Askov American. [volume] (Askov, Pine County, Minn.) 1914-current, 1935-04-11
6. Millions of Americans live in

6. Millions of Americans live in
homes little better than novels.
In spite of all that, we have 293
milliOnaires in the state of Mime
sofa alone; and, at the same time, the
reactionaries are advocating a tax
that will affect the poor heavily and
the rich lightly-let the millionaires
thrive, and the poor starve.
One paragraph in Mr.. DOdge's ar
ticle reads as follows:
Governor Olson has not proposed
any tax that could be collected to
take place or supply the revenue of
the present proposed sales tax. The
opposition on your part seems to me
to work against the interest of ninety
five per cent of your readers"
The statement that ninety-five per-
cent of the readers of this paper
would be benefited by sales tax is
questionable. If ninety-five per cent
of the people of Pine county were
against this paper there would not be
so many people protesting sales tax.
According to the last report that /
have, nearly 500 persons-heads of
families, voters, business men, farm
ers, and workers, sent a letter to the
legislature or signed petition of
protest and sent it to the legislature.
Furthermore, those who did not send
protest letter are not wealthy
enough to favor sales tax on gen.
eral merchandise.
l should like to have some one ex-
plain to me how tax based on abil-
ity to consume can bring so much
money to the government without be-
ing heavy burden to those who must
eat, wear clothes and have other
necessities of life. We may Just as
we'll have poll-tax imposed on every
man, woman, and child. Say ten, fif-
teen, or twenty dollars head regard
less of whether he or she has any in
come or not, and be done with it.
Why go into all the trouble of collect
ing sales tax? Sales tax will .affec,
every one who eats or wears cloths S.
If he does not buy the food and
clothes himself, some one else has
to buy them for him. so if one can't
pay his own poll-tax some one can
pay 1t for him. To tax is to destroy.
The poor people have long been &C.
stroyed. 1t would be beneficial to the
country to destroy some of the mil
lionaires or reduce them several
points and at the same time take
some of the people off the relief.
Let us take into consideration the |
causes of this depression. 1t is COM
monty called the Republican Created
Depression" Let us not stop at that,
it is just talk; we don't care about
its name; let us go down to a finer
point of the subject. l say that the
main cause of it was, too much profit |
to the wealthy and too little, to the
poor.
BY that l mean that the wealthy
who manufactured various commodi- |
ties were making too much profit by
underpaying their employees and over
charging the prices for goods to their |
consumers. At the same time, the |
wage earners being underpaid could |
net buy their necessities of life from
the farmers and the manufacturers.
Therefore overproduction resulted. In
other words. this depression came on
because the difference between the |
producers price and the consumers
price was too great.
A sales tax is intended to shift the
greater gap between the producers
price and the consumers price.
Therefore it is reasonable to say that
a sales tax will hinder recovery by
spreading that gap.
sales AK is INTENDED to Shift the
burden of taxation on those least able
to pay. There is some truth that it
will take the burden off real estate,
but it will shift the burden to the
wrong place.
ANTHONY K. kANIS.
Sturgeon Lake, Mimi, April 8, 1885.