The times-news. [volume] (Hendersonville, N.C.) 1927-current, 1934-12-27
GOVERNMENT SUPPORTS A FIFTH Or
THE PEOPLE

NOWADAYS this country has millions o.
citizens who talk about spending huhoreoS
Of millions or billions of dollars as lightly
as they would flip a nickel to the dispenser
of soft drinks at a soda fountain.
The reason is they are talking about
federal government spending and they APP
near not to have the slightest understand
mo Of the meaning of spending by the
federal government. Many of them, OF
course care nothing about the source from
which the money comes; they know the
federal government never has dollar u
spend that is not eXacted by taxation froiA
their fellow citizens who afford the gov
ernment its financial support, but they are
conscienceless when it comes to riding
their country for financial support or graft
ing upon its bounty. This class IS composed
of the barnacles and parasites of the coun-
+ry's population. There is another class
composed of people whose attitude is prob
ably due to ignorance, or at least TO all
absolute failure to understand the facts III
the Casa class which probably does not
vet realize that the burden of all govern
ment spending falls not on the govern
ment but on the people who pay taxes.
This class seems to have a hazy idea that
the government is not the people of the
United States but is something separate
and apart and that the administration In
Washington merely reaches out into the
atmosphere and rakes in the cash when a
few billions are wanted for public eXpen-
ditures
The parasites constitute class that IS
not only dead weight to the working and
earning and tax paying classes OF the
country, but is a real danger to the future
of the country. The second class named
in the foregoing paragraph is also dead
weight upon the progress and prosperity
of the country, but is not so dangerous be-
cause the citizens who compose this body
are not unprincipled.
The Charlotte Observer briefly presents
this matter by directing attention to the
fact that the federal government is now
supporting one-fifth of all the people OF
the United States. The Observer says:
TT is now given out with reliable authority that
the Federal Government is supporting one out Of
every FIVE of our felow-citizens.
"Just to look at that stubborn and discOncerting
fact on its bare face may raise no more than d
casual dsquetude
"But the implications of such a condition will
have quite different effect when analysed
"When the Federal Government is compelled 10
take care of one out of every five of unfor-
tunae fellow-ctizens it means that the other four
have the bill to pay.
THAT is to say that the American taxpayers
are carrying this load and that the Federal Gov
eminent is merely the accommodating agency in
the transaction
Private capital, private industry, private bust
ness, private enterprise of whatever name or dis
tinetion, has this bill to pay and the more alert
therefore, these become in trying to throw their
shoulder to the wheel and relieve the Federal Gov
eminent of this burden the lighter will the taxa
ton bill on them become.
There is magic about this matter. The Gov
eminent is not creating dollars to dispense like the
man of legerdemain pulls white rabbit out of the
hat.
The Government owns more than the people
who being governed pay into its treasury fol
public expenditure and creates no bills that car
be paid except out of the pockets of the people,
A midwestern radio amateur insists he
received message from Mars recently