The Mason County journal. [volume] (Shelton, W.T.) 1886-1927, 1894-01-12
The Eew Tax Scheme.

The Democratic scheme for add
tinnal taxation matches fairly we'll
with the Democratic tariff bill. 1t Is
one that students of political economy
as we'll as men versed in the practical
art of government will find it difficult
to regard with a sober face. The COM
mittee on ways and means has secured
history and taken counsel with imagl-
nation in the endeavOr to find some
source OF revenue to which resort
might be had to make good a deficit
without proving too strong popular
remonstrance. The last condition
has been an all-important one. A tax,
no matter what it's other virtues, must
not be so unpopular as to provoke men
to vote against the Democratic party.
And in this whole deliberation over
the ways and means of raising reve-
nue., the method of taxation, which
ought to be thought over and deter
mined scientifically, has been put
instead to the test of an imaginary
reference to the great body of the
voters. 1t is from such a search, after
the tax on beer has been given over as
as likely to arouse opposition, and
after the proposition for a general in
come tax had provoked chorus OF
anathemas, that there emerges the
scheme for taxing corporations, lega-
cies and inheritances.
We do not think it an injustice to
say that the committee has taken
counsel of its fears only in this new
scheme. And we may add that the
principle, if enforced, will not proba-
bly, produce any such revenue as has
been anticipated, or meet with the
general acquiescence that Democrats
seem to think. SUGGESTIONS and in
heritances seem to us proper objects
of taxation; but they belong to the
resources of a state rather than of the
nation, properly considered. 1t is, of
course, possible for the general govern
ment to step in and levy taxes at its
pleasure; but some of the states have
already occupied the field of the in
heritance tax; and it is quite fit that
property which descends according to
state laws and by state acts of en-
forcement should contribute to the
revenue of the state if it contributes
at all. This part of the scheme is
directly at variance with the whole
Democratic theory of state and federal
relations. The tax on corporations is
put in to take the place of the income
tax, as sop to the corporation-haters
who have so large a place in the
speeches of Democratic campaign
orators and so small place in the adj
ministration of the laws by Democra-
tic officials. A corporation is, as far
as revenue and profits are concerned,
simply a combination of individual
capitals for greater effectiveness in use.
A tax On corporations is Il tax on in
dividualS indirectly; and in many
cases these are very far from the ones
who are best able to bear the burdens
OF the public. Corporations, again,
have no funds except those which they
derive from performing some public or
commercial function. If they pay
more than they do now, they will re-
coup themselves by assessing it on the
pubic. Paying to their shareholders
as they must, on the whole, the aver
age rate of profit, they can raise the
tax fund required only 10y raising
their prices. This is shifting the bur
ben to the very shoulders from which
Democracy processes to be anxious to
lift it. But even this is not the whole
of the farce. The bill proposes to tax
"net" income. The managers of most
corporations would smile at the inno-
cence of the proposal. In that form
a bill would be an even more prolific
source of falsehood, Misrepresentation
and evasion than tax on individual
incomes. 1t is we'll known that the
states, in levying taxes on railroad
corporations, are obliged to tax gross
income In order to obtain certain
revenue. For where there is an i'm
position on net revenues, the expenses
have a curious habit of eating up all
income until there is nothing left to
tax. The new scheme of the demo-
cratic committee would serve admira-
bly, for a shouting campaign speech
by the average demagogue. AS con-
trlbutlOn to the science of taxation it
is valueless. AS a means of raising
revenue, it will prove a worse disap-
pointed to the party than the late
elections if they rely on it to help
them out OF their treasury deficit.