Show TAXES AND WORK S t The season is approaching when the 41 Supervisor of Streets is sending his notices for poll tuxes nronnll and requesting request-ing i people he at the City Hull with 4 shovels and picks prepared to labor upon the public loads The Supervisor Super-visor only does his duty when around but he bends his notices surely the Supervisor is no psychologist else he would know that the very sight of a pick and shovel unfits moit men to s labor and so far as a pick and shovel being be-ing a preparation for work they are the A things which kill the most generous aspirations as-pirations The mere sight of a Roman soldier upset all of Archimedes calculations calcula-tions but picks and shovels upset the Roman Empire and if such was their influence upon the greatest empire the world has ever seen what then must be their effect upon an humble citizen 1 It is true that Holy Writ says that by the sweat of his brow shall man earn his living 1 and from this we must conclude that the great first condition and requirement is to sweat Now Adam and Eve got their living free at first and there was nothing said about labor or sweat and had Eve been less inquisitive and Adam more of a man they might have continued to live 7 withou t labor and much less sweat and the generations which have been since would have had the benefit of a free J I lunch stand The same thing might 4 have been accomplished if Adam like Washington had had a hatchet and had cut down the tree of the bi forbidden fruit But there is some excuse for Adam not having a hatchet as he lived before the Iron Age although if he had had the hatchet doubtless he would have cut down his 0 iathers favorite tree To the disobedience k disobedi-ence of Adam and Eve then must we trace the origin of the poll tax Looking at things as they are and not as we would t have them the question naturally suggests > sug-gests itself is it not sufficient to sweat to c t get a poll tax receipt It was certainly decreed that man must earn his bread by j l i j < the sweat of his brow and in those early times before laborsaving machinery JI was invented labor was the best y known method by which to make l l a man sweat while now sweat can be obtained i ob-tained in a much easier way Man must sweat is certain as it was so decreed but I we should remember that sweat is the great object to be attained and labor is only a means of attaining it and if a r readier way of obtaining it can be devised it should be adopted With most people 1 and we claim to be of the people the i thought of labor will produce the great object of labor and has the great advantage of being instantaneous in its action for if thought can transport trans-port the mind to the realms j i of the stars upon a moments 1 notice then how much more quickly can it reach the labor which is prepared for j all at the City Hall The Supervisor should think of these things and following j follow-ing the notices for poll taxes to be worked 1 l out on the public roads he should send 1 1 the receipt which says it has been done t 1 1tJ i It is probable that he will not do this f and if he wont the people who receive the notices and have not time to perform the work themselves should not pay cash i4 841t into the City Treasury but hire some 0 of the many men who are idle I 1 II upon our streets and seeking work I at any price That there are plenty t who would gladly perform the work upon I the streets and bring to those who have 4 been notified their poll tax receipts we f ij J ftrmlyJbelievc and every man who pays < r his poll tax in preference to working it j out ought to look up some of these idle < I men idle from necessity and furnish t them with a couple of days work It i F would benefit the city and the men who perform the work Let the men themselves I them-selves go around to those whom they i J think would prefer to pay than to perform G per-form the tax work and solicit it At J least let all consider the matter and if the suggestions above made are carried t out they will give to many a family a few I i k dollars in these dull times L i |