New-York tribune., 1912-03-03
ANOTHER UNDERWOOD
BRICK"

The Democratic majority in the House
of Representatives has now been thor
oughlv UnderwoOdized. By its action
Friday night in indorsing the gold
brick" scheme of enlarged excise taxa
ton" put forward by the chairman OF
the Ways and Means Committee 1t con
fessed its total lack Of sincerity In deal
ing with the problem Of downward tarlH
revision. Hitherto in carrying out ms
evident purpose to prevent any tarlh
legislation by this Congress Mr.. under-
wood has exerted his ingenuity TO devise
measures which he hoped would not get
through the Senate, or if they happened
to get through the Senate couldn't pos
sibly get by the President. Now, wlth
the approval of the Democratic caucus
he has brought I'm a bill which. If 1t hap
pened to get by both the Senate ana
the President, would almost certainly be
knocked into a cooked hat" by the Su-
preme Court.
It Is not known what Mr.. Underwood
told his gullible colleagues in the Demo-
cratic caucus about ''the enlarged excise
tax" but outside the caucus he will have
difficulty in persuading anybody that his
special tax on the business of partner
ships and individuals, including salary
and wage earners, is anything but an
unenfOrceable straight income tax. the
| excise tax on corporations was upheld
last year by the Supreme Court on the
HoN pNeiSp
upon the particular privilege of doing
business in n corporate capacity. ]. e.,
with the advantages which arise from
corporate or Quasi-corporate organlza-
"tion" Congress Intentionally exempted
partnerships and individuals doing busi-
ness from the provisions Of the excise
! tax law Of 1909 because ii wanted to
avoid the appearance Of taxing income as
such. But Mr.. Underwood deliberately
! ignores the implications of both the Pol
| lock decision and the corporate tax de
| ciSion and proposes to tax not only the
profits of partnerships and individual
business men, but also income earned as
wages or salary and income received as
a direct return from property. a wage
| Garner or a salared man certainly does
| not do business" in any sense which
! iustifes the levying Of an excise tax.
Any tax en- his earnings is a tax on in
come, and even Mr.. Underwood when he
got out Of the caucus admitted that the
| enlarged special tax would accomplish
'the same result as would have been
accomplished by an income tax, If 1t
were in the power of Congress to enact
| "an income tax law
The tax was meant TO fall stillborn.
| It is not a tax for revenue, but tax
| solely for the promotion Of peanut poll
| tics. If Mr.. Underwood had been sim
cere in his desire TO make UP for the
deficit 10 be occasioned by remitting all
duties on sugar he would have levied a
compensating tax which could be col
lected. He might have raised the cor
poration excise tax rate from l per
cent to 5 per cent per annum. He might
have laid higher duties on silks, laces
and other classes of luxuries. But he
SHE'D at doing any of those things be-
cause they were practicable. He wanted
to tie the Democratic party up TO another
hodge-podge not intended for enactment.
but simply to create a deadlock in tariff
| legislation. His purpose must be plain
now TO the whole country. which is sick
of the Democratic majority's downward
revision pretences and evasions and will
gladly turn TO the rational programme
of reduction through the aid of a per
manent tariff board for which the Re-
publican party stands.