The Ocala evening star. [volume] (Ocala, Fla.) 1895-1943, 1921-03-25


of the law imposing it is successfully
practised in countless instances, and
not always with fraudulent intent, for
there are many people. honest enough
in their ordinary business dealings,
who see no more harm in withholding
from the government its dues than in
plucking fruit from the branches of a
tree that hang over the roadside.
However, with seven years Of exper-
fence in what was at first regarded
as an experiment, but which has been
evolved into an institution" as one
authority has denominated it, the In
come Tax Bureau is steadily, albeit
slowly, reducing the numbers of those
who, though liable to the tax. have
hitherto succeeded in lodging it. and
there is likelihood that the law viii
be still further amended to make de-
lection easier.
GROWL AFTER GROWL
Speaking of amendments" says
Mr.. Average Citizen, with the recent
remarks of General Dawes before a
congressional committee fresh in his
mind, "why in helps blue blazes can't
they get up a form of return that
fellows of my mental calibre are able
to understand, instead of the abomin-
alton that nearly drives them loco or
compels them to hire expert account
ants when they 60 to fill it out?
When he is told that the form that
so disturbs his mental equilibrium is
the work of some of the most talented
taxation tabulators to be found in
all of the forty-eight States he in
dulges in few more Dawesian de-
nunciations, and settles down to the
job of filing out the blank.
worried lest he has omitted from the
calculation of his deductions some one
or two or three items of other kinds
of taxation that would reduce the
amount he has to pay Uncle Sam,
and he goes over them again, using
his fingers as counters-his dog tax,
his poll tax, his school tax, his vii
lage tax, his township tax. his State
income tax (if he is a resident or
New York;. the tax on his house and
the interest on the mortgage covering
it-and wonders if he ought to in
clude the tax he pays for the privil-
eye of running his fiivver. Finally he
decides to let it stand as he has pre-
pared it rather than 60 over the whole
maddening task again with the pos
sible result of becoming tax eater
himself as the inmate of a lunatic
asylum.
Since the foregoing was written,
the newspapers have stated that
while the number of persons meking
returns this year is greater than ever
before, the receipts will fall far short
of those for 1919, and what with the
loss of revenue caused by prohibition
and the reduced volume of customs
duties, the government will. as usual
of late, be up against it to meet its ex-
penses. "What them" glooms Mr..
4 Average Citizen, and he can see no.
thing ahead but an increase in the
rate and the abolition of all exemp-
tons.
| aNORMALCY"-WHAT is TT
Then his thoughts revert to word
which had lain obsolescent in the big
dictionaries until exhumed about six
months. ago by another American
citizen yclept Warren Gamaliel Hard
ing, who revivified it to describe 8
condition to which he hoped hat not
only his own country, but all others
would ere long return-"normalcy.'
And Mr.. Average Citizen wonders il
Mr.. Harding could have had in MIND
the conditions of, say. ten years ago
when plethoric treasury, an abound
ing prosperity and reasonable de
: gree of contentment were the chic
characteristics of our national life ant
both income tax and prohibition wer'
{ as the dreams of visionary fanatics
But whatever his sentiments, tn
q average citizen believes that beth ar
J with US to stay-f not forever, a
sleast for the life of the present gen
Il Grafton; and after that it won't muc
I matter to him. At the same time. h
, feels a nagging curiosity regarding
y the means that the now distinguish
: citizen who resurrected the not IN
3 attractive catchword will recommen
;, to effect the country's restoration {
It the status that normally" was in
Il tended to typify.
81 Meantime, while awaiting al
) lnouncement of the program to be lai
before the extra session of Congress
- which the President has called. I'll
le nation, like a man in a quagmire,
- Ar,,ndoyiro and Stumbling in its Q.