Weekly journal-miner., 1910-03-09
THE CORPORATION TAX.

While it is only justice to Presi- dent Taft to credit him with the most earnest desire to discharge the duties of his office in accordance with law. and for the best interests of the people, it is not necessary to assume the perfect wisdom, or even the per feet propriety of all that he does. His advocacy of the corporation tax was as unwise as possible, not be- cause the franchises should not be taxed, but because they should be taxed only by the authority which grants them, and because to permit Congress to tax a state franchise, while forbidding a state to tax a Federal franchise, is a death blow to all pretense of local rights not in ex- press terms guaranteed by the Con stitution. It was also unwise, in that to satisfy the popular demand for the exploitation of the "big trusts'' the law subjects hundreds of thous- ands of small corporations, which are not expected to pay any tax, to the inquisitorial jurisdiction of Federal of dcials and their financial affairs to the inspection of competitors.
 It was also fundamentally improper even if the end sought were desirable in this. that the law calls the pro- posed tax an "excie" That is just such juggling with the law as refOm- CTS Justify denOunce when done in the interest of malefactors of great wealth. If it is an excise it must be "uniform, and applied to natural as well as artificial persons. Such a law, whether wise or unwise, would be constitutional. To attempt to put corporations into a "class," within which uniformity is sufficient 10 satis- fly the Constitution, does not com port with a reasonable construction of the language which would make the industry, and not the form of organization, the class unit. Nor does it comport without our notions o> right and wrong, for it is grossly unjust to- subject, say, a farmer $ cooperative and incorporated cream cry to taxation not imposed on it's possibly wealthy individual competi- tor. This anti-corporation gun ''kieks" awfully.
 But the most grievous immortality is in the President $ device for evaG- ing the plain requirement. of his own law that the returns of corporations shall be "public records and access ible as such.'' That is a most just provision of all tax laws, and neces- sary protection to the. public. The returns of any taxpayer, in this or any other stae, are public records. They should be. To make them secret, not only opens the door to fraud, but invites entrance. There is nothing new about the provision. It is ordinary custom. But the President has found an old law which he thinks forbids the use of the clerical force of the Internal Revenue Office except for purposes for which money has been specifically appropriated, and, that since Congress has not yet appro- priated the money for indexing and arranging the records, they cannot be made public and accessible, and, therefore, that part of the law can remain in "innOcuOus desuetude ' That is pretty bad. It is the duty of Congress to appropriate for all purposes required by law, or to re- peal the law. Congress is now in ses- sion, considering the appropriation bills. If, in the opinion of the President, provisions for indexing these records is likely to be over looked it is his duty to remind Con- gress, in order that he may execute the law Instead of that, he pro- poses that Congress shall join with him in evading a provision of the law, and, moreover, a provision which is customary, necessary, and in all respects proper, if the law as whole is to remain on the statute books. Even presidential minds sometimes operate queerly. Doubtless the PresI- dent thinks he is doing right. We do not see how he can.