Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1911-08-01
The Recall and the Income Tax.

In his speech in the Senate yester-
day in favor of the recall of judges
Mr.. Owen made at least one extrava-
CANT claim. Pointing out that the in
come tax feature of the German VII
son tariff bill had been declared uncon-
stitutional by the Supreme Court by a
majority of one, and estimating the
yearly collections of revenue from that
source at hundred million dollars.
the senator asserted that the vote of
one Judge had thus cost the poor peo-
pie of the country the total OF hun
bred million n year for sixteen years.
Let us see.
In the first place a hundred million
dollars d year was not the amount of
revenue to be derived from that source.
The sum was an estimate. but not that
great The democratic leaders would
have been satisfied with half, or, at
most, two-thirds of that figure.
In the second place. there is no rea-
son to believe that had the tax re-
manned in the law 1T would have sur
vived the law On the contrary, 1t
would probably have been dropped by
the republicans when three years later
they revised the Gorman-Wilson meas
ure. There was no controlling senti
ment in that party at that time in ia
vor of an income tax. OF course. the
proposition was easily disposed of on
the score that the Supreme Court had
pronounced against such tax, but it
was weak for other reasons.
The republicans had been restored
to power by the business world, and
the business world was against an in
come tax in time of peace. 1t had
generally accepted David B. Hills judg-
ment that the tax was populistic In
nature, and penalization of thrift.
Mr.. Mckinley in the White House,
Thomas b. Reed in the Speakers chair
OF the House, and Nelson Dingley,
chairman of ways and means, charged
with preparing a new tariff law, were
protectionists, committed to the policy
OF laying taxes largely with the view
of fostering American industries and
the American wage scales. And at that
time. owing to the disasters that had
attended the second Cleveland admin
istratfon, business was at a standStill,
and hundreds of thousands of work.
ingmen were without employment
Opening the mills, therefore. and Civ
ing idle men work occupied the
thoughts of the republican leaders to
the exclusion of everything else.
And even the democrats must con-
fess that the Dingley law, without an
income tax, was an extraordinarily
successful measure. Under it the mills
were opened. idle men found work at
good wages-higher wages than SINH
lar work was commanding in other
competing countries-and a period Of
unexampled prosperity began. The
country prospered so greatly that Mr.
Mckinley was an easy winner in his
second race, and the new law so rap
idly justified itself that he was able to
recommend revision of it at the end
of four years. He did not live to press
his point, but had he done so an in
come tax would probably not have been
feature of his program.
Mr.. owen should revise his figures
Even IL hundred millions a year had
been collectible and collected under
the income tax provision of the Cor
man-Wilson bill, the government would
have received from that source only
some three hundred II ions, instead
of the staggering sum he suggests
Had the tax been Endorsed by the SUI
preme Court II would have continued
in operation only about three years