Taxes are the ruination of families

Liberals and Conservatives

At Quebec, Premier Jean Lesage terminated his first regular session of the Legislature with more taxes than ever loaded upon the backs of the tax payers. There was an increase in provincial income tax (which the Liberals themselves had denounced when they were in the opposition; a tax of 2 percent for the schools, extended to every part of the province and added to the existing 2 percent wherever it was in force. Which amounts to 4 percent on all purchases. In Montreal we are already paying 6 percent).

In Ontario, the premier instituted for the first time in that province a sales tax; 3 percent to begin with!

In Nova Scotia, the sales tax was raised from 3 percent to 5 percent. The tax on gasoline which was previously 17 cents has now been raised to 19 cents!

In New Brunswick the provincial tax on gasoline and motor fuels has also gone up. In this province county taxes are already in force. You are obliged to pay, for example, over and above your provincial license charge, a license charge levied by the county, which in some places can go as high as $200. As for property taxes, they are nothing more or less than pure exploitation.

Lesage in Quebec, a Liberal, Frost in Ontario, a Conservative, Robichaud in New Brunswick, a Liberal, Stanfield in Nova Scotia, a Conservative! Two Liberals, two Conservative! Like their predecessors, regardless of party colour, they are faithful slaves of the finance system and ready accomplices in the ruination of families...

Bathurst, N.B.

We receive letters from a thousand and one places in Canada. We have not as yet heard that property taxes had gone down anywhere. On the contrary, taxes are going up everywhere!

A little example. In Bathurst, New Brunswick, the tax for each $100 of evaluation, which was already very high for individual proprietors, has been once more increased. Furthermore, the evaluation roll has been revised, and it is a fact born out by experience that every revision entails a further increase of rates. The base of the tax is increased, the rate is increased, and the result is inevitable higher taxes all around!

In Bathurst they have also imposed a poll tax.

Each man, citizen of the town, must pay a poll tax of $20 a year if he is between the ages of 21 and 65 and owns taxable property. If they do not own taxable property, the poll tax is $25.

It is a fact that the municipality of Bathurst is situated in the county of Gloucester, which is the poorest county in the province. Property owners who are taxed, often haven't sufficient either in money or goods. As a result, it is extremely difficult to collect taxes there. But in order to get the very last cent which might be hidden in the sugar bowl on the pantry shelf, the council of Gloucester does not hesitate to use violence. They employ policemen who force their way into houses to collect these taxes. Last April, at a special meeting called to discuss this matter, the council issued the following directive: "That the central tax collecting office give the necessary orders to the constables to take all measures necessary to collect delinquent taxes."

Do these instructions to the constables mean that greater violence and brutality than hitherto practiced will be used in the collection of taxes? Here is a part of a letter received from a parish situated in this county. It is dated December, 1959.

"The week of Christmas, the municipality of Gloucester sent into our parish a constable in uniform, armed with a revolver and handcuffs, with him was the sheriff, to collect taxes. They acted like the Gestapo of Germany during the last war. They entered houses, taking from the poor people their last few cents, leaving them nothing for Christmas. They seized the furniture, and if there was nothing of this worth seizing, they led the poor people off to jail in Bathurst. On all those who paid they levied another $20 charge, saying that this was for the cost of having to collect the taxes. It was a pitiful sight to see:".

It is ruin

Mr. Louis Even said the other day: "In our states today, it begins with taxation and finishes with ruin."

In fact, this policy of taxation is ruinous for families. The father of the family loses his right to his house and his farm. Then he loses all his goods. He becomes a tenant, often outside his home town in an endeavor to find work. After a while he becomes unemployed. From proprietor and producer to tenant, to the ranks of the unemployed, without work, without property, no enterprise, no home, no security, no means of earning a living, no future! He has become a beggar in the land of his ancestors, whereas, in fact, he should be sharing in the wealth of that land as a co-heir. And it is taxes which have driven him to such an extremity.

Why taxes?

But why, in fact, should there be taxes? For no other reason but to ruin families and to pass all power into the hands of the financiers and the State. This is the reason, not declared but hidden, for our present system of taxation. The pretexts which are given us "administration of the country", "social services", are false reasons. And those who repeat, "We must have money for administration", are nothing but ignorant parrots.

