Americus times-recorder. [volume] (Americus, Ga.) 1891-current, 1921-07-29
GOVERNOR Hardwick's bill pro-


viding an income tax to supply
revenue for the state ~ place of the
present ad valorem system, which it
proposes to abolish, appears to be up
against very stiff fight in both
branches of the assembly, and likely
will be defeated The income tax
plan has many attractive and allur
ing features, but to US it possesses a
fatal feature which makes it a dan
ger0us substitute for the present
plan. This fatal feature is that in
times of financial or business de-
preston, which constantly fecur in
regular cycles, a tax based on in
come-which virtually means profits
would produce far less revenue
than would be required to meet the
constant cost Of upkeep of the states
institutions, which must be cared for
regardless of conditions, unless the
rate were made tremendously and
luinously high. In flush times it would
operate easily and successfully, but
not in times of stress.
We are favorable to any tax
change that will improve the system
in any way, but the assembly should
think carefully before swapping our
present plan for something inferior
THE talk of pellagra and the black
eye given the South by the wide
spread reports of its increase and
semi-famine in the South continue.
We of the South know that there are
more food stuffs this year than ever
before, and that we have no condition
of semi-famine. However, there are
more cases Of real poverty and in
some instances of actual hunger and
general want now than in recent
years because Of adverse economic
conditions situation true in other
sections as we'll as the South. But
the fact remains that the South has
much pellagra, despite denials, and it
has had much pellagra all along. The
facts and figures are appalling when
ii is considered that it is an ailment
easily avoided, not caused by bacteria
and therefore not communicable. It
does not spread from one person to
another, but originates within the vic
tim himself as a result of improper
and unbalanced diet-lack of vegeta-
bles and fruits. Families may be
ever so poverty stricken, and have
only the plainest food, but they need
not have pellagra in the South, be-
cause nature provides the foods with
a lavish hand and at little or not
cost that will prevent the malady.
Every physician and every student of
dietetics knows this.
r ): y
N Georgia, state we like to call
enlightened. last year up to June
deaths from pellagra amounted to
1913, according to the head of the
state department of health, This
year for the same period, it is point
ed out, the deaths have increased only
3, CT total of 1876, therefore the
r1alady is not alarming in Georgia.
NOT ALARMING? Not this year
perhaps, as compared with last, but
it appears to us that more than &c
needless deaths in a year, with ter
times that many cases which are no
fatal, constitutes a condition tha
should have been considered alarm
ing last year and the year before
and should be this year and next AM
every year until the people of th
great state shall learn how to nour
ish their bodies as nature demands.
Let us quit talking of the grea
injustice done the South 1t is til
South which is doing the great injus
tice to itself by allowing this condi
ton to exist as it long has existed
which is so utterly needless.
Ignorance, not poverty, produce
pellagra, for it appears among tn
rich as well as the poor, although fla
less frequently. Let's Danish thi
form Of ignorance and the troubl
will be corrected.
A bachelor would publish all ma
1iages under Moose Of The Weak.
A crouch is not the only one VIII
always wishes he was somewhere els
Many man who acts Ike til
main squeeze turns out to be lemon
Il Movie stars. should remember ge
n ting married. can become a ba
" habit. Rtw
Perhaps the Swiss also object /
beigg left out of the naval disarm;