The times-news. [volume] (Hendersonville, N.C.) 1927-current, 1935-11-26
WHO PAYS THE TAXES?

"A
The question used as a caption for this
article is one asked by Lewis II. BROWN
president of the Johns-Manville Corpora
ton. Mr.. Brown has answered the questloh
in an impressive way and quotations from
his answer will aid the public in coming to
an understanding of the tax problem. Mr.
Brown says:
"Perhaps we do not all realize the extent to
which the cost of government has increased IN the
past twenty years. In 1915 the total cost OF local.
state and national governments was only l-3 OIL
lion dollars In 1929 it had mounted to II IL bill
lion dollars and in 1884 to Is 1-2 billions. During
this time the population of the country had IN
creased from 990O0.O0O to 126,000,000, or only
q per cent.
'The per capita cost of local. state and national
governments in 1915 was S33.84, in 1929 S94.37,
and in 1884 $122.52.
az is useless to attempt to solve this problem in
TER g PARTIES for no matter what the label, the
cos o.. government apparently continue to mount
and axes are further increased. The only possible
solution it seems to me, lies in the education OF
the Individual citizen in the fundamental fact that
all the people support the government and that the
government cannot support all the people. Some
how we must make every last man and woman and
child realize that no matter whether taxes paid
directly or not no citizen can escaps paying his
share of the cost of government that comes through
the hidden taxes that are buried in every single
purchase that he makes with his hard earned dollar
Everyone who has anything pays taxes because
taxes are either collected from passed on to all
who receive an income and all who spend
Normally, about 5O000O00 people are gainfully
employed in the United States in private industry,
business and agriculture 1t is estimated that at
present about 100000 are still unemployed. If
these estimates are correct, 40,000,000 or 80 per
cent are employed These gainfuly employed re-
ceive more than four-ffths of the national income
so that it is they-the 49, ,000-and their FAM
lies who carry most of the tax load,
To-day there is an invisible guest who sits at the
table of every family in this country He is the
invisible tax eater that collects the hidden taxes.
When the housewife purchases three pork chops,
the butcher weighs them out but only wraps up
two The third he gives to this invisible guest"
The foregoing furnishes food for thought
for every citizen who is a wage Garner,
who works for a salary, who receives an
income from any source. All who are work
ing, earning, producing, no matter what
their position or condition, are taxpayers
Ii they do not pay taxes directly, they are
indirectly burdened with taxes. There is
no escape for the citizen who earns any
thing or has the ownership of anything OF
value. People on relief or work relief are
paying taxes. If they spend any money
buy anything, even if the cash is a gift
from the government or from charity, they
pay taxes, because taxes are part of the
price of everything bought and sold in the
country.
Taxes are as certain to search out and
find every person who earns dollar OF
has dollar of income from any source, a.
Death is to find at last every living person
Lewis Brown points out that the pei
capita tax burden is now above $122 Sc
annually-those were the figures for last
year-the tax burden is greater this yea,
than last by billions. On the basis of five
persons per family that makes an average
tax burden of over $500 per family pc,
year Millions of families do not pay thai
amount of taxes, but other millions do anG
in many eases they pay much more thar
that ".'
However, the burden of taxation falls
heaviest on those families with the small
incomes. In thousands of cases tax loac
OF fifty to hundred dollars year is al
intoierable load for family. Yet there ar,
millions of families deluding themselve