Page:Historic highways of America (Volume 15).djvu/32

This page has been validated.
28
FUTURE OF ROAD-MAKING

ciples and policies. So great is the desire to secure an appropriation of money for local purposes that many will excuse a congressman's vote on either side of any question if he can but secure the expenditure of a large amount of public money in his district.

"I emphasize this because it is a fact to which no reference has been made. The point is that the farmer not only pays his share of the taxes, but more than his share, yet very little of what he pays gets back to him.

"People in the city pay not only less than their share, as a rule, but get back practically all of the benefits that come from the expenditure of the people's money. Let me show you what I mean when I say that the farmer pays more than his share. The farmer has visible property, and under any form of direct taxation visible property pays more than its share. Why? Because the man with visible property always pays. If he has an acre of land the assessor can find it. He can count the horses and cattle. . . The farmer has nothing that escapes taxation; and, in