The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-05-20
FEATURES OF NEW TAX BILL.
SOME CORPORATIONS THINK THEY
ARE TREATED UNJUsTLY.

1enefAG corporation SecNtOn.
Three different Taxes Put Upon
Bnnks-WiI No Doubt Result in
the General Raising of Rates of
Discount and Interest.
It Is natural. no doubt, that there should
be some objections to any measure which
proposes to increase taxes. and yet there
are frequently injustices done an such
measures which make objections jusu-
fable. There are few. if any who will
object to paying their portion of the bur
Gen of taxation required on account of
the war, but there are none who want
to be singled out while their competitors
enjoy immunity from the increased bur
den.
The war measure now before the Senate
having been reported favorably by the
ways and means committee of that body
after it had passed the House, entitled
IAN act to provide ways and means to meet
war expenditures" contained some feat
ures which are considered unjust and bur
densome by those who come within the
language of the proposed statute, for rea-
sons which win be readily apparent
Mr.. Herman Myers, president of the
Savannah Grocery Company, has written
a letter TO Chairman Nelson Dingley, Of
the House ways and means committee on
the subject, which embodles the object
ionable paragraph. Mr.. Myers letter is
as follows:
Savannah Ca, May IS, 1SsS-Hon. Nell
son Dingley, Chairman, House of Repre-
seutatiVes, Washington, d. C.-Dear Sir:
We take the liberty to call your attention
to the amended Senate act to provide ways
and means TO meet war expenditures, bill
No. 1O1OO
We find on page 90 in the amended SEN
ate act of said bill, line 8, section blank,
the following section:
THAT every corporation doing business
in the United States, whether chartered
under the laws of the United States or of
any state or territory of the United States,
or any foreign country, shall pay special
annual excise tax; and said tax shall be
the equivalent of one-fourth of / per CEN
tum of the whole amount of the gross re-
ceipts of such corporations derived from
such business; Provided, That this sec
ton shall not apply to any corporation
that is subjected TO excise tax under sec
ton - of this act, nor to religious, educa-
tional, benevolent eleemosyndry, of ceme-
terry corporations; municipal or other pub
lie corporations; fraternal beneficiary So
cieties, orders, or associations operating
upon the lodge system and providing for
the payment of life, sick accident, and
other benefits to the members of such So
cieties, ORDERS or associations, and de-
pendents of such members; building and
loan associations which make loans only
to their shareholders; nor shall corpora
tons which buy and sell raw or unmanu-
In no
required TO pay any tax with respect to
such dealings except as otherwise provided
in schedule A of this act"
We are corporation chartered under
the laws of the state of Georgia, doing a
wholesale grocery and provision business.
1t strikes us under this section, we would
be taxed one-fourth of / per cent on the
whole amount of our gross receipts, while
dozens of other firms in this city doing the
same business under a copartnership and
as individuals instead of a corporation will
not be taxed.
We call your attention TO this, to show
you of the injustice to those houses doing
business under a charter and those who
are doing business as firm or as an indi-
vidual We would be taxed and the other
class would escape taxation
This, 1t strikes us, is not equitable, but
very unjust, and we would ask of you to
We do not wish to escape taxation, but
we do think it should be uniform, and
that while one doing business under a
charter should not be taxed while those
doing business as a firm or as individual
escape taxation.
Thanking you in advance for seeing that
justice is done in this matter, we are.
yours truly,
Savannah Grocery Company.
The objection raised against this section
as will be seen, is that it applies exclus-
lively to corporations, aud ignores firms
or persons who do similar lines of bust
ness, and in many instances have greater
volumes of business than the CORPORA
tons. The section quoted ia Mr. Myers
letter would catch all such corporations
as the Ellis Young Company, the ]. p
Williams Company, the Savannah Naval
Stores Company and hundreds of other
corporations of that class throughout this
section, which, even if they were not re-.
quirsd to pay anything on the raw ma
terials they, handled would have to ray
the tax on the gross receipts for the large
amount of groceries dealt in The per-
sons and firms not incorporated doing
similar business are even more numer-
GUS than the corporations.
The discrimination made in the section
when it is seen that other sections of a
similar kind include persons and firms, as
for instance the following: That every
person firm, company, or corporation car
rying on or doing the business of furnish
ing gas or electric light electric power,
steam heat, or steam power. refining pc
troleum, or refining sugar, shall be sub
ject TO and pay a special annual excise tax
equivalent to one-fourth Of per centum of
the gross amount of all receipts of such
persons, firms, corporations and companies
in their respective business"
A tax on the gross receipts Of one-fourth
Of per cent. IS equal In many instances
10 tax of two and one-half per, cent. on
the net receipts, and this is a tax, Mr.
Myers says, which few business houses
can stand. The inevitable result Is to in
crease the cost to the consumer Of certain
necessaries of life which fail within the
provisions of the law. Many corporations
have remedy in that they can give up
their charters and become private firms.
but they do not think they should be thus
forced to give up their charters Such
corporations, Mr.. Myers says, would not
object to paying an equitable tax, but they
could not afford it where their compeu-
-