American Agriculturist, November 22, 1924 
355 
Farm Taxes Must Come Down 
American Agriculturist Outlines Plans of Campaign—Will You Help? 
F OR nearly two years American Agricul¬ 
turist has carried on a constant, insistent 
campaign against the high taxes that are 
ruining so many farmers. They are a 
burden to all of them. As our readers know, this 
campaign has not been one of words, but of action, 
with the result that we secured through the aid of 
the Governor and the State Legislature of New 
York last year a reduction of one-half mill in the 
direct property tax. This single reduction 
amounted to approximately eight million dollars 
in which every farmer owner of property in the 
State benefited to some extent. 
We have stated, however, that this was only the 
beginning and last week we promised you in an 
editorial an outline of the things we wanted to 
work for during the coming year that would result 
in further relief in the tax situation. In this 
article, there is a brief outline of some of the 
things that we believe are wrong, 
with suggestions, as to how we think 
they should be remedied, This work 
will be done not only for the farmers 
of New York but in all the States 
where American Agriculturist has 
large numbers of subscribers. 
cent, in State taxes, about 100 per cent, in county 
taxes, and from 100 to 300 per cent, in local, 
township and district taxes. These figures are 
only up to 1921. Since then, the increases have 
been even more startling 
These are a lot of statistics maybe, but they 
tell a dangerous story, for unless farmers and 
other taxpayers of this country pay some atten¬ 
tion to them, we may as well quit business. 
Every farmer knows what the growing tax 
burden has meant to his business, to his family, 
and to his happiness. American Agriculturist 
received last year over 15,000 petitions from our 
readers asking for help in reducing the farm taxes. 
Many of these petitions were accompanied by 
letters which one could hardly read without tears 
in his eyes. Thousands of farmers were unable 
to get hold of enough cash to meet their taxes. 
It was without exception the most saddening. 
American Agriculturist Tax Program 
I. 
II. 
The abolition of a direct State tax on property. 
No further reduction of income taxes until govern¬ 
ment expenses are reduced. 
III. Discontinuance of the issuing of tax exempt securi¬ 
ties. 
IV. A carefully prepared detailed budget for every 
government unit from the nation to the county. 
V. Full publicity and information to taxpayers showing 
the exact purposes, with amounts, for which taxes 
are spent. 
VI. We are also in favor of: 
1. Larger taxation of personal property. 
2. Gasoline sales tax, and 
3. Taxing billboards along sides of State highways., 
Read the explanation of this program on this page and 
then write American Agriculturist, either giving your 
approval or stating wherein you disagree. 
Everyone Must Help 
Without your help, we can do 
nothing. But with more than 135,000 
farmers who subscribe to American 
Agriculturist back of us, we can 
do much, as has already been demon¬ 
strated. Will you, therefore, care¬ 
fully read this article and preserve it. 
Are the principles that we have out¬ 
lined in accordance with your belief? 
If so, will you lend us your support? 
We ought to have thousands of 
letters telling us wherein you agree 
and disagree with the suggestions in 
this article, letters that we can use 
with the Governor and the Legisla- — 
tors showing them how you really "" 
feel on this tax situation. Failing to ... 
hear from you with at least a brief note, in sup- disheartening situation which it has ever been 
port of what we are trying to do will mean to us 
that you are perfectly satisfied in going on and 
paying the high taxes. 
Now let us consider for a moment some of the 
reasons why the tax situation is so bad. dhe 
,, n . -1 rr •. l i i 
should be raised in some other way. Tax experts 
state that this is about the only country in the 
world where direct property tax is collected. 
Taxation should be on income and not on 
property. A man may have a $10,000 farm, but 
if conditions are such that he makes no income 
on that farm, it is unfair to tax him. 
SECOND: There should be no further reduc¬ 
tion of income taxes until government expenses 
are reduced, so that taxes will not have to be 
raised in other ways. This seems to be so right 
and plain to us that it should need no discussion. 
When a man is making a large income why should 
he not be the one to pay the taxes? Some busi¬ 
ness men argue that this discourages business and 
brings about hard times and that it particularly 
leads to the investment, of capital in tax exemption 
bonds instead of regular business enterprises. 
This leads us then to 
THIRD: The issuance of tax 
. . exempt securities should be discon¬ 
tinued. The exemptions of securities 
or incomes of any kind from its just 
share of the tax burden is absolutely 
wrong. We will discuss this in detail 
in other statements. We are sure 
that a great majority of farm people 
agree with us. 
our misfortune to know intimately about. 
‘‘All right,” vou say, “what can be done about 
it?” 
