The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1933-03-02
TAXATION
By NELLIE WAGNER
Oakland High School Student

S1AS H~ ~"S4UoCcly 10 you
think you are being taxed Justly ?
Are you paying more than your share
of the cost of government Should
taxes be paid according to benefits
received?
All of these questions arise when
you receive your yearly tax bill on
your personal property and real es-
tate. If your tax is higher than you
think it should be you grumble about
it. You say: "There is Farmer Brown
who has new car, ten more acres of
ground and several pieces of new ma
chinery, and his taxes are the same
as mine."
Now, Mr.. Farmer, you who are talk
ing that way, should sit down and do
little thinking. You should take
into consideration the kind of build.
ings on both farms. Maybe your
buildings are newer than Farmer
Browns; maybe all your land is I'M
der cultivation; maybe your live stock
is better; maybe a hard surface road
goes past your house; your farm
might be an all-round ideal farm,
while Farmer Browns is not so good,
but still in your sight both farms are
equal in value. Would you trade farms
with Farmer Brown? No.
Who would educate our children.
run our government, protect your
property and you, protect our health
and sanitation, build highways and
help those in need? Who would do
all these things? No one would if
we did not shoulder the responsibility
ourselves. All Of these things are ac-
complished by you and me. How?
Why by paying tax of some kind.
Still you hear people say: "Why, l
don't pay one cent of tax"
The man who says that is entirely
wrong, because every person who ever
lived to buy some product paid a
tax, but it was not direct tax. A
direct tax is what hurts people most.
Our own Federal Government and
every other government in the entire
world performs many services for its
citizens. 1t is very inexpensive to do
this, and the only source of money
for the government is through taxa
ton, either direct or indirect.
Tax is the charge imposed for sup
port of a government. And who
doesn't take pride in their form OF
government? Yet there are hundreds
of people who cheat or rob the gov
eminent yearly. Who are these peo-
pie? No one knows. Maybe you your
self are cheating the government Of
its pay. What would happen if your
boss deducted, each week, a few dol
lars or cents from your pay envel-
ope? Why, if you knew it, you would
make him pay it, or you would have
him arrested for stealing. Just so
with our Federal Government. IT the
government finds out we are cheat
ing it by not paying the tax we are
able to pay, we should be arrested,
lust as we arrested our boss for de-
Quoting a few cents each week from
our pay envelope.
During the LA years of our gov
eminent it has been confronted with
two very important matters concern
ing taxes: How can an equitable dis
tribution of tax load be made? How
much shall each person be compelled
to pay?
An equal distribution Of taxes
would be one method of solving the
above problems. That is, each and
every person would be asked to pay
the same amount of taxes regardless
of whether he or she is able or not.
For taxing purposes this rule would
not work, however, since the amount
of taxes to be paid would be too heavy
for some and not enough for others.
For example, when the Federal
State and local government eXpendl-
lures amount to ten billion dollars a
year, it means that every man, woman
and child would be taxed eighty-hVe
dollars a year. This would be ex-
tremely heavy. Then man with
family of four would be required to
nav about three hundred and forty
dollars per year as taxes, and II ne
received only a thousand dollars IN IN
come yearly he would be paying about
two-fifths of his income out for taxes.
For the man who was receiving about
fifty thousand dollars year, this tax
would mean nothing to him. 1t would
not be enough. Surely, an equal DIS
tribution of the burden OF taxes coulo
not be the solution to the problem.
Another method of distributing
taxes would be according to benefits
received. That is, the amount OF each
persons tax would depend upon the
service the government renders him.
The people who need the most protec-
ton from their government are usu-
allv those who cannot pay. Again 1t
is hard to determine the exact oene-