Show I Injustice to Farmer in Making 1 Capital Investment Investment Investment Invest Invest- ment Basis for Taxation D By DR EUGENE DA DAVENPORT Illinois College of Agriculture lIE farmer tr has hRs a c case ce e in demanding something other than cap capital rap capi T THE tal investment as a basis for Cor taxation The laboring man with his bare hands often much enjoys a higher income than the Hie ay ay- farmer Carmer yet as a laborer he pays no taxes tl He lie will argue that he pays poJ's them indirectly in the form of rent and grocery bills So does the farmer as a consumer pay the same lame indirect taxes Des Besides he lie pays pay's heavy y tues taxes as a pro producer which the laborer Il the clerk the teacher and end the professional proCessional man entirely avoids aroids even eren though often far more mort able to pay than the farmer who must help to school the others others' children Only two ways of reaching this nonpaying citizenry have hare suggested themselves a a poll 1011 tax which is impracticable if not unfair and certain commodity taxes tues which are bitterly resisted as ag tending to increase the cost rost of living The Tho farmer is the last to resist the commodity tax tu even when it seems to be a new kind of taxation for like the gasoline tax tas it reaches many a citizen not heretofore contributing to the public exchequer We Weare Weare Weare are doing well with the gasoline Ui tu which reaches no one in distress and we e may go further in this period of improved school and general highway construction A tax levy according to capital investment is especially hard on farmers for the reason reMon that they have almost twice as t much invested at as manufacturers for example while producing less than a quarter as much in value alue of product i |