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Show THE CITIZEN 4 York standard they are to be further humiliated by debarring them from their God given rights under our government. Fanatical laws prevent a progressive nation from doing its best. VOTING Because of the large number of eligible voters who do not go to the polls in Great Britain, there is agitation for the enactment of a compulsory voting law, with a penalty. It is asserted that Belgium suffered front the same disease of apathy a few years ago and enacted such a law, with a severe fine as penalty, and good results followed. In the United States election laws are within the jurisdiction of the states, not of the Federal government. It would be interesting to see how such a law would work in some states here if any state wants to try it. One-hal- f of the people elect men to office and the other half stand by and criticise, yet they will do nothing to remedy conditions. Probably a heavy road tax would help the situation to be levied upon men and women who do not take enough interest in their government to vote. If we are to continue to have a government for the people and by the people then all the citizens must take some part in that government. A government by the minority will never be popular. POLITICAL DEMAGOGUES. All the professors of economics who ever lectures before college classes never enunciated sounder philosophy than was contained in the ancient fable of the farmer who killed the goose that laid the golden eggs. Many a man has tried that policy. It has been tried by communities, by states and by nations and it always loses. Communities have encouraged men of enterprises to establish industrial concerns in their midst, and have rejoiced when these industries furnished employment to large numbers of their citizens and furnished a market for local raw material products. But as the industries grew, political demagogues saw an opportunity to promote Oppresstheir own interests by railing at the wealth corporations. hold-up ive regulation, excessible taxation, and legislation followed, with the result that the industry was discouraged, crippled or des- troyed. Taxation has been the means by which much of this sort of thing has been accomplished. It has been accomplished in a wholesome but scarcely, discernible manner when income taxes became so high that men of wealth sold out their industrial interests and put their money e securities. into But the unsoundness of an oppressive tax system is more and more realized. Two years ago the state of Oregon enacted, by popular vote, a state income tax law which added to the burdens of the Federal income tax. So injurious was the new law that at the recent election the law was repealled by a popular vote. A manifestation of appreciation of the injurious character of heavy taxation was shown in Florida where the people by popular vote adopted a constitutional amendment declaring that no state income tax law shall ever be enacted. This was, of course a direct bid for residents of other states to move to Florida to make their homes. States that find their citizens leaving on account of taxation will have to do some of figuring on revision of tax laws if they wish to stop the capital. The same is true of the nation. American capital will readily go elsewhere if it can find a larger net return for its use. non-taxabl- out-flo- w PRICE FIXING. It would be far better for the country if legislatures only met once in every twenty-fiv- e years or once in every generation. There is so much freak legislation suggested that some of it is bound to run the gauntlet no matter how much it is hammered and as a result the peo- ple have to suffer. ' Among other things, a would be reformer suggests that gasoline prices be subject to the control and under the direction of the Public Utilities Commission. There is a thought in the matter that does need some consideration. That is, if private corporations can fix prices, . and we know of a surety that many of them do, why should not the state march hand in hand with its merchants and also fix prices? But why single out gasoline? The government fixed the price of wheat for a while and now the middle men have fixed it so that right now we are paying war prices for our wheat and flour. Why not regulate the price of everything we eat and wear? Appears like dia-- ' inonds needs some regulation. The more diamonds they dig the higher the price goes. Of course probably the high price can be explained because of the many big diamond robberies throughout the country which in the United States is greatly diminishing the supply. Fifty or one hundred thousand dollar robberies are a common occurrence these days. If the people would keep tab on all who even suggest freak legislation and whenever such people ask for an office at the hands of the people, if they would turn their backs upon the reformers, it would not be long before we would all get back to earth again. Competition is the best price fixer in the world and the supply and demand is a well established regulator. If there was only ofiJ automobile in the world today, it would probably be worth several million dollars and there would not be more than half a dozen men bidding for it. The quicker we get away from this price fixing stuff the better we will be off and the sooner we rid ourselves of about 90 per cent of the present bureaus and commissions the sooner we will get better service in other directions. We have too many chair warmers in political jobs which is the chief reason for our present high taxation. Everything is being regulated but the consumer; He is the natural victim for exploitation. Business must be organized, prices must be fixed, but the poor consumer he must be disorganized in order that he can be pried loose from his last cent. Gasoline prices today are regulated by the number of stations a gas company may have. Some of the stations can make money, but stations erected in poor locations are money losers and the company must get even somehow. There is no doubt that some companies could show that they ought to get at least 50 cents a gallon for their gasoline. The cost of producing the gasoline is of small moment compared with the cost of placing the same on the market, and companies now days prefer, for some reason, to handle their own product in the market. If the utilities commission ever takes hold of gasoline in order to fix prices, the consumer may depend that the price will be nearly double to what it is today. What we really do need just now is to appoint a committee of business men to investigate why. our city and state governments are running in the red and must borrow large sums of money in order to tide them over. Our legislature this coming year ought to correct this practice. The fellow who originated anticipation notes probably knew what he was doing, but the people are paying thousands of dollars for the service which would drive any private business out of existence in a short time. How long will it take some of our people to learn that the people must support their government; that the government cannot support them. Let us take all our business out of government and we will be better for it. SHOOTING AWAY MONEY. The battleship Washington, which had not yet been completed in the navy yard, was taken out and sunk by the government. Why? Dont we need any more battleships or is there a slump in the steel industry? To build and then to destroy shows a lack of business thrift in some departments of our government. No other governments are doing, it and we should not do it. Every European nation is doing everything possible to strengthen its armament, both navy, army and naval bases, and they do not come here to tell us what they are goiq to do, or when. It took a lot of ammunition to sink the Washington, which proved her a successful warship as far as construction was concerned. Some day we may need just such a ship, but we sink her. . , |