The Evening statesman. [volume] (Walla Walla, Wash.) 1903-1910, 1909-05-03
INCOME TAX WILL
NEVER Be RAISED
AT THIS SESSION OF CONGRESS
WITH PRESENT LEADERS,
HOPE is DEAD.
AIdrieh Cannon DalzeII Crowd Have No
Intention of Letting Popular
Measure Become Law.

Washington, May 9-(peciaD-To
avoid disappointment, friends of an
income tax may as well abandon hope
of such measure being enacted while
the present republican leaders remain
in power.
The Aldrich- Cannon Dalzell crowd
have no more intention of permitting
an income tax to become a law at the
special session of congress than they
/ had of passing postal bank bill or
of admitting Arizona and New Mexico
into the union as states, at the six
tieth congress- The postal bank and
statehood measures are especially re-
ferred to because the republican ma
tional platform promised both. The
| income tax is as popular with the
Aldrich clique as were the postal and
statehood propositions, and will stand
the same chance of success.
Senator Aldrich has already decided
what will go into the tariff bill, and
the things he has decided upon does
not include an income tax. The demo-
Gratis will solidly support the Bailey
amendment to the tariff bill providing
for an income tax. 1t is said sufficient
votes will be forthcoming from the
progressive" element of the republ-
can party to pass the Bailey amend
ment
The writer has received assurances
from authoritative sources that Senator
Aldrich has completed a sufficient
number of agreements by lOg-rolling
methods to make an income tax i'm
possible. He is said to have exchang-
ed protection on hides, coal and lum-
Der for the interference with his
nO-incOme tax policy.
The bill will provide, according to
the information referred to, for a Is
per cent duty on hides, a 40 cents per
ton duty on coal and a maintenance
of the lumber schedules as they are
fixed in the Dingley or present tariff
act The lumber schedules as they
stand in the Payne bill provide for a
reduction on rough lumber of from
50 to 81 per thousand feet. This rate
will be put back to 50, it is said.
The bill will not provide for an in
heritance tax. An inheritance tax
stands in better favor WITH Senator
Aldrich than an income tax but is
considered out of the question because
of the fact large number of states
already have Inheritance taxes on Their
statute books.
1t is not hard to understand why no
small number of senators will aid the
wealthy Rhode Island solon in nis fight
against an income tax. There are many
millionaires in the upper house There
are more than q few senators with
incomes of more than $4,000 a year.
Under the proposed Bailey income
tax a corporation or individual with
an income of 100000 would be taxed
$4,000 a year, and under the Cummins
income tax plan an individual with an
income of the same size would be taxed
So, 900 a year.
To the man with an income of $780,,
900 the proposed tax legislation looms
up something like this:
Il am now making 100000 year.
am not paying a cent of taxes on
this sum to the government If an
income tax law is passed l must pay
out from $4,000 to $4,000 a year that l
am not now paying"
Naturally, the average rich man con-
siders an income tax vicious measure
and renders Senator Aldricn, Wall
streets representative in the senate, all
the moral support possible.
4 few years back Senator Aldrich
characterized an income tax as a doc
trine espoused only by socialists, pop
ul;sts and democrats" calculated to
bring about redistribution of wealth
The senate boss no longer uses the
| same terms, as several members of his
own party now favor such a measure.
Present indications are that an in
come tax will be an impossibility I'M
| til a democratic majority prevails in
congress. The position of the demo-
| Gratis in fighting for tariff revision
downward and any income tax is that
| the burden of taxation should be placed
| on the rich, who are best able to bear
| it without discomfort. Senator Bal
| ley's proposition is that as revenue is
raised by taxing wealth, the duties on
| the necessities of life should decrease.
| Because Aldrich will be able to- pre-
vent the Incorporating of an income
tax feature in the tariff law in the end,
does not mean there will be no fight
| over the subject. The democrats and
! insurgents promise to engage the
! stand pat crowd in one of the fierc-
est parliamentary battles ever fought
| in the upper house. The country will
be educated up to the minute on the
virtues of an income tax, and for that
reason the fight will not have been
! fought in vain.