i and underwear you paid the tax on
| each article that cost over So.
Wife "Looked Around" Too.
MY wife is patriotic, and think
she looked around TO find things
which went over the prices allowed
free of tax. She was pretty success
full. too.
dress department next, and my wife
looked over a lot of female hand
me-downs. Every one of them ran
into money. and l was feeling
jumpy' again about that tax. She
picked out q, couple for herself and
some more for the little girl.
what's the tax asked the clerk.
l wanted TO beat him to il.
No tax he said. There's no tax
on dresses for women and girls. nor
any tax on suits for men and boys
What do you know about that,
friends? Here was l thinking l was
getting the hang of these taxes and
run up against this proposition. You
can buy $50 dress without tax, but
you can't buy a s12 pair of shoes
Those congressman who framed the
taxes don't know the difference be-
tween a luxury and a necessity
don't believe they know the differ
ence between a hydraulic ram and a
papal bull
High Cost of Sundaes.
after we had rounded up the
clothes the family needed every one
was feeling better. except me. There
was soda fountain near by. and
lea the family IN We ordered ice
cream sundaes all around. In this
place the price of sundae is Is cents
When ] got the check it read IS cents.
Waiter said, how do you figure
the cents?
ITS like this. sir he said, there's
a war tax beginning today on all soda
water, sundaes-1 cent for eacn 10
cents or part of 10 cents the drink
costs
I'VE were passing drug store when
my wife said there were some th'r gs
she must get. In we went, md ]
learned that for every % cents / paid
for perfumes. toilet waters, tooth
paste, etc, that ] purchased I had to
pay l cent extra as tax. There were
some pills, powders and other patent
medicines my wife wanted to take
with her, and on those I had to pay a
tax of 1 cent for each IS cents of the
price. also.
I'VE picked up some kodak films.
candy and chewing gum as we were
going along, and ] found that the
price of all of them had gone up. and
the clerks told me ii was due to the
war tax on them. These taxes. he said
the manufacturer pays, SO IL is pass
ed along TO the consumer, and you bet
the consumer pays twice that tax
when he gets the article
The boy and girl wanted some ten
mis- rackets. and these were up. too,
because of the manufacturers tax.
Trials of the Smoker.
about that time / sent the family
home and turned into my favorite
tobacco store to pick up q few
smokes, and blame me IL they hadn't
added on a few cents to the price
war tax.
Then 1 went to the club to pay
my dues I had a feeling they were
about to spring something new on
me, but / found all i had to pay was
the same old 10 per cent tax which
had been paying for more than
year.
Tonight we all went to the movies
and the tax was just the same as
yesterday, and then I came on down
to the Union station to buy the tick
cts for the family to go away with.
and the tax was s per cent on the
transportation. just as last summer.
per cent instead of 10 per cent"
The Common Citizen stopped his
flow of talk and took notice Of the
fact he had reached his destination.
I'm getting on here" he said.
ssSlv il