The Hayti herald., 1922-01-13

has gone before the crop is made
and sold, 1t is the tax that gouges
us little at the time, like the biting
OF flea, or the sting of the mos
quito. For instances it nips us
couple of cents when we smoke
cigar, cent when we indulge in the
luxury of a chew of gum, cent
when we so into the debauchery Of
imbibing IA glass og soda, cent when
we get so extravagant as to attend
movie, a cent when the baby takes
the collie and we have to buy a bot
tie of paregoric, and onward and up
ward 1t goes as we purchase mer-
chandise of this, that, or the other
nature; make notes, deeds, ship by
freight. express, or parcel post. OF
late, some Of these blind taxes have
been shifted to other articles, but
never believe they have been reduc-
| ed or removed from the total sum to
| be collected. We may drink our
soda, slip into the shows, or be per-
mitted to purchase a bottle of medi-
cine, with the revenue stamp remov-
ed, but the amount has been hidden
in something else we must have and
| on which the tax is not shown in
the stamp placed upon the article,
h" belief that our burdens are be-
ing lifted. In other words this blind
| tax is like being bled by the lecch
process One leech can suck two
| ounces of blood from our veins and
we hardly feel the loss; but enough
| leeChes, can, in a short while
suck every drop of blood from our
| bodies Just now we are afflicted
with too many leeches. The leeches
| are fat to the point Of bursting,
while we are as white as a ghost
| from being bled of our monetary cir
| culation. The tax "tiXers,' County
State and Federal, have just about
got our financial bodies so thorough
| ~ covered with taxation leeches that
there isn't room for them to apply
another. We have no financial vi
| tality left to stimulate business en-
| terprise. to encourage development
OF agriculture and to inspire that
| hope in citizenship which is needed
| to make any community prosperous
| II the entire proceeds OF our agri-
cultural production is to go, at last,
| into the tills OF the tax collectors,
| What is the use to try?" is the cry
of those who have tried and failed.
| The man who can see no reward for
| his toll must labor through the days
| of the year with a heavy heart
Many of our best citizens are letting
! their taxes go delinquent because
| they have not the ready money to
pay them. Some are borrowing the
money. Others have not paid, and
say they know of no way of raising
the money to pay. Without doubt
the delinquent tax list of PemisCot
couHy will be the largest ever known
1t is a solemn, serious question-tEe
initiation of our taxes to almost three
times of "normalcy." coming upon
us, too following year Of such gi-
gantic losses that we suffered on ac-
count Of the high cost of production
of agricultural products and the low
prices we got for them In 1920.
From this condition we must and we
shall have relief.
In this series of editorials we have
spoken of our monetary values in
terms of agricultural products. We
have illustratively spoken of the dol
lar as being so many bushels OF
corn, so many pounds of cotton, or
Of meat, or of other items of agri-
cultural products. There is no 9TH
er way to estimate possession of the
elusive dollar. We have no other
mintage. And as to that. the rule
holds good throughout the nation.
Money is made of neither gold, nor
| silver, nor paper. IT is from the
sweat Of the brow every dollar we
have is coined. Neither the mer-
| chant, nor the banker, nor the law
| yer, nor the doctor, nor the preacher.
nor the editor, have, or ever Will,
produce one penny of our wealth.
| Monetary wealth must all, in this
part of the world, come from the
soil which has had the hand of toll
applied to its fallowed bosom, water
ed by the Gods who send us the
dews and the rains for the seed-timc
| and the harvest. That is the stuff
| from which our dollars are coined.
| Figures and finance thus considered
become of entra!ling interest, and
as fascinating as romance, So we
have blazed the way, and if this shall
/ /, ,:.,l