Here is the testimony of a former tax collector of the United States during the first years of the Eisenhower administration. It is. T. Coleman Andrews who speaks:

"The middle class is being oppressed by taxes to such a point that now the Marxist prophecy which said that the surest method of destroying a capitalist society is to suffocate it under an ever-growing weight of taxation, especially an exaggerated succession tax, is being realized. The prophecy of Karl Marx is being fully realized in the United States. Example: the father of a family who earned $5,000 a year under the administration of Woodrow Wilson, paid only $10 in taxes. The same father paid $730 under the Roosevelt admininstration in 1942. It costs dearly to have the honor of being an American citizen.!"

That was in 1942. Today, in 1961, 19 years after, it's a lot worse. And it is the income tax, which steals the salary before the worker even has a chance to see it, that steals the future house, the security of the family and the future of the children. Add to the income tax, the tax on property, poll taxes, sales taxes, etc. and the family which might have been able to survive the income tax will certainly go under with the taxes which follow. Those lucky ones who, because they have been able to save a little, or have no children, manage to set up a nest egg after this series of depradations, will not finally be missed. For at their death, the succession duties and taxes which the government imposes, will make sure that heirs see little or nothing of what they have saved.

Taxes are taking from us everything, absolutely everything. That is the reason for taxes; that is what taxes have been calculated to do.

There may be some who think at times: "When the taxes become heavy enough, the rise in taxation will halt!" Pure illusion! For the taxed, the only measure is: "Has everything been taken?". This was the program of Karl Marx, the father of Communism; that the capitalist countries tax the families to the point where they will be led to a regime which is every bit as Communist as that in Russia!

Useless subtractions

We are led to believe that taxes are to pay for administration, for services. This is a falsehood!

What exactly does a tax mean? It means, in fact, that the State takes from the citizen his purchasing power. With reference to the money in circulation, the State should be nothing more than a regulator. And the only true and valid reason, for a tax would be to regulate purchasing power, that is, to drain off the excess of money from our pocket books.

But, "we must pay for administration!" Certainly we must, but not with taxes. "But, "we must have taxes," you say. Why? Where did you read that, that we must have taxes? Did you read it in the stores which do not know how to get their goods moving?

A tax is a subtraction from my pocket-book made by the public powers. And by what right do the public powers make subtractions from my pocket-book? Only when the purchasing power in my pocket-book and in the pocket-books of my compatriots exceeds the production power of the country. My pocket-book, my purchasing power, has for its proper function, the movement of goods from stores to my house. This does no harm to the merchants or the producers, that much is certain. Then how does it happen, that the government pretends to be working good when it takes from me purchasing power, at a time when stores and warehouses, are full to bursting, and thus causes unemployment? The unemployed are the result of a refusal to pass on production because of a shortage of purchasing power.

That is the light in which taxes must be viewed. And just as long as the people refuse to regard them in this light, just so long will the governments go on ruining the people through taxation.

"But we must have money for administration". No, absolutely not. What we need for the administration of the country are administrators, police, firemen, workers to build roads, etc; and what we need is goods for all these people so that they may live. Can it be said that Ontario, which has established a 3 percent sales tax, lacks workers or the bread with which to nourish them while they are working? Why take from Peter's plate to nourish Paul when there is more than enough in the province of Ontario for everyone. And taxation is just that taking from Peter's plate to feed Paul. Why take from Peter to feed Paul? Why tax Peter in order to pay Paul? Why tax?

This is a system of robbers, a Communist system!

But how can administration be carried on without taxes? By simple accounting procedures. Let there be established in each province a Credit Organization. Quebec Credit, Ontario Credit, Alberta Credit, etc. Thus through these organizations, fundamentally accounting systems, the riches of each province will made available to the rightful owners, the citizens of the province. And that Mr. Premiers, is what we need in place of taxes!

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"God will bless your generosity and will open countless doors if you truly strive to help the world, and everybody in it".

Christopher Notes, June-July, 1960