The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1920-04-06
Piling Up the Tax Burden on the
People. Note of Warning Sounded

AANCAcu IA montgomery ny EOIhAOI
Governor Emmett O'Neal, who is a
for the United States SEN
ate in Alabama, forcefully calls at
tention to the trend Of present-day
government toward the oppression of
the people with taxation, and gives a
warning that should be needed. Gov
ernor O'Neal said:
Dangerous Innovations.
"Have we departed from the teach
ings of the fathers? Have we de-
parted from their wise, simple, fair
and economical system of govern
ment? Rashness, bitterness, disre.
gard for far play have their indirect
results. We find our law makers de-
parting from the idea of simple gov
eminent, cheaply administered. Many
laws, mostly unneeded, many of them
merely to make jobs, are imposed on
a long suffering people. The same
legislature, the same congress, that
imposes one drastic law on the people
comes to have a contempt for the peo
lust for their pocketbooks. We are
just getting fairly started toward a
good government so some of our ad-
vanced and forward looking people
tell us.
Unjust Taxes.
'Now, in time of peace, we are told
that nine billion dollars is the very
lowest sum that will be needed next
year to run the national government.
Our state and national governments
are so clogged with useless officers
that it becomes difficult to get any
sort of work done by them, one does
a little, and yet another does little,
and a number do nothing but draw
pay, until the man is indeed unfortu-
nate who has business with our gov
eminent red tape. The very trains
and hotels are crowded with state
and federal officials running up and
down the land at public expense.
Taxes are going upward by leaps and
bounds. But the expenses of the tax
collection are going up even more
rapidly. The tax assessors no longer
value your property, but a horde of
new officials with field agents going
here and there are foisted on the peo-
pie. New and unheard of taxes are
borne by our people. Even the chick
ems are taxed. In fact everything is
taxed except the house cat. 1t is a
grievous burden even to make out the
returns for the tax system. The
finance minister of one of the greatest
despots that ever lived advised his
master that the 'wisest scheme of tax
alton is to get all the feathers off the
goose with as little squawking as
POSSIBLE We Alabamians and we
Americans are geese all right, but 1t
remains to be seen whether we will
stand for the plucking without remon-
strating. The numerous officials
make the tax blanks harder and hard
err to fill out, until even lawyers, bank
ers, and cabinet ministers make gfea'
mistakes after great labor IN making
their returns.
Paternalism.
"Another sign of the times is that
many people expect the government
to do everything for them. So far
have we departed from the ancient
land marks that the school teachers
tell us that in the home lives of our
people there is an absence of parental
instruction and parental control. l
do not prophesy, but / remind you,
nv hearers, that if any man had told
you thirty years ago that we Ala
bamians would submit to government
burdens, government tyrannies, such
as we now have or bear, he would
have been laughed at as dreamer
and a fool. These invasions of per-
sonal rights have not come all at once.
Like Bismarck and Caesar, all usurp-
ers of power, all enslavers of free
peoples, have encroached little by lit
tie until slavery slowly supplanted
freedom. Let me remind you of the
fact that numerous uplifters advocate
public rearing of children; that in that
advanced and forward-lOoking coun-
try. Russia, home life and religion
have already been destroyed; that IN
the advanced state" of South Da-
kOLa IdEuleIS OWl4llS AiAS
pay taxes amounting to many hun
areds of dollars, and fine start has
been made toward making the tax
payers in Alabama stand the gaff'
in the same way.
Cost of Government and Carpetbag-
gers.
again, I will not prophesy, but l
will ask you if you would have be-
ieved ten years ago that the total
.ost of government would have mount
ed as it has? Are we like Russia,
soon to have every third man an
,ver-paid official? Is every little
and big action of our lives to be di-
,ected, prohibited or permitted by
some official as a great many of them
already are? The answer rests with
you, my countrymen. Is it your de-
lire to administer a rebuke to show
,our displeasure. to show that you
will not cowardly surrender the free