Evening star., 1923-06-27

expenditures of the states in 1913
aggregated $3.50. 100000. and in 1921
they were $1,oo5, 900. 900; an increase
Of the states in 1913 amounted to
S423, 100000, and in 1921 to $1.012.-
100000; an increase of 139 per cent.
City Government Higher.
Turn now to the cost of city gov
ernment. The census bureau has
compiled data on the governments of
227 Of the large cities. 1t is shown
that these cities in 1913 collected
$500, 200, 900 in all revenues. and in
1921 they collected $1.567. 100000; that
Is, they were compelled to take 76
per cent more in taxes in 1921 than
they had taken in 1913. The same
s1,O1o, 100000, and in 1921. s1,726.-
000.000-an increase of II per cent.
The total debt of this group of cities
in 1913 was $2,so1.o00,O0o. which by
1921 had risen to $4,334, 900, ,000-an
increase of 40 per cent
County administration appears,
from the rather limited information
which at this time the census authori-
ties have been able to produce, to
have shown much larger proper
lections than did the government of
cities. 1t Is stated that for 3S1
counties. distributed among 3S states.
and regarded as fairly typical, the
increase in receipts from principal
sources OF revenue increased 127 per
every hundred dollars of revenue col
lected in 1913. s227 was collected in
1922. And that is not all of it. The
total indebtedness Of these same 3S1
counties increased 1876 per cent in the
same period: that is, for every hun
dred dollars Of debt in 1913 they had
$295 of indebtedness in 1922. Statis-
tics were not available dealing with
cities and towns Of less than 10000
population; nor with townships.
school districts. drainage districts.
irrigation districts, road districts and
other subdivisions which exercised
the power to raise revenues and incur
debts. 1t is we'll known. however.
that substantially similar increases
have affected all these taxing sub
divisions.
States Cost Is Higher.
The figures OF both the Treasury
,, and the census bureau, in short.
make 1t perfectly plain that whereas
the cost of the federal government is
being steadily reduced. the cost of
state and local governments is be-
/ ing just as steadily increased year
by year. In nearly all of the states
the cost of state and local govern
ment increased from 1919 to 1929.
The Treasury made up statistics on
this point for one group of ten states
Arizona, Connecticut, Michigan
Minnesota, New Hampshire. Ohio,
Oregon. South Dakota, Washington
and Wisconsin. For this representa-
tive group it is shown that while
federal taxes paid by these ten states
declined from over a billion dollars
in 1920 to 100000 in 1922, their
state and local taxes rose from S72S.-
100000 to 965.000,00O in the same
period. In another tabulation. cover
ing twenty-eight states. which was
the entire number for which the sta
tistics were available, it was shown
that from 1919 to 1921 there were
increases in local taxes in twenty
three states and reductions in only
five. In spite of the enormous bur-
den of paying for the war and pay
Ing interest on the war debt, state
and local taxes in 1922 represented
60 per cent OF all taxes paid.
Let me present another aspect of
the same matter. We hear much
about the grievous burden of the In
come tax, and every one OF us who
pays 1t is able fully to sympathize
with every one else who pays it. But
II is fair to consider what our income
taxes would be IL we lived in some
Of the other debt-burdened countries
of the world A married citizen of
the United States. with two children
and an income of $1,000. paid SOS tax
on that income in 1922. II he had
been a citizen of Canada he would
have paid $156. If the German tax
rate had been applied to his income,
1t would have cost him 1892. If he
had been a Frenchman the French