The Elk Mountain pilot., 1924-11-13
WHAT THE TROUBLE is RIGHT HERE-TAxEs

with construction charges and operation and maintenance
Taxes than either of these andwith
slight and deceptive recessions-are remorselessy grow
ing than they already So insidiously they
grownso slight and apparently negligible have the
additions to the levy for this that nnume
purposes that it is only in of profound
on that realize how swiftly have toward
the socialists goal of the total abolition private prop
erty and how usory the semblance of ownership that
still remains to
If the collector total income produced
by property he might we'll coniscate property it.
elf The owner not eat it. If it is farm property
me price OF Its products not be advanced
cost of ownership due taxe as can be done bv the
manufactu turer merchant Ownership advantage
to the owner unless it increases his income Where the
1et result of ownership is of income
as 1t sometimes is the property is conscated
| owner is fined besides. ..-. ri
The most that invested capital without risk
to the principal is per The interest of
standing Liberty bonds 425 per the present
market price they yield considerably less than that
Higher yields entail degree contrib
uory the part the addition to the
of his money. The actually worth
mora than a % per cent.
The tax levy in the of Paonia per cent In
Delta it is 435 per cent In both it therefore
tuafly more than ownership is worth but is
possible to taxes to patrons and
the income which property ought 1t therefore
passed for the most part rural districts which
by no possibility pass their to ANYBODY and
which have-even in the reaches of School
District Number One-a levy their own of 3 per
cent This tax plus the tax leves passed on
to them makes the apparent the taxes of
these rural districts than the yield farm over
and above to the farmer himself actually worth
We live in part of the county that is STILL far
private wealth is concerned pioneer stage of de-
veopment, yet demand the public Improvements
and activities that burden to the older
weather, and far highly developed communities
ing east of the Mississippi river Delta county has pop
ulation of 1868 people and embraces of 1853
$40 acres nearly all of which still in public ownership
and is therefore taxable Of her area only H.
leSctl
gated, improved, and privately owned. Warren county
Illinois had population of 23l63 people twenty years
and embraces of 1886 900 the
land in the world Of these $4,000 acres practically
every privately owned and highly developed
sixty years Yet the public Improvements Delta
county equal in number and magncence those of
Warren county, Illinois
Long after the DEVELOPMENT of private wealth in War.
county had passed beyond present development
of private wealth in Delta county the heads of fairly
prosperous families much perturbed by tax levy
OF SIX mills and were apprehenve that unless the
were applied to public extravaganza levies might
some day to be expressed percentages instead
mills
Six ms Compare that with your thirty or forty
| three, fifty mills What does mill or two mean now?
Yet six mills seemed heavy those days. though
was not confscatory 1t did not check the development
of private property which has reached stage
usties the excellent schools other public i'm
provements that Warren county has The citizens of
Warren county feel that they these things and are
proud of them In Delta county, where the development
OF private wealth has Jagged in difference public
provements the private citizen very apt that
he and all that he has these public i'm
provements and those who conduct and manage them
My purpose will not be misconstrued by any thought
full intelligent 1t is not to augment but
plain, discomfort and fnd-if possble-a remedy
If there is remedy for the situation sketched
there is in blinking the fact that abandonment
ownership preferable to ownership that has become
mere serfdom to ones property. But it
to aege that there is remedy These excessive
have not been inevitable. They not due the
Income taxes largely due to the but there
is thought here of income taxes any others ex
cept those which in thuughtess folly have
upon ourselves allowed Others to vote upon The
remedy consists partly in consistently voting against
bond issue for whatsoever the
funding of such part of the outstanding bonded ndeb
edness remain unpaid when existing bonds
For the rest the remedy consists in reducing the
cublic ofcasm in every county, road district schco
district and state in the whole United Satesin
the number Of elected and appointed officers assistants
deputies clerks and employees who feed the public crib
>ne person in ten twelve is paid
You-whoever you are-are person in a group of ter
who the entire salary of person whose salary
somewhere between that of the President United
States and the who clips The courthouse lawn
don't care who you are, you can't afford it
| EMERSON PAGE
WHILE Senator La Toilette is a dangerous fellow
he made what the dangerous noise
that few million voters in that section stumbling
over justice, equity and impartial government get
temporary safety The senator's frghtfulness to the
down-easers and the good that is in him western