The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1909-07-01
WASHINGTON


rio'h our NeRuiar Correspondent.
Washington, d. c., June as, 1909
At what has been generally term
ed the most important conference
Of the Taft administration, all the
Republican leaders in Congress
gathered in the library of the White
House, formally approved the draft
OF the corporation tax amendment
prepared by Attorney General
Wickersham to carry out the pro-
visions Of the Taft proposition.
Once more Republican discipline
has triumphed. Individual opin-
ions have been subordinated to the
party leaders and in both houses of
Congress united front will be pre-.
sented to the common foe, the
Democratic minority. To the
Democrats in both houses this situ-
alton is the occasion Of serious dis
appointment. With a sufficient
number of progressive Republicans
espousing the Democratic PROPOSE
tion of an income tax to make, with
the Democratic Senators, a majori-
ty of the upper house, they saw
victory almost within their grasp
only to have snatc led away by one
more remarka Die demonstration of
Republican discipline. Some of
the Democratic statesmen declare
that the moral of the situation will
not be lost on them, that this obvi
Gus demonstration of the manner
in which victory may be gained
even in the eleventh hour by will
ingness to subordinate individual
views aud preferences to the party
veal will be converted into a salu-
tary lesson for all the members of
the minority.
***
Bitter as is the disappointment of
those Democrats, who, with heart
and soul, have striven to secure the
enactment of an income tax it is a
safe prediction that when time
shall have mellowed their disap-
pointment they will realize that
even in defeat they have gained no
small part of the victory. The in
come tax which they proposed con-
tained all that is embodied in the
tax amendment father
ed by President Taft and in addi-
tion thereto provision for similar
tax on the incomes of individuals
when they exceed S5,o a year.
1t has been estimated by the federal
actuaries that the proposed income
tax would raise revenue of S7o,-
ooo, 900 year. The tax on cor
porations will probably bring in to
the federal treasury $50, 900, 900 a
year. 1t is, therefore, no exagger-
alton to say that the Democrats
have won three-sevenths of vic
tory, especially as it is by their
method that the $50, 900, 900 of rev.
enue is to be collected. Another
point which is clearer to the man
in the Press Gallery than to the
Democratic Senators on the floor is
that the Republican organization
in the Senate has been forced into
an attitude wholly repugnant to it's
innate IDEAS; has, through Demo
cratic skill and the conduct of a
few progressive Republicans, suf-
fered actual defeat, and has been
to espouse the cause af
President whose views in many re-
spects are far more Democratic
than they are Republican. The
spectacle of Nelson w. Aldrich,
senior Senator from Rhode Island,
and Joseph G. Cannon, Speaker of
The House, warmly applauding
President Taft as he explained at
The White House conference the
beauties of the corporation tax
scheme because it would enable the
,ederal authorities to investigate
he conduct and internal affairs of
III corporations, was one which
would have afforded intense delight
o the Democrats in the Senate,
Ind in fact all over the country,
'ould they have witnessed it.
*xh
So many and such inaccurate re-
,orts concerning the provisions of
he corporation tax amendment
lave found their way into public
print that brief statement of what |