Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1919-07-01
THE MAN THAT MAKES THE TAXES,

entirely. The excess profit tax will be cut
from thirty and sixty-ive per cent to- twenty
and forty per cent.
This year it is expected that nearly billion
dollars will be collected in taxes on wines,
beer, liquor and spirits. This source of reve-
nue. is lost when prohibition takes effect next
year. Less than ten million dollars of this
loss will be made up by tax on soft drinks.
The fiscal year of 1918-19 is the most ex-
pensive in the history of the country. The
total disbursements for the year are, close to
,0OO,O0O,00O. The disbursements of
$1,917.000.000 in 1865, the year following
the Civil war, were trivial in comparison. In
1899, Immediately after the Spanish-Ameri-
can war less than billion dollars was ex-
pended in running the government.
At the beginning of the Civil war, that is
July /, 1851, our national debt was $90,5S1,-
600. At tho end of that war we owed some
thing like $2,680, 000,0 900. After the Spanish
American war our obligtions were $1,817,-
$4,000, and this sum had increased to about
So, 900, 100000 just before the outbreak of
the great worlds war. Today our national
debt is about $25,000,000,000, which money
was raised by Liberty Bonds.
The United States is the least Buraened
with debt, when all things are considered, of
all the countries of the world The latest
figures available show that France in 1917,
with an annual revenue of $961,000, 900 was
expending annually $8,130,0 It is
figured that now her total debt is over $780,
000,00O,00O.
In 1916, Germany's annual receipts were
$50, 100000, while she was spending
$3,1S1, 100000. Her debt is said to be more
than $20,226,0 100000 without the additional
burden that will be imposed upon her by the
terms of the peace treaty. Beside the ma
tional debt, German states have their private
debts, just the same as the various states of
our union have their own obligations.
Italy in 1917 raising about $1,000,-
100000 annually if taxes, while the annual
expenditure was more than three times that
much.
England is estimated to have obligtions
close to $40 ,000, 100000. In 1918, the total
revenue of the United Kingdom was $3,442,-
600, 900, to meet annual expenditures of
SIS, 900, 100000. At that time her debt was
close to $3O,O0O,000 900.
Very little is known of Russiais debt since
1915. Then there was being raised annually
about $1,000, 100000 while the annual cost
of operating the government was four times
that much. Russia's debt was $22,774 ,O00,-
600 at that time, but it has increased in leaps
and bounds since then, as the present govern
ment is ssuing its own paper money without
any security behind it as fast as the presses
can turn it out.
Mr.. Mccoy denies the claim recently made
that taxes in this country have increased
1000 per cent. In 1914 the annual revenue
was about one billion dollars This year it
will be about six billion, increase in
taxes of about 500 per cent. The increase in
taxes in England is estimated to be about
1 100 per cent.
Here is an interesting comparison of the
income tax in various countries
"A married man with salary of $4,000 in
the United States pays $50 taxes; in England
he pays $21094; in Canada he pays $40; in
France he pays $31.25.
man with an income of $1,OOO,OO0 in
the United States pays in taxes $703,O3O; in
England he pays $519,687.50; in Canada he
pays $499,157; in France he pays $685.
1890.
In the United States a man with an income
of $4,000, 000-and according to Mr.. Mccoy
there are ten or twelve of them-pays
$685. $50 income tax.