THE PURPOSE OF THE TAX BURDEN.
By S.
The debt of France is the heaviest ever incurred by any nation in the world. At the close of the American Civil War, the debt of the United States was about two and three-fourths billions of dollars. But the present debt of France is now equal to six billions of dollars; and yet her population is less than one half that of the United States. The yearly interest alone on France’s debt is equal to $4.20 for every man, woman, and child in France. What the proportionate tax burden on that people is may be realized a little better, perhaps, by the statement of the fact that the interest on our own national debt is only 44 cents per capita, about one-sixth of what the people of France pay. That is the burden of burdens which that people is carrying to-day; and what is the cause?—War and the preparation for war is what has fastened this crushing burden upon the French people. France’s regular army numbers 580,000 men, and her navy, from battle-ships down to torpedo-boats, numbers 810 vessels, of which 209 are battle-ships, cruisers, and gunboats. Thus with a population of only 38,500,000, France has a navy larger than the United States, Germany, Italy, or Russia. But that is not the whole extent of the war burden which she carries; for in addition to her regular army France must arm and drill 4,362,000 men to be ready for war when it shall come. It is this worship of war by the people of this world that has placed upon France the grinding burden which she carries to-day; and not upon France alone, but upon every other great nation of the world. Germany now arms and trains 5,534,199 men, of whom 691,870 compose her regular army. Italy arms and drills nearly 2,000,000 men; Austria, 1,713,000; Russia, 5,406,000, of whom 883,000 comprise her regular army; and England 612,000, of whom 254,000 comprise her regular army. China supports about 850,000 armed men, and Japan about 280,000. They are all planning upon greater expenditures for both land and naval forces. Even China is waking up, reorganizing and rearming her land forces, and planning for the construction of another navy. England’s expenses on her navy alone for the coming year will amount to the enormous sum of $152,212,850. She puts 49 new war vessels into the water this year. Next year she will have in various stages of construction 87 others. The naval expenses of America for the coming year will be greater than for any previous year; and the other great nations are launching out similarly. Why all this feverish preparation? Why all this compounding of already heavy burdens? The disease of war has become epidemic; it is firmly seated; its never-loosening roots are beginning to grip the very vitals of the world; and the impending dissolution is hastening on. It is one of the unimpeachable signs that we are in the last days of this earth’s history. “Prepare war; wake up the mighty men,” was to be the clarion call to the world’s last mighty conflict. Every nation is now taking account of its supply of men able to bear arms, taking account of the ability of its people to bear taxation. No census is complete which does not give the number of men the country could depend upon in time of war. Is it all for naught? Every nation sees before it many possibilities of war, many possible or probable entanglements which could lead to war; and they are growing more numerous every day. No nation feels that it could afford to be found unprepared when that time shall come; for its very existence would then be at stake. There is the Turkish question, which may set Europe on fire at any time; there is the Chinese question, which is equally dangerous to both Asia and Europe; and some are now coming to look upon the Monroe doctrine as a challenge which America has flung down to united Europe. Every increase in one nation’s navy is looked upon as a menace to the colonial possessions of the other nations; and nations upon the same continent look with similar distrust upon every increase in their neighbor’s facilities for war. And within these nations there is growing a power which is bringing troubled sleep to every ruler, a power whose fortress is the darkness of secret organization; whose ammunition is demand and discontent; whose mines are laid beneath the foundations of government and social order; and that power is growing into a force which the nations feel they must reckon with. They are reckoning with it by piling on the burden of taxation to protect themselves from the unseen foes within the household, even as they do from the manifest ones without. Verily we are nearing the time when the trial must be made, a time that will try men’s souls, a time of gloominess and darkness for those who are not hid in Christ. That is the day of conflict for which the nations are preparing now, and the burdens of taxation under which the people groan are the burdens which that preparation brings. The gloom and darkness of that day come to those who have turned their back upon God; but that day of gloom will be a harbinger of everlasting life to the one who has made God his fortress and his trust.