Evening Republican, Volume 19, Number 247, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 October 1915 — FREEMAN ALL RIGHT; COLLECTS FEDERAL TAX [ARTICLE]

FREEMAN ALL RIGHT; COLLECTS FEDERAL TAX

Alarm JEbet - Jftw _ T Had Worked Soft Drink Dealers Was Altogether Fancied. N. W. Freeman, the man who collected internal revenue taxes of Soft drink dealers at Parr, Fair-Oaks, Newland, Gifford and other places, is an authorized agent of the government and the belief of some that he was a swindler and was enriching himself by impersonating a federal tax collector was without foundation. Mr. Freeman is still working in Jasper county and came to Rensselaer from Kniman this Monday morning. He had collected S3O from Rjgbert Bums, the Kiuman soft drihk dispenser, and was after others whose business required the paying of a government tax. The Republican wishes to correct any impression. that may have been caused that Freeman is not authorized by the government. He is authorized and it is probable that any who refuse to come across and pay the sum demanded will be made the defendants in a federal suit that will cost them a lot more than paying the tax:. This scheme of collection, however, is an entirely new one and is evidently a plan of the government to make up for the shortage occasioned by the reduction in tariff revenues. The government collection made by Mr. Freeman is based upon the charge that the so-called “soft” drinks contain more than one-half of one per cent of alcohol • and are consequently not soft drinks at all. Hop ale, dry beer, cream of hops and about every other so-called soft drink are included in the drinks that will not bear the federal analysis of soft and this requires the dispenser to take out a government license, the rate for which is S2O per year, with a provision for a penalty of 50 per cent for no payment in advance. If every soft drink dealer in the county is compelled to take out a license the revenue will probably reach almost a thousand dollars. It is understood that Reuben Gundy, the Fair Oaks dealer, was required to pay $l5O. This, however, was not verified. There are v eight or ten dealers in Rensselaer, several in Remington and Wheatfield and one or two in each of the small towns. As previously stated, if the dealer takes out a federal license to sell liquor, even through he confines his sales to the so-called soft drinks, will be liable to prosecution under the state laws if the product testa more than one-half of one per cent. The revenue derived from this license requirement will bring a large sum of money into the government and help to pay off the indebtedness for which the present administration is responsible, but it will prove mighty expensive to the small dealers and is apt to make a number of converts to the cause of providing revenues for running the government from external instead of ixtternal sources.