Nothing so long as you are willing to let the 
situation drift along without even writing a letter.. 
taxes which the farmers of the United States were Speaking generally, the big thing that must be 
called upon to pay in 1922 amounted to a larger done is for the people of this country to so assert 
sum of money than the total net incomes of the themselves that the outstanding thing in every 
farms of the United States of the same year, official’s mind, from the town supervisor to the 
Think of it! It took the net income of every President of the United States, is the absolute 
farmer in the country to pay the cost of maintain- necessity of cutting out so many government 
ing the government! activities, of increasing the efficiency of go\ein 
Look at it another way. In the nine years ment and of cutting down the taxes, 
from 1912 to 1921, taxes increased $280,000,000, 
or more than 140 per cent. During this period 
not a single State in the United States decreased 
its expenditures and hardly a State showed an 
increase of less than 100 per cent. New York 
What A. A. Stands For 
Speaking specifically, there are certain definite 
things that American Agriculturist believes 
we may rightfully demand of all of our represen- 
alrnost exactly doubled its expenditures. Massa- tatives in local, state and national government, 
chusetts increased from $6,250,000 to $14,500,000. You will find these specific things outlined in the 
Pennsylvania increased from approximately $32,- box in the center of this page. We will discuss 
300,000 to $62,250,000. Those are the increases 
for nine years. They were as bad for the ten 
years previous to 1912, so that in the last twenty 
years the burden of support of the State govern¬ 
ments alone has been multiplied by four. 
Local Conditions Also Need Attention 
So much for the Nation and the State. What 
about the county and the local government? 
each of them very briefly here and will have much 
more to say about them later. Particularly do 
we want to know what you think about them and 
have you discuss them in the paper, so we can 
use your arguments and your opinions where they 
will do the most good. 
FIRST: The quickest way to bring some relief 
to every farmer taxpayer is to get a further reduc¬ 
tion or an entire elimination of the direct State tax. 
Countv expenses increased in about the same Last year in New \ork State, before American 
V 1 ^ . a . 4 ____4- 1,1 .1 4-U ^ 4«L iLn. TM»nrv_ 
ratio as State expenses. Cost of county govern¬ 
ment in New York grew during that period from 
$19,000,000 to $38,500,000. Taxes in the dis¬ 
tricts and townships are worse still. The cost of 
local government in New York, county., township 
and district, grew from $62,250,000 to $139,- 
300,000 
Summing this up in percentage figures, there has 
been an increase in the last nine years of 140 per 
Agriculturist tackled the job, the direct prop¬ 
erty tax was two mills; that is, two dollars on 
every thousand dollars of assessed valuation. We 
got the State government to reduce this one-half 
a mill, so that the tax is now one mill and a half. 
Direct property tax by the State is wrong in 
principle. It should be eliminated entirely, and 
government expenses reduced to meet the smaller 
revenue, or else if absolutely necessary, the money 
Some Astounding Figures 
Sufficient to say here that there are 
approximately $24,000,000,000 of in¬ 
come accumulated during the six 
years of 1916 to 1921, inclusive, which 
escaped the individual Federal income 
tax because such income was held by 
corporations as undivided profits. 
Such a sum is beyond the compre¬ 
hension of any mortal, but we can all 
realize how much lighter the tax 
burden would be if this vast income 
was paying its share of taxes. Then 
we will add to that some more 
billions, $12,310,000,000 to be exact, 
which is invested in tax free bonds 
and therefore pays nothing toward government 
support. In the name of common sense, and in the 
name of all justice, why should farm people be 
taxed to ruination when all of these billions, most 
of which belong to the wealthy, go untaxed? 
Some argue that the tax free bond is the tax¬ 
payer’s own credit instrument, from which the 
public derives a direct and considerable benefit 
because it is issued and sold bearing a low rate 
of interest. That argument may hold for that 
share of the public which lives in the villages and 
the cities. It does not hold to any great extent 
for farmers. 
FOURTH: There should be a carefully planned 
and prepared budget of proposed government 
expenses in the nation, in every state, and in 
every county, city and town. Many of these 
divisions now have budgets. The national budget 
system has already saved the nation many 
millions. In some States and in many counties 
the budgets are more or less of a joke. They 
should be uniform; they should show in consider¬ 
able detail what is proposed to be spent for the 
coming year and for what purposes. They should 
be published in the local papers and under no 
circumstances should the allowances for any 
particular item be exceeded. Then at the close 
of the year, every municipality from tlxynation to 
the last town should furnish to taxpayers a copy 
of the budget and a report showing just how much 
money was spent and for what purposes. 
For Publicity of Tax Expenditures 
FIFTH: This report should be published in the 
newspapers and it should be rendered to every 
taxpayer with his tax' bill. In New York City 
and in a few other cities when the taxpayer 
receives his bill for taxes, he finds on it a state¬ 
ment of what his moneys have been used few. 
This gives the taxpayer an opportunity of check- 
(Continued on page 368) 
