The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1920-11-22
Kansas Government Increases
From $14.53 to 5000.
Knapp Urges State to Return to
Pre-War Conditions.
SLAP AT Highway LEGISLATION
In Four Years Per Capita Tax
Has Increased $40.
Lawmakers Should Limit to
Necessary Expenses.

Per capita cost of government in
Kansas increased from s14.5S for 1911
to $32.09 for 1920. according to a state
ment today by Fred w. Knapp. state
auditor. who urged state legislators to
conserve this winter in expenditure
| of public funds. He declared the state
must make move toward return to
pre-war conditions and asked iawmak-
ers to sidestep unnecessary appropria-
| tions and bond issues. The Knapp re-
port is an indirect slap at the proposed
state highway legislation.
Direct taxes for state purposes alone
amounted to 1923 this year, Knapp
states, while in 1911 the total per
capita tax for state needs was $2.36.
For state and local needs-county,
township, city, school and special lew
les as well as general state funds, the
direct tax this year was $5S,483,777,
! or $32.O9 for every man, woman and
| child in Kansas. Last year the per
capita tax was $26.76. THE per capita
tax passed the $50 mark in 1917, when
lit was $22.0S. Thus in four years the
: increase has, been more than $40 for
each resident of Kansas.
| Should Limit Expense.
/ Expenses should be limited by the
I Legislature to only actual necessary ex-
penses, Knapp states in his biennial
report. He points to the fact that in
the ten year period state taxes in
creased from $S,966,s7S to $8,972, ,237.
County tax increases We're from So
| 670.54S in 1911 to $15,314,232 this
! year. City general taxes were $4.42S,-
/ 472 in 1911. They are SS.769,197 this
year. Township taxes increased from
| $2.s60,062 to $5,6S7,S91. City school
taxes were $S,575.OS4 and are $40, ,189,-
256 this year. Direct taxes for rural
school are given only from 1913. when
they were S5.493,S31. This year they
total S9,57S.916. Special taxes in the
state amounted to SS6,440 in 1911
For this year they were $2,S94,633.
Do Away With Silk Shirts.
| Kansas, which so readily changed
from cotton sox to silk hose, must now
get away from the silk shirt style and
accustom herself to the cotton shirt
condition, Knapp asserts. In his state
ment to the legislators regarding the
need of economy in appropriations, the
state auditor says:
"The next two years will be the recon
struction period during which time the
nation must regain its equibilibrium. II
business is to be stabilized and normal CON
ditions are to be restored in orderly man
ner it must be a period of general re-
I trenchment 1t required no special effort
TO adjust ourselves YES to to- the he change a. , from ON
quire both sacrifice and patriotism to
willingly change our standards back from
| the SILK TO tne cotton
Stringent Money Shortage.
-"Kansas people are abundantly prosper
| Gus in wheat and corn but the fact should
not be overlooked that because of-unstable
markets and other reasons they are labor
ing under the most stringent money short
! age since 1907.
| THE voters Of the nation, in no uncer-
tain tones, voiced their protest against
waste and extravaganza in the recent cleo
/ tton and the Kansas Legislature of 1921
faces the responsibility of being careful
! ard ultra conservative in its action. This
> applies not alone to the making of appro-
prfations but it applies with equal force
to launching out upon any new program
requiring or providing for excessive bond
I issues. The Federal Reserve Banks, dur
ing the past year in their efforts to meet
! the serious postwar financial problems
! have limited their credit privileges and
/ designated as ineligible for re-discount
notes covering money borrowed with
! which to buy property, bonds, or other in
/ vestments, or with which to make improve
| ments upon property already owned by
! the borrower. In other words, their policy
! has been to give aid only to the actual
production and marketing of necessities of
/ life and to the ordinary needs of essential
business. If the judgment of those who
inaugurated the above policy is worthy OF
(, consideration, it then follows that Con-
| gress and the legislatures should limit their
appropriations to cover only the actual
needs of supporting the state and national
| governments"