Daily Arizona silver belt., 1910-04-13
h The Halls of Congress
BY TAV.
Special Washington Correspondence.

on the Payne Aldrich bill for the admitted pur- pose of defeating inheritance or income tax leg islaticn, Representative Gilber NJ. Hitchcock of Nebraska, in a speech on the floor of the house which evoked great applause on the democratic side, charged that now that the corporation tax had "achieved its purpose, the plan is to emas- culate and destroy the efficiency of the law it. self"
 Within half hour after MT. Hitchcock had concluded his speech his statement was to all practical ends verified when the republicans passed an amendment to the corporation tax law restricting the operation of its publicity feature As passed, the corporation tax bill provided that the returns of corporations should be public; as amended by the house, the measure provides that the returns shall be open to inspec- tion only upon the order of the president As President Taft himself declared that the pub licty feature of the corporation tax was its best asset, the usefulness of the measure has been greatly impaired, to say the least. And in the meantime the country has been cheated out of income tax legislation.
 s'The defeat of the inheritance tax, " said Rep resentative Hitchcock, "and the abandonment of the income tax was, in my opinion, great na- tional misfortune There are many arguments why a graduated inheritance tax IS wise and inst form of taxation. It has been approved and accepted by many of the great nations ot the world It is tax upon wealth and not upon poverty; tax upon property and not upon con sumption. It comes at a time when those who pav it are receiving property which others have earned or saved It tends in slight way to check the centralization of wealth. There IS no doubt as to its constitutionality.
 "An income tax also falls upon wealth and not upon poverty. No valid argument has ever been made, or can be, against the income tax. If appeals to our reason and our sense of justice. It not only taxes men in proportion to thelr abll- ity to pay but also in proportion to the benefits they receive in living under a government of
 law and order.
 "I fear, MT. Speaker, we do not reallze the ln-
 iustice of our present system of national taxa ton, Our tariff taxes, by which we raise sev- eral hundred million dollars year, and our ln- lternal-revenue system, by which the remainder of our national revenue is raised, are both tax on the things that people use or consume "They increase the cost of living. They fall heavily upon the poor, although hardly felt by the well-to-do. The poor man with large fam fly often pays more national taxes than the rich bachelor with no family because the poor man and his family consume more. The poor man on a salary, the working girl, or the working wo- man feels the national taxes in the shape of an increased cost of living. These taxes increase the cost of food, drink, clothes, houses, hard
 ware, furniture, carpets, shoes, glass, paints, and a thousand other things, including rent. "This system of raising money to support an army, navy and government has always seemed
 to me unjust, because it is like taxing the people of the country-men women and chlldren-so much per person, regardless of the benefits they receive from the government and regardless ot their ability to pay.
 '"The income tax offered one means of reme- dying this evil. Every democrat in congress and many progressive republicans were ready to insert an income tax provision in the tariff
 law In the senate the democrats and progress sive republicans developed an outspoken and admitted majority in favor of an income tax. It became evident that such provision would be
 incorporated in the tariff law unless eXtraordin- ary measures were taken to prevent it. These extraordinary measures were taken by Presi- dent Taft.
 "They came in the shape of a special mes sage from the president to congress on June 10th of last year, recommending against incor- porating an income tax in the tariff act, but in- stead to incorporate small tax on the net in comes of corporations. As a special reason for the passage of this act, President Taft urged that it would enable not only the government, but the public to get an annual report from each |corporaton and thus secure full knowledge of the real business transactions, gains, and profits of every corporation in the country. This, he said, would be valuable step toward the super vision and control of the cOrDOratiOnS