The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-01-04
WHY TAXES ARE HIGH

WHY TAXES ARE HIGH
 Although people instinctively ex- perience a pleasurable response to pro- grams of tax reduction, and frequently complain of high taxes, it is feared that too much attention is diverted to the amount of taxes, and too little consideration is given to the returns from taxation. Equally as important as tax reduction is reform in the man. ner in which the public money is ex- pended. It is commonly accepted belief that there is less return in tan gible benefit from the public dollar than from the private dollar. There is abundant evidence to support this belief. Public funds are largely wasted. This waste is due to several factors that enter into the political administration of our affairs.
 In the first place, men elected to public office are frequently of either very ordinary intellectual capacity, or else lack fundamental training in busi- ness and in public affairs. Naturally, while they are adapting themselves to their new situation, they are spending public money ignorantly or unadvisedly in such manner as to return the mini mum instead of the maximum of public benefit. They may be well-intentioned men, and still be failures from an ad- ministrative standpoint. They may know much about politics, that is to say, the science of obtaining and re- taining public office, but all too ire quently they know little or nothing at all about public affairs and how they should be conducted so as to re- turn the utmost value in public service and public benefit.
 Then, most officials come into of- flee with a heavy debt of political patronage. Unfortunately, they too often regard this debt as taking pre- cedence over their debt to the general public and their obligation to observe their oath of office. Thus, individuals who placed their allegiance upon the unsuccessful candidates, no matter how tried and experienced they may be, nor how valuable their service to the public business, are turned out re- gardless, and replaced by others whose primary qualification is their political support of the new officials. The public business, thus precariously en- trusted, cannot escape injury. The history of every city, every county, and every state bears mute but ire futable evidence of such injury.
 There have also been cases innu- merable of actual utilization of public office to turn the public funds delib- erately into channels that will directly benefit private fortunes, including those of the office-holders, to the great damage of the public welfare. Many splendid public building Is but the gleaming sepulchre in which the pub lie welfare lies almost hopelessly en- tombed, doomed to living death. The burden of taxation is high because it requires double the money to meet the necessary needs of government and to cover besides the wastes of in- experience, unfitness, politics and graft in public office. Taxes are too high, to be sure, but it is not because of the legitimate expense of govern ment properly administered that makes them so high. It is the waste. both uncalculated and deliberate, which causes the revenues to melt away so rapidly without due return in public benefit. =,
 The people have it within their power to remedy the condition and to pave the way for legitimate tax re- duction without injury to the neces sary functions of government and the objects of public concern. As long as the people continue to entrust their affairs to men who could hold no sim liar position with private business, because of their lack of business standing or integrity or capacity, so long will their public expenditures mount without commensurate public returns. The people must take a hand in their own affairs and exert more wisdom in their selection of their public agents, that is to say, their holders of public office, if the people really want their taxes lowered with out sacrifice of indispensable public concerns.