El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1920-08-17

1 operation anywhere. No principle underles MT
schemes Of taxation; the sole consideration in fr most
tax Of all governments al ages is expedency.
Governments, whether national state, local. always
try to collect their tax money in the easiest and cheapest
way; they take money where they find it. they force
to pay those whom they force to pay and from those
that they cannot force they get money indirectly
There Is such thing equality OF as equity IN tax
alton Governments are Unsuitable in their demands for
money There is always degree Of resistance TO over
Governments impose the heaviest taxes upon those
least able to resist and the hght on nose VINO can ana
do resist those whom political policy N measure
sxempts
But those upon whom the direct burden Of tax paying
falls do not always bear the whole burden They find many
ways BY which they pass the tax on and by collecting
the initial tax in addition what would otherwise be the
normal price or charge they escape the direct deduction
lines Of business this IS generally possiDie IN
others very difficult; in some impossible Governments
seldom take note Of these differences and great inequality
results In this and many other ways.
In olden times the poor unfairly burdened by direct
taxes while the powerful mobiles escaped. As political
thought developed, the asses became more important as
political factors and in time became powerful that by
their voting power in democratic governments they sue
ceeded in shifting off their backs almost al the direct tax
burden They deceived themselves into thinking that the
harder they made It for the business and industrial com
uit the easier it would be for themselves They failed
to take into account the economic laws involved and only
considered the direct and visible results Of their taxing
policies.
Even sef-styled scientific tax students and experts"
seldom attempted to formulate real science Of tax
alton but have generally stopped with outlining plans by
which governments might collect huge sums without caus-
ing revolution actually wrecng business ana industry
ascience" Of taxation consists IN extracting money
from the different people in nation, state, OF locality IN
the avs least likely to overturn the existing economic and
political system and least likely to be disastrous for the
party in power In practice, taxation often and IN many
ways directly violates economic laws that are universally
accepted In theory.
Taxation is the most inconsistent and INDISPENSABLE
branch of government far It's actual methods are
concerned Only the ability Of most direct taxpayers to
pass It on and the prevailing ignorance Of the ECONOMIC
laws that inexorabIy make the majority share the pay
ents though they cannot precisely how when they
pay enable those who frame the taxing systems in al
m
is friction but not enough to stop the machinery
Tax the minority the most heavily and thus avoid
antagonizng politically the majority that must be made to
imagine itself exempted OF favorsd-that is rule Of
those who make tax laws.
Take money OF property where you can find it. regard
less equity is another Take from those who seem to
have large resources large income regardless Of how
they obtained them and let them whistle pass it on
Tax everything in sight, and tax the honest and the JUST
enough TO make up for what cannot be collected from the
dishonest and the unjust Some must and viii squea but
LET the few be pnched tin they squea and don't let
he majority think It Is not being especially favored These
are all political maxms Of long standing and general apP
cation They have far less force however, IN municipal OF
county taxation where relations with the people are close
than IN state and national taxation where reauons Win
the people are remote and comparatively Indirect
Thus It Is that tax systems, especially national and
state systems tend al the time to become more ana more
complicated and overlap always tending to add burdens
On the backs Of those easily got at and to impose be-
sides great variety Of indirect taxes whose final incidence
the great majority Of people not able to trace
considering only the prevailing methods Of taxation
this country, may be said that tax authorities divide
themselves INTO principal SCHOOLS
are substantially agreed that highly diversified system
Of taxation the only practical system from political
standpoint however ndefensibe It may be from an eco
uoc standpoint there are some who oeeve tna an TAX
alton should fall exclusively almost exclusively on
TANGIBLE and visible things, while others believe that tax
alton should fan principally ntanglbles and especially
on incomes In either case, the respective ad
vocates urge their systems most likely to distribute the
total burden equitably and al expect the pass It on
system 70 followed IN practice IN spite Of every device
Of law and regulation designed to prevent this very thing
There branch Of governmental practice more COM
uleated than tazaton there is about which more
bitter controversies have been Wageo none Is 70 "Cn
special literature is volumnous OF less informing OF
helpful All states and nations have had their numerous
successive taX commissions and exhaustive
ouIv TO end I'd in the way with confession that
eoutable taxation IS unzttainabe, and recommendations
for fe mora extreme diversifcation and complication OF
the taxing system Very rarely has any real sipcatlon
OF sv greater equity Of distribution Of the burden RESUMED
from these studies. The most that generally resus IS
new distribution Of available sources among the various
governmental groups ping On OF pyIa1lglg q Y"
taxes on those already heavily burdened and perhaps
political SOP to specially favored class, IN measure o.
ir1sqiuarv relief that says than It means
Burdens that have long been borne and to which the
people have become accustomed always preferred by the
great majority Of voters and by their political representa-
u ia stepted changes whose exact effects cannot be
known IN advance and might turn out to be worse than
what they designed to alleviate Thus those VINO
frame the tax laws have great hesitation about abandoning
Of the old Of tax REVENUE for fear they might
not so easily succeed with scheme even though II
seem, theoretically to be better
The socaed Hsinge tax land vaues' has very many
strong points in its favor from scientific standpoint But
It viii never be widely adopted in this country principally
for the that possible could be found under
our scheme Of government to apply it universally, pe-
nenty and with absolute justice and equity and to the
entire abandonment Of al other sources Of tax reyonue
All these are essential to the success Of the ngle tax
land values and they could not be attained under our
system Of government
The nearest approach it which been found prac
teal this country the partial exemption Of improve
ens and Of Stoos Of trade from taxation compared
with land values This partial exemption is almost uni
versa and II slight degree It IS an admission that the
nqe tax on values system least not al wrong
and not all bad One the Single tax land values
plan has never made much Roadway is that its original and
most prominent exponent Henry George developed his plan
IN that did not take sufficient account Of existing
political and economic conditions did not conform to &C
1afhod