Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1927-08-10
NICARAGUA VICTIM
OF BITTER POVERTY
Country's DISCRIMINATION
Held Due to Lack of Proper
Revenue Methods.

'Nultures are now at the edge Of
town feeding on the bodies of the
killed; so ran the headlines of the
recent tragedy in Nicaragua.
True enouGh-,alm0st For those
were not vultures but buzzards--ordi-
nary buzzards. such as one sees every
day lowering on the most graceful of
wings over the streets of every Mica
raguan village, town and city.
AS a matter of fact. without them
life in Nicaragua would be almost inn
possible. For they constitute. ordi-
narily, 100 per cent of the Whole CoNn-
try's street cleaning department. ana
will continue to do so for a year or two
more. when the capital at Manaena
will complete its new and expensive
system of paved streets and sewers.
Serve as Garbage Collectors.
Their service is, on the whole, quite
satisfactory. Indeed. there is genuine
cause for worry when this force Of
winged garbage collectors is lurCd.
even temporarily, to some more at
tractive job.
Thus last December the results Of
an extremely bloody battle between
conservatives and Liberals kept the
entire force Of the two hundred-odd
buzzards of Rlueiields so long away
from their regular duties that Blue
fields citizens grew seriously alarmed
over the city's health.
Ordinarily, lacking such abnormal
Interruptions, the visitor is as free
as was TO watch the force gather,
one by one. upon adjacent ridGepoleS
until nearly 40 were organized tn
tackle the job OF removing from ths
street an automobiles latest dog vic
tim.
What Nicaragua Needs.
IT is not for us 10 scott al Nicaragua
and Nicara@uanS for this. If the truth
were told. il was not SO very long ago
that many of our OWN streets were in
much the same condition. What is
much more to the point is that they
might easily be in that shape today
If we continued--aS do the Nicara-
guans-to depend upon a certain limi-
fation i'm our Government right Ia
leavy taxes.
What goes farther than almost any
thing else 10 explain the disorsaniza-
ton of Nicaragua's military, political
and civil life is this: That. TO date. the
Government levies no direct taxes.
If today YOU were millionaire down
there, your various municipal, pro-
Nncial and federal assessments might
nOSSlDiN total as llUCn as STU. loui
entire authorized and legitimate con-
tribution 10 your CitY'S or your coun-
try's treasury would go simply in the
form of the duties paid upon your
wearing apparel from shoes to hat. or
your automobile TALL imported from
Americal upon the structural steel
brought in for your two-stOry office
building. perhaps from Belgium. or
upon Your hard liquor made in Eng
land or your beer brewed in Ger
many.
Higher Education Lacking.
This complete dependence upon i'm
port and export duties. and on such
government monopoles as liquor and
tobacco. follows quite naturally from
that other fundamental Of NicaraSuan
Iife-the fact that the country
people of culture and higher education
this last obtained mostly in the
Statesl comprise hardly 20 per cent /
of the populations But inasmuch as /
they own most of the property out /
side of the few acres of the individu- /
al peon or laborer, direct taxation /
such as we know would impinge sole. /
Wand unpleasantly- this 20 /
per cent. whereas the indirect taxes |
hit. of course. on every class.
The immediate result of all this is
had enough. it means that the city and
federal governments of Nicaragua. as