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Show THINGS ONE REMEMBERS By R. M. Hofer While driving east of Sam Diego recently, I overhauled and passed what seemed to be an old-time prospector in a small wagon drawn by two burros. I stopped just ahead to buy some grape juice from a farm lady at her roadside stand. , I was ready to leave when the "prospector" drew up and stopped. On closer observation he looked more like a dime novel hero or bad man, with all the traditional trappings, including a 45-calibre revolver hanging with the approved sag on his left hip. This style of dress has not been the fashion for either "cowboys" or "prospectors" in the West for many years, so I concluded he was advertising a "patent medicine" medi-cine" show. Imagine my surprise when he said to the lady, "I'm a Federal man, a Federal prospector. I want to buy a jar of honey." She handed it to him and said, "Twenty-five cents, please, and one cent state sales tax,." "Oh, no," said he, "I don't pay that tax. I'm a Federal man. I'm tax-exempt." With that, he swaggered out, leaving the hard-working rancher's wife to pay the penny tax. This was such a glaring case of the use of official power and privilege to escape the obligations of citizenship, that I was astounded. If this public servant's salary which is paid in part by the taxes of the hard-working woman to whom he refused to pay the penny tax is exempt ex-empt from taxes, it is bad enough; if he uses his official position to bluff his way out of paying taxes, it is that much worse. The moral of this incident is simple: In these days of exorbitant taxation, it is unjust, unfair and undemocratic that any government office holder be granted any exerrrp-tion exerrrp-tion from taxation not granted to a private citizen who pays the wages or salary of the office holder. It is no harder for a public servant to pay taxes out of his income, than it is for a private citizen to pay it out of his own earnings. Special privileges for officialism, at public expense, must be curbed or the common citizen will become nothing but a tax slave to dig up money for the tax-exempt bureaucrats. |