THE FARMER AND THE TAX-GATHERER. 19;") 



edge is to be Lad only at the cost of an extravagant administra- 

 tion of that business, the ruin of the majority of the public- 

 servants, and the general demoralization of the [)eo[)le them- 

 selves, the price is too high. 



By taking the business affairs of the public entirely out of 

 politics, the expense of administration of all national, state 

 and local affairs can be enormously reduced, and the demands 

 of the tax-gatherer correspondingly lessened. 



To the above I Vv^ould add the letting all public work bv 

 contract which is possible to be so disposed of. This is bitterly 

 opposed by all organized labor, which insists that all pu])lic 

 work shall be done by "day's works," at higher wages and 

 shorter hours than those usual in private life. Many of those 

 advocating this method are unquestionably patriotic citizens, 

 and yet they seem to me to err greatly in permitting their zeal 

 for the welfare of one class to outweigh their desire for the 

 welfare of the public. They know that what they seek leads 

 not only to higher wages for those employed, which we might 

 not complain of, since the public should aid in maintaining 

 the standard of life of the laborer, but in the employment of 

 unnecessary men, and consequent shirking of work to make 

 room for as many as possible,* and the general debauching of 

 public morals. It seems to me that they would have a 

 stronger and more effective claim upon the public regard, and 

 its aid in accomplishing their legitimate desires, by aiding to 

 secure purity and efficiency in the public service. I work 

 twelve hours in the day, upon the average, and always have 

 done so. I am not willing to work thus to pay a man for 

 working eight hours, and half working at that, in mending 

 the road which runs past my house. 



This entire volume could be filled with detailed suggestions 

 for eluding the tax-gatherer by promoting more economical 

 methods in public affairs. Any reader, when he considers the 



*0f course there is a certain portion of the non tax-paving element, espe- 

 cially in large cities, which undisguisedly seeks the lavish expenditure of public 

 funds, regardless of necessity, with the open intent to despoil all who have 

 money, in the expectation that they will get some of it: but T do not in the 

 text refer to them. 



