The Prison Mirror

How To Finance The Bonus
By Roy Le Roy

Throughout the ages it has been: Death and Taxes—the two inevitabilities.
But until about 1914 (the end of the "Golden Age") death was by far the most feared of the inescapable twain.
Since then, and especially now, the taxpayer is beginning to wonder which is worse: Death or Taxes.

Lo! the poor Minnesota taxpayer! He is crying, "Enough, enough, no more, no more! Now they want to saddle a $100,000,000 tax on me to pay for the veterans' bonus!"

Everything and everybody has its or his breaking point. We have been hearing—for a long while now—about the "revolt of the masses." Some of these days the taxpayer is going to revolt too.

The taxpayer (which means everybody)—is "taxed to death" now, and yet the cities, states and federal government are constantly crying, Money, money, more money! And the more they get, the more they want.

Most of our large cities are "on the rocks," financially speaking. Is this a foretokening of what is going to happen, first, to the states, and then to the federal government itself? Probably, if our Ship of State sinks it will be because of that old devil, economics, rather than subversive activities.

But you say, Get to the point. How can Minnesota finance the veterans' bonus?

The answer is very simple: Establish a state lottery, a form of painless taxation and the "last great hope" for obtaining more money for state governments. I can hear you saying, "But that is wicked and immoral!"

My reply: "How do you judge a thing? Can we agree that it is reasonable and logical to judge a thing by its consequences? Very well. Then what would be the chief consequences of a state lottery? You and I know: (1) the veteran would receive his bonus money; (2) the taxpayer would be spared an additional (back-breaking) burden."

Was it wicked for Harvard College in 1636 (then a School of Divinity, now the nation's greatest University) to be built on the proceeds derived from a lottery?

Is it wicked for Sweden, perhaps the most civilized nation on earth, to have a government-sharing gambling system? As a matter of fact, lotteries are perfectly legal in most parts of the world today. Are we going to be more puritanical than the old Puritans themselves?

No lottery is going to finance the veterans' bonus in one year or several years. It will take many years. Bonds will have to be issued, and the net proceeds from the lottery would be used to pay the interest on the bonds and to eventually retire them. When the bonds are all retired, then the net proceeds from the lottery could be put into, say, the Old Age Assistance fund.

New Sweden (Minnesota) doesn't have to be fifty years behind Old Sweden, in the socio-economic sphere.

Minnesota could be a civilized and liberal state, in the sense that some of the Western European countries are civilized and liberal. The fact that there isn't a single American state that by the widest stretch of the imagination could be called civilized or liberal doesn't mean that Minnesota couldn't become civilized and liberal.

And a very good means to start becoming that way would be for this commonwealth to institute a state lottery program. Later on, our three largest (and, financially, the sickest) cities should be authorized to have their own lottery programs.

In closing, the writer wishes to make another suggestion and one, which if carried out, would further augment the State revenues. The Minnesota State Fair Grounds (a large capital investment) are in use only about ten days out of the year. Why not permit the State Agricultural Society to lease the horse-racing facilities there to a responsible party? And then, with betting on the races legalized, the State, under the New York pari-mutuel system, would receive a commission on all winnings.

Repeal This Law! "Minnesota State Constitution, Article IV, Section 31. The legislature shall never authorize any lottery or the sale of lottery tickets."