The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1921-01-29
TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
information Bureau
FREDERIC J. HAsKIN. Director.
Washington, d. G.
A GOVERNMENT RUN ON SMOKE.

Washington, D. c., Jan. 24.-The
smokers of the United States alone,
by the taxes they pay~thru the inter
nal revenue department on cigars and
tobacco. more than support the civil
government of this country, including
all of its scientific research, its edu-
cational activities, and its public
works, such as improving rivers and
harbors. retaining lands, building
| roads, and the like. For the average
annual cost of all these governmental
activities for the last 10 years was
considerably less than the internal
revenue tax on cigars and tobacco
yielded in 1920.
This interesting fact is brought out
by DR.. z. B. Rosa of the bureau of
standards, who has set himself the i'm
portant task of finding out for the
American people just how the money
they spend for federal taxes is used.
He recently set forth proof that out
of every dollar spent by the federal
government in 1920, SO cents was
spent to pay for past wars or to pre-
pare for the wars of the future, and
only cents for all civil activities. He
has now elaborated his study, setting
forth many facts which illuminate the
current vague and volumnious discus
sion a of governmental extravaganza
like searchlights in a fog.
Not a Criticism.
Doctor Rosa specifically disavows a
critical attitude toward any group of
governmental expenditures. He does
rot pretend to discuss whether it is
necessary to spend more than nine
tenths of all our federal money on past
and future wars, But he does believe
that the taxpayer should have the
facts about how this money is used.
And he, points out that not only the
Taxpayer but journalists and legislators
iappear to be famentably ignorant of
these facts. Daily we hear and read
much about the growth of government
expense. We are daily told that gov
eminent expenses are increasing. Clerk
hire, the pay of government scientists,
the cost of maintaining bureaus are al
ways mentioned as chief among the
creatures which devour our taxes. We
are told that in these bureaus there is
much duplication, waste and red tape.
Every administration comes in with
promises of retrenchmentS and reforms
which will save the public money by
cutting down the appropriations for
government bureaus, and this seems
generally to refer to the civil govern
ment primarily. Army, navy and PEN
sions are seldom mentioned.
Doctor Rosa sets out to show just
how much this civil government costs.
His method has been to analyZe the
cost of civil government for ten years,
disregarding war costs. By doing this
he succeeds in showing that the cost
/
including all of its scientific and en-
cheering work, has increased in act
ual dollars and cents barely as fast as
the population has increased, and that
this increase takes no account of the
falling value of the said dollars and
cents.
This is the important point: If
you express the cost of civil govern
ment in terms of actual commodities
instead of dollars. far from increas-
So
per cent. That is, the purely civil
activities of the government cost, in
bushels of wheat. for instance, more
than so per cent less in 1920 than
they did in 1910. AS result, during
that period much of this civil govern
efficient. Salaries have become so
low. as the cost of living has risen,
that the bureaus cannot hold their
employees, especially their scientific
men. The labor turnover is rapid. 1t
would ruin any private enterprise. 1t
means that nearly all of the civil bu-
reaus are undermanned. and that
nearly all of them are becoming
| merely training schools which men
rapidly desert for more renunerative
| places.
Cost of Government Lower.
Thus the figures amply refute the
Charge that the cost of civil govern
ment has greatly increased. On the
| contrary, it has greatly decreased
| Our increased tax burdens are made
| necessary by the burdens which the
war visited upon US, and by the
| which We are now maintaining. If
civil government were completely
| abolished it would have saved you but
| per cent on your federal taxes in
| 1920, and If all scientific and engi-
neering work had been suspended it
would have saved you but per cent
Disarmament is the only thing that
would cut federal taxes heavily
! DR.. Rosa further shows that the ex-
! penses of government, as usually set
| Iorth, are not accurate because they
fail to show the earnings of the gov
| eminent. The land office, the rec
! lamation service, the bureau of nayf-
| cation, the forest service and the post
| office all have receipts as well as dis
| bursements. But in summarizing the
! expenses of government, it is usual
! merely to add up the total appropri-
ations for the various bureaus Thus
| IN pre-War days we used to be scandal
! lied by the terms "a billion dollar
| congress- But as matter of fact
the net cost of the government to the
| federal taxpayers before the war was
! never as much as seven hundred mil
lions in year.
i DR.. Rosa concludes his argument
with a plea for the support of the
I
| government. In this part of his argu-
ment he probably comes closest to
/ the real question at issue. That cues
ton is: What are the legitimate and
necessary activities of the federal gov
| eminent.
Whether certain bureaus are ex-
banding or contracting, it is certainly
| true that the activities of the federal
! government, as a whole, ever since its
/ establishment, have been steadily
/ growing, while the Importance of state
and other local goverpments has
steadily dWindled. The percentage of
[ the population which works for the
federal government steadily grows
In a words the United States is said to
be turning into a bureaucracy, say the
| critics of this expansion. For ex-
ample, Senator Thomas, of Colorado,
recently attracted attention by a
speech in the senate in which he con-
! vincingly pointed out this tendency.
And these critics further point out
1ar l.