Henderson daily dispatch., 1939-01-20
Democracy Doomed Unless
Spending Is Slowed Down
tContinued from Pare One.)

CONTINUED from Pare One.)
Only small percentage of the voters
; realize that ultimately all taxes Eek
cept possibly inheritance taxes) arc
paid by the consumers of goods. Vot-
ers do not understand that all cor
poration taxes are handed along to
them on retail price-tags. They do
not stop to think that real estate
taxes are concealed in their monthly
rent. My guess is that Is per cent of
the voters have no knowledge of the
multitude of hidden taxes they pay.
Washington Extravagance.
The Washington government has
spent $62,OOO00O,OO in the last ten
years. Barring only the World War
this equals the entire amount spent
from the day George Washington be
came our first President until Her
bert Hoover stepped into the White
| House. Yet, President Roosevelt has
just indicated that. another $9,000,O00,-
OO0 will he poured out in 19S9-40. We
are currently spending at the rate of
$lS,OCJ per minute or approximately
| $5O,OCO since you began reading this
article (rearly three minutes). J
have always considered $4,000 as a
! fair-sized estate. How can the gov
ernment go on destroying 20 fortunes
| every hour, 500 every day, 10000
every year?
Government Supporting 25,0OO,CO0.
Last year, public spending, includ
ing not only the federal, but the state
county and local governments, totale;2
S17,OOO,O00 900. This represented more
| than 25 per. cent of the national in
come. Add up the number of indivi
| duals getting support from the gov
ernment. My figures show 25,OOO,OOo
! One person out of every six gets his
livelihood from the government
There are only 51,COO,O0O workers who
should be gainfully employed. This
means that every private wagee earn
er is not only supporting his family,
but another person on the public pay
roll.
Just for illustration, let us take a
family which earns $37 a week $15O
month, or $1,000 a year. Studies
show that such family spends about
! $40 per week, or $500 per year, on
food. Of this 70 cents per week, or
! $35 per year, represents hidden taxes.
Each year these taxes add over So
to the milk bill,. SO to the butchers
statement, SIS to the butter and egg
mans bill, SIS to the bakers charges
On every roast of beef there are 127
hidden taxes; on every loaf of bread,
So unseen taxes.
The "Untaxed" Taxed
The average family probably spends
$50 per month for rent Of this a.
mount, $3.50 per month, or 800 per
year, is for local taxes. Each year the
automobile eats up $175 of the familys
income. In this amount is $35 for the
tax-collector The same official, thro-
ugh 70 separate taxes, takes a SIS cut
out of a $50 suit With 143 different
taxes, he grabs fifty per cent of the
price of a packagegof cigarettes. This
newspaper is paying 83 taxes you
readers know nothing about. Every
movie ticket carries 81 hidden dona-
tions to the public treasury And when
some one dies, these invisible taxes
hit a record highGthere are 157 of
them. 20 Fl
$3.50 To Collector
All told, this average family-whicl
owns no real property and thinks it
pays no taxes-forks over $230-$24O of
it's annual income of $1,000 for hid
den taxes This represents one-seventh
of the total income. It means that for
every six days the family bread-win-
ner works for himself he works one
for the tax-collector (In the case of
very wealthy people the reverse is
true; they work one day for them
selves and six for the public.) TIE
significant point is that these unseen
taxes are rising every year. In 1888
the hidden tax collector forced the
wage-earner to work only one day in
ten. How soon will he be working one
day in three?
Yet, the members of this family kid
themselves into thinking that they pay
no taxes. They dismiss a flagrant mis-
use of public funds by some commen.
such as this: "Well let 'em spend,
Rockefeller can afford it," Sure
Rockefeller can; but can they?
In this connection, let me say that
our people are now forced to fill out
S135yOOO00O tax and other governments
forms per year. Certainly, these are
not all filled out by tRockefellers. To
pick up over $4,000, 100000 in taxes
in 1888, it took the combined efforts
of 175,O00 separate tax agencies with
probably over 100000 tax employees.
Half the Bills Unpaid.
Yet, with all oure taxes, we are only
paying half the current cost of gov
ernment. The other half is being bor-
rowed and left for our children to
pay. The Federal government has bor-
rowed $24,000,0OO,OOO in the last ten
years. (How much money state, coun-
ty, and local governments have bor-
owed, cannot say) The interest on
this new debt alone is $500,0O0,OOO
year, or more than the government
spent in anv year prior to 1900, ex-
cept during the Civil War. Yet, there
are no convincing signs of let-down
in this wild orgy of spending. Despite
/ the economy talk on Capitol Hill, a