Income

During eleven months of the year, God or the devil might be paying the running expenses of the U. S. government as far as most U. S. citizens know or care. But every March, several million taxpayers awake to the fact that it is they who foot the bill, that it is they who pay the salaries of the Army, the Congress and the big Na-vee. Last week, approximately 5,000,000 citizens gingerly unfolded crisp new income tax blanks, racked perplexed brains while they tried to figure how much they owed of the $1,700,000,000 total Treasury Secretary Andrew Mellon expects.* Some, puzzling over the instructions, were gripped by despair, saw the five-year prison terms and $10,000 fines provided in Section 28 of the Instructions for false or delayed returns, staring them in the face. Most will not find the burden overheavy The $30 a week clerk will find his contribution somewhat less than a dollar; married bricklayers or newspaper correspondents with an income averaging $75 a week will pay between $5 and $6. But there will be some good-sized checks. For example, of his $100,000 of taxible income, the financier will pay approximately $16,000 to the government.

If these 5,000,000 citizens, suddenly made conscious of the part they play in the government of their country, investigated to find out where their dollars go, they would find that war, payments for past ones and preparations for future ones, takes about 66 cents of each dollar.

* An approximate figure, representing the return expected by U. S. experts from the 1926 law.