Aberdeen herald. [volume] (Aberdeen, Chehalis County, W.T.) 1886-1917, 1910-03-10
CORP GRAFTON TAI
The Law Made Corporation Returns
Public Records, at Suggestion of
President Taft, but II Is Reversed
by the Secretary of the Treas
ury.

A most amusing side step has
been made by the Administration in
regard to the Corporation Tax"
The law says the returns to be made
by all corporations OF the country
OF their annual business shall be
public records. This feature of the
law was the especial suggestion, it is
understood of the president. 1t GER
tainly has been highly commended
by him. and the constantly swelling
chorus OF objections to it ana the
attempts to have it repealed or mod
ified have been treated by him at
first with disdain and then appar-
emily with great disfavor. But we
are told that the Secretary OF the
Treasury is frankly opposed to
this feature of the law. This is
quite likely, for Mr.. MacVeagh is a
business man who knows that the
publicity provided for by this law
fer the business affairs of all cor
porations, will place small corpora
tions engaged in private mercantile
or manufacturing pursuits-as the
majority of them are-at the mercy
of their great competitors; and that
this publicity is a very different
thing from that useful publicity
which has been demanded by Pro-
gressives for the affairs of public
service corporations, such as trans
portation companies. But in his con-
stant fruitless struggle to avoid ad-
ditional trouble in the party and to
secure harmony, the president has
had to foregO his opposition to an
extinguishment of the publicity fea-
ture of the law. Senators and Rep
resentatives were being overWhelm-
ed with demands for it's repeal. The
repeal seemed very probable. Polit-
ical pressure, as distinguished from
merely commercial pressure, began to
be felt by the president evidently.
Then all at once the secretary of
the treasurer discovered that he had
no money properly appropriated with
which Ito index and display the re-
turns of 100000 corporations, to
house them in rooms convenient of
access for the public, and to provide
clerks for the care and custody OF
them under such conditions" The
president rose to the emergency, and
in a bland letter to the secretary,
reciting this discovery, says that the
situation must have been an over
sight on the part of Congress, and
that nothing remains for the secre-
tary to do except to state the case
to the House of Representatives
where appropriation bills are prop
erly introduced. and to suggest
that if the construction which seems
to the president to be the
right one to be carried into
execution there must be an APP
preparation of $4,000 for the spec
ific purpose, with further state
ment that if no such appropriation
is made the only course open to those
who are executing the law in the
department will be to treat the re-
turns as other internal revenue rec
ords. Then the secretary OF the
treasury writes to Congress restat-
ing the matter, and saying that lin
the absence of the appropriation the
Secretary of the Treasury will treat
the corporation tax returns as other
internal revenue returns are treat
ed" There is an entire avoidance
of any suggestion in the letter as
to the advisability of the additional
Congress is said to be
tired of the corporation Tax alto
gether; and an appropriation to put
into execution its most Objectionable
feature, is wildly improbably.
The law says the returns under
the Corporation Tax Law shall be
public records; the ''other Inter-
nal Revenue returns are kept Sc
cret and allowed to be seen usually
only on the order of a Court. But
we are gravely told from apparently
inspired sources that the President
resents insinuations that he is not
enthusiastic about having the appro-
priation made, and has given con-
sideration to the advisability of send
ing message to the two houses on |
the subject" The end attained may
be desirable, but the naivete of the
method, considering that it is at
least strongly urged that all the nee
sarry work could be done under the
general appropriation for the depart
ment of Internal Revenue. WELL
certainly "it is to laugh. THE Pub