Americus times-recorder. [volume] (Americus, Ga.) 1891-current, 1924-03-27
HALF OF NATIONS
EARNINGS GO TO PAY
TAXES NOW, He Says
Fears Disturbance of Political,
Industrial and Economic
Struc ture
CONSUMER FINALLY PAYS
Says People Must Demand Real
Economy Of Those Holding
Public Office
CONSUMER FINALLY PAYS

Declaring that the ingenuity of
our lawmakers has been taxed to
devise new methods of taxation;
decrying the fact that the political
demagogue is falsely asserting that
the idle rich and the big corpora
tions pay most of the taxes; and
predicting that unless some relief
is secured there will be an upheaval
that will shake the country, John
Sheffield, president of the Amer
icus Rotary club, addressed the
Rotarians and guests at luncheon
Wednesday. Mr. Sheffield said:
in a gathering of this kind, fell
lowship, joy and optimism should
prevail, and it requires a degree
of temerity on my part to sound
the discordant note Of pessimism,
but in gathering material for some
articles that I have prepared re-
Gently, some facts and conditions
have forced themselves upon my
attention that are most alarming,
and l feel it my duty to present
them to you, not in detail, but by
way of suggestion, hoping that if
any of you are not already con-
scious of the conditions that / will
refer to, you may feel urged to
constructive thought and action.
at has been more than sixty
years since there was an internal
disruption of serious magnitude in
this country of ours, but it doesn't
require the wisdom of Solomon
or the prophetic vision of Jere-
miah to foresee, that unless our
pepole are awakened and our law
makers change their policies, and
that quickly, there will be an up
heaval that will shake our insti-
tutions, political, industrial and
commercial, to their very founda-
tions, if it doesn't cause them to
topple and fall to destruction. l
am not able to say just when it
will come or exactly what shape it
will assume, but it will be, in eff
feet, a rebellion against taxation.
For years the ingenuity of our
lawmakers has been taxed to the
utmost to devise new methods of
taxation, and nearly always the
new tax is an additional tax. Laws
and laws have been passed that re-
quire the employment of thousands
of men who then are no longer
producers, but hive with their
mouths in the public trough, their
hands in our pockets, and their nos
es in our private affairs.
always there is a cry of the
demagogue that the idle rich and
the big corporations pay most of
the taxes, but this is not true. The
idle rich invest their money in tax
exempt securities and the corpora
lions must add the cost of taxes
to the price of what they sell,
whether it is steel products, insur-
ance of transportation or they must
face bankruptcy; so that finally
every dollar of taxation is paid by
the ultimate consumer.
"And now this may stagger you,
but it is true; of every dollar that
you spend for necessities, the COM
forts, and the Injuries of life,
about half of it goes into the vo-
racious nav of government, NUM-
cipal, state and national.
"Most of you have read the Arab
ian Nights and are familiar with
the fifth voyage of Sinbad, the
sailor. You remember how he was
shipwrecked and cast upon an is
land, and how he came upon a with
cred, weakened old man sitting on
the bank of a stream; the old man
shook his head in reply to all ques-
tions and made signs that he want
ed Sinbad to take him on his back
and carry him across the stream.
When Sinbad complied with his re-
quest, the cid man crooked one leg
around his neck with grip of
steel, and with the other foot
goaded him on to do his bidding,