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Show Published Every Saturday BY GOODWIN'S WEEKLY PUBLISHING CO., INC. A. W. RAYBOULD, Business . Managsr PRICE: rilno postage In ths United States, Canada and Mexleo, $2J0 per year, to all foreign countries, within the Postal jlx months. Subscriptions 4,50 per year. 8UB8CRIPTION Single coplesJO cents. Payments should be mads by Check, Money Order or Registered Letter, pay ibis to Ths Citizen. Address all communications to The Citizen. Entered as second-clas- s matter, June 21; 1919, at ths Postoffice at Salt Lake S, 1879. City, Utah, under the Act Phone Wasatch 6409 . Ness Bldg. Salt Lake City, Utah. of-Marc- h 811-12-- 13 THE TAXPAYERS the prevailing system of conducting pub-rs,- is a most liberal government. When an industry languishes inatical movement gains sway,- the powers that be, always indiscriminate generosity, establish, at the expense of g with for nurs-- ; payers, a new department, or bureau! or commission, ailing industry back to normalcy, or to fasten the fanatical Such mariner of conducting government, in on. the people. lational and city affairs! is placing such a heavy burden upon nble taxpayer that he no longer merely groans he staggers, is thought leads up to the contemplation of fantastic and fana-v- s sponsored by. those who would bend everybody to their e it either wise, witty or unholy by the mere expediency qf a new law and appointing a coriimission, invested with plen-tvto enforce it. Aside from prohibition commissions, or a te sleuth, these fantastic laws provide for huge enforcement which means more jobs for the faithful and more revenue to usual-litte- d acted from the pockets of the taxpayers. Such. laws are to clutter-u- p our statutes because they furnish an easy the and render appointment of a big army of political aratively.easy for politicians to make good their glowing pre-- i r government undfcr - er ; pie-eate- rs promises. rhaps a taxpayers . association would ban forever this favorite f exploitation of the property owner. ere are several thousand ways of kiting the tax burden that ijers association would have to investigate and become famil-h- , before definite and decisive plans to eliminate them could lulated. They are all the products of the system that has been over a period of years dating back almost to the beginning nation. They may not be charged to the present inclimbents who find themselves as bowed-dow- n and as amenable to pre-an- d precept as all who have gone the way marked out by the ional politicians, before them. e recent exposure of the fact that the city of Salt Lake has ade to overpay its interest account to the defunct National should neither grieve nor surprise the taxpayers who must this lot amount. The announcement by Expert Account-- , !nt Sudbury, in his letter to City Auditor Alvin Keddington, that ' to this bank in the sum of ap-- a over p: id interest charges $31, (VO for the year 1920, is indeed illuminating; but it Pictures a direct result of the present system of unchecked and en?ed are gov.rnment under which all political c stoops so low as to inquire into the conduct of its particular public serveie to the end that the people may get all they pay for, or that from every angle. They assume an public funds may be easy come, easy go attitude merely because in affairs political the rule was long ago established that everybodys business is nobodys business. With nothing but precedent to guide in the conduct of public affairs, with no higher, check on their ambitions than their own conscience, which may also, become saturated with the miasma of the system public officials, as a rule, grow not only as arrogant and as Lords of the Manor, they actually expect and exact the total subservance of the taxpayers they were elected to serve. The taxpayers of Salt Lake City and county will get little actual relief from the heavy tax burden over which they are now grumbling rather vociferously, perhaps until they take steps to go to the mat with the prevailing system of conducting public business. Pressure brought to bear upon the taxing units of the state have resulted in a lowering of property valuation this year. The economic situation may have been a factor, but it is patent to all that the loud cry for a reducion in taxes has been more potent in bringing about reduced property valuations than any other cause. But if the state tax rate must be kited from 6.9 mills to 7.1 mills, the limit permissible, under existing state law, the benefit to taxpayers because of lower valuations, is going to be hard to figure out. It but shows, that, under the system, a fixed amount must be gleaned to carry the burden and when valuations are low, tax levies must go up or the system go broke. Perhaps a taxpayers association would become interested in affairs similar to this promised kiting of the tax levy. The Citizen feels that it has done its part in placing! the great need for an association of taxpayers to take active part in state, county and city affairs, before the people. It is now up to the taxsafe-guard- ed self-center- ed f ; or by propayers, themselves, to either organize for longing their present attitude of subservance to political expediency and increasing political overhead, give the system tacit approval. self-protecti- on AMERICAN VALUATION FACTS. I i sub-divisio- ns grated. to lay. Ci with her five mayors may, certainly, be classed 0se mu,,"cipalities at the head of the class in muddled and tnf i. f a! :irs. .There is evidently no thought of conserva-econom- y n the conduct of city government. Each depart-- f apparent!-a jaw llntp itself. No department ever consults of the J taxpayers when it comes to spending the peoples 0 department f places an absolute check on its employees or , Shall Uncle Sam fix both factors of the ad valorem duty on foreign importations, or shall he let foreign governments and manufacturers fix one of them? The above merely empitomizes the situation that now confronts this nation in regard to the much discussed and apparently troublesome question of levying an equitable tax on foreign importations, now seeking entrance at our ports of entry in vastly increasing quantities. It resolves itself into a simple question of whether it is advisable for Uncle Sam to divide the sovereignty of the United States basis in the matter of levying with foreign nations, on a fifty-fift- y import duties, or remain wholly independent in emulation of the i. |