The Rotary Balita no. 664 (February 1, 1951).

Tax 'em! Tax 'em 'till it hurts! Tax 'em 'till they "holler"! Tax 'em 'till they cough up the pesetas! Yes, by all means, tax everybody to the limit; to the full extent of their ability to pay. But there is a limit. A limit beyond which taxation will produce no revenues. The sole object of taxation is to produce an income to meet the necessities of the government. Still, any tax which eats up all the profits of any business is equivalent to "killing the goose that lays the golden egg." That is literally true of our gold mines. The gold dust in the beds of our streams, which is being washed into the sea, can be profitably salvaged by modern mining methods. Rather than to strangle thrifty prospectors with exorbitant taxes and restrictions, it would be far better for our government to grant them a subsidy or bonus. The same is true regarding our vast mountains of hidden base metals, waiting for prospectors to uncover them. An unreasonable increase of the daily wage of mine laborers is not a remedy. There will be no mine labor at all if mining is not profitable, for wages must come from profits not losses. Back in the year 1935 gangs of provincial unskilled laborers begged for jobs in mining camps at 50 centavos per day. The mining boom was then at its height. The result was that hundreds of idle men were given employment, and many rich deposits of minerals were discovered. Large numbers of those laborers now have become city squatters, sidewalk vendors, and perhaps Huk recruits. One of the problems confronting our legislators today is how to send them back to the mines at a wage which will permit them to buy rice at P1.20 per ganta, and still at a wage scale which will not stifle mine operations. Mining should be encouraged, not strangled.