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Show 845,501 FARMERS DEMAJiD TAX REDUCTION AT OXCE A petition more than two miles long and bearing the signatures o 345,516 farmers asking Congress to cut Governmental expenditures and thereby reduce taxes was presented to the House Monday afternoon, January Jan-uary 7, by Representative George P. Darrow of Pennsylvania. It was said to be the greatest petition, both in' length and in the number of signers, ever offered in a legislative body. These signers, secured by the Farm Journal, of Philadelphia are from every state in the union except Nevada and South Caroliia. Every signer was dcelared to be a practical farmer or one directly interested in the farming industry. While the petition does not spec ifically urge the adoption of the plan of tax reduction advocated by tfc Secretary of the Treasury, having been drafter long in advance of the Mellon Tax Reduction proposal, the voluminous document is accepted by the leaders of the tax reduction movement as proof of the farmers insistence upon immediate tax reform re-form and as an endorsement of their efforts to revise the income schedules and inaugurate government economies. econo-mies. The greatest number of signers are Ohioans, 67,990 names being listed from that state. Indiana was next with 30,739 signers; Iowa third witn 29,073; Pennsylvania, 23 780; Kansas, Kan-sas, 22,009; Wisconsin, 21,472, Minnesota, Min-nesota, 20,594; Texas, 19,362; Michigan, Mich-igan, 17,408;. Nebraska 16,469 and Kentucky 14,114. Among the other states represented repre-sented in the petition were Missouri with 11,197 signers; North Dakota, 1,981; Oklahoma, 1.849 ; Tennessee, 1,981; Virginia. 2,026; West Virginia, Vir-ginia, 2 158. All other states had 21,165 signers, making a grand to-j tal of 345,516. ! The petition was brought to Washington Wash-ington in an automobile. Speaker Gillett of the House of Representatives Representa-tives indicated great interest in the petition when it was shown to him I by Representative Darrow and Chas. j F. Jenkins on the steps of the capl-i tol before it was brought into the1 house chamber. j In representing the petition TIr. Darrow read to the house a letter from Charles F. Jenkins, publisher, of The Farm Journal, which said m part: , :"I would be glad if you would I point out to congress that every sin-, gle signer on the petition is a far-1 mer or one directly interested in ag- riculture. There are attached to the petition 345.516 names, and if the, sheets were unrolled they would , measure over two and one-quarter miles in length. "The great army of producers, representing nearly every state in the union, but mainly the great midwest mid-west agricultural states, are con- , vinced that taxes are too high. Fourteen Four-teen months ago, at a time when there was no treasury surplus in sight, and when it seemed possible that taxes might even have to be increased, in-creased, we sensed the urgency ot the demand among our readers and undertook the circulation of this pe-ition pe-ition demanding the strictest economy econ-omy in the Government. As time went on and the surplus of revenues began to' appear, we have felt unmistakably unmis-takably the growth of this powerful uemand for the lightening of the tax burden." "As you no doubt know, the farm pays its share and sometimes more than its share of all and every kind of taxes, and has to do it in many cases out of little or no margin of profit. There is no class on whom taxes weigh so heavily. Farmers, like many others, failed to forsee wcat the war would do to them in the way of an enormous national debt and sky high taxes, but they-see they-see it plainly enough now and are asking corgress for relief. "Thus this crystallized sentiment among rural people, indicates that there is urgent necessity of reducing or at least not increasing the burden of taxes. Something can be done toward to-ward cutting governmental expenses through cooperation among departments depart-ments and more intelligent buying; but overloaded payrolls are largely responsible for a considerable proportion pro-portion of excessive governmental cost. Therefore, by withholding Increases In-creases in salaries of Government employees, getting rid of surplus employees em-ployees and standing in firm oppo-mportant oppo-mportant economies could be effect- ed. The budget system has proved its worth, but much remains to be done "Furthermore, the time has come to stop the gradual and steady intrusion intru-sion of the Government into private business. It is largely this expansion in new functions which has o enormously enor-mously increased the cost of Government. Govern-ment. It is worth what it costs; and while farmers have benefited somewhat some-what by these activities, it has gone far enough. Governmental costs should be held down by refusing to establish any new bureaus or commissions com-missions unless strictly self-supporting. |