Jasper County Democrat, Volume 19, Number 59, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 October 1916 — BE UNDECEIVED, MR. TAXPAYER [ARTICLE]

BE UNDECEIVED, MR. TAXPAYER

Republicans Paying No Regard to the Truth ANYTHING TO GET AN OFFICE Is the Battle Cry of the Republicans and They Are Practicing It to the Fullest Extent Possible. The only issue that the Republicans -have in this campaign is, “We want the offices.” In fact they must have them now or the “old guard” which has been in control of the party so long will have to retire permanently and a new and, it is hoped, a better alignment all the way along the line will be the result. A campiagn of falsehood, misrepresentation and deception, seldom if ever equalled, is being waged to get back to the pie counter. In Indiana we have the spectacle of a bunch of politicians, crafty lawyers and would-be officeholders going about over the state and trying by every means at their command to deceive the people. With them “anything to win’’ is justifiable. In their campaign of deception they are hacked up by the Republican press which brazenly prints column after column of matter which it knows to be absolutely untrue, or, if not wholly untrue, is so worded as to deceive the readers. These politicians, lawyers, pie hunters and newspapers are telling the people that if the Democrats did pay off the state debt—a few weeks ago they were denying in toto that it had been paid off—that they did it by increasing the taxes levied for state purposes, and “who couldn’t pay off the debt by raising the taxes?” Now, as a matter of fact, as every intelligent person knows, there are levies made for specific purposes by the state—the same as we have in our county and townships—and the money derived from a levy for a specific purpose cannot be used for any other purpose whatever. Take for example our county levy here, a tax of 49.9 cents on each SIOO valuation was made last year as a “county tax.” From this fund all the running expenses of the county proper are paid, with the exception of gravel road repair and payment of the court house bonds, for which a special levy of 15 cents and 10 cents, respectively, wag made. Any man of ordinary Intelligence knows that the money derived from either of the last named levies cannot tye used for any other purpose except that named, and vice versa. The levy in Jasper county last year for county revenue, gravel road repair and court house bonds was 74.9 cents on each SIOO valuation, while the levy for all state purposes was 40.1 cents. You will find that this statement is absolutely correct by referring to your tax receipt of this year which shows the levies for 1915 on the back of the receipt. Now look up one of your old tax receipts, say for the year 1908. before the Democrats came into power in Indiana, and you will find that the levy for the various state purposes was 33.35 cents, and the levy for all of the various purposes in Jasper county was 52.65 cents. Don’t take our word for this or the word of any crafty lawyer, politician or newspaper. Look on the back of your tax receipts and see whether or not we are telling the truth. It will be noted that the levy for all the various state purposes since 1908 has been increased from 33.35 cents to 40.1 cents, a trifle less than

7 cents, while the levy for all the various purposes in Jasper county | has been increased from 52.65 to 74.9 cents, or almost 22 cents on 1 each SIOO valuation! Refer again to the back of your tax reecipts and see whether or not this statement is true. Remember that this 22 cents increase in Jasper county has been made by the Republicans and the 7-cent increase in the various state levies has been made by the Democrats. And yet Republican speakers go out from Rensselaer and have the effrontery to say that the Democrats are responsible fqr the big increase in the taxes paid by the Jasper county taxpayers, and if the Democratic state administration has paid off the state debt they have done so by increasing the state taxes and reaching down into the pockets of the farmers and others to get the money! , The Democrats have increased the total levy made by'the state almost 7 cents, and they frankly admit it. But not one penny of this increase was used in paying off the state debt. The money for this purpose was derived from the

state levy proper and the state debt sinking fund tax, which was 9 and 3c, respectively, in 1908, the latter levy being later reduced to 1.50 cents and now stands at .15, while the state levy proper has been reduced from 9 to 7 cents! The increases made by the Democrats have been in the benevolent institution tax, the educational tax and the vocational common school tax. This you will also see is correct by comparing your old tax receipts. The state tax levy proper has been reduced 2 cents, the sinking fund tax almost wiped out of existence—and will be dropped altogether next year if the Democrats are again returned to power—and the only increase made is for the purposes above stated. There are several more benevolent and penal institutions in Indiana now, with several more thousj and inmates to care for, than there I were when the Democrats came into j power in 1909. It costs more money to run this increased number of institutions and care for the several thousand more inmates than it did for those we had in 1908, The average taxpayer will not deny also that it costs more to feed and clothe one now than it did eight years ago, and yet the total of the state levy has been increased but very little and this increase is for

purposes that no one can make a valid objection to. Take some of your old tax receipts with you, Mr. Taxpayer, when you go out to hear some of these Republican spellbinders tell what the wicked Democrats have done, and ask them a few questions from what the levies printed on the back of your tax receipts tell you. The old adage that “figures won’t lie but liars will figure,” was never more aptly illustrated than in this campaign. Your tax receipts won’t lie, but will tell you precisely what we have told you. Look them up and see the story they tell.