davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-06-20
Loyd-George Worried by Problem of New War Taxes

felt, could not be weaned from their accustomed drinks too harshly. It Is only fair to Lloyd George to say that he was not the only politician who was mistaken in this policy, The taxes were accepted by Parliament when first an- nounced by him without protest and all parties, except a few of the Irish members, allowed the resolutions to go through placing the new taxes in operation immediately. This Is tho rule in English fiscal legislation. New taxes are placed in force at once by pariia- mentary resolution, pending fuller dis cussion and eventual passage in order to prevent their purpose being defeat- ed by heavy withdrawals from bond.
 The members of parliament, how ever, had hardly reached their homes before they began to find out that they had made a political mistake. They were inundated with letters and per- sonal protests from all sorts of peo- pie, directly or indirectly connected with "the trade" the term which the liquor interest arrogates to itself in this country in the same way that the
 
 "thc profession" It became apparent at once that the new taxes could not be enforced if the government were to continue in power. The Irish mem bers. especially, threatened to revolt if the taxes Were insisted on. Their eround was the reasonable enough one from their point of view that two great irish industries. whisky distilling and tho brewing of heavy beers and DOT eere would be wiped out without com peEShtion Behind them also were tho Scottish distillers and brewers for Ed lhburgh ale Is almost as potent as Dub- lin stout. The English brewers did not care so much. for they brew a lighter beer and could more easily have reduced the gravity of their brew to conform to the new conditions, but they objected to any disturbance of their business and they threw in their weight with the Irish and Scottish branches of the trade. Their adherence to the revolt had the curious effect of bringing to their aid, or at least weak ening the enthusiasm of the church of England interests for Lloyd Georges scheme, for the church and the trade in England are curiously associated This Is due to the fact that the church Is a large property owner and much of its property consists of licensed premises, the rental value of which would fall at once if the value of liquor license were to be extinguished.
 The result of it all was that Lloyd George had to drop his liquor taxes and content himself with taking power to plAce under state control the liQuor selling
The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-06-20
I NEW GRAIN EMPIRE IN SOUTH AMERICA

at patner. The country has also tS.s small piranha, which Theodore Roosevelt describes as "a cannibal fish that eats men, The piranha is found in the wa- ters of the Paraguay. It grows to the length of IS inches, and is, if the stories told are correct, about the most ferocious nsh known to man. It will attack any thing living, will tear wild fowl to pieces, and will even attack cows and bite their udders as they stand in the water. This fish has teeth as sharp as razor, and its jaws has muscles so strong as to drive the teeth through flesh and bone.
 The Chaco has poisonous snakes in the forests and huge pythons in the swamps. It has also small fish about two inches long which sometimes drop down with the rain, and fish of eight or 10 inches that are found in the pools formed by heavy downpours. It Is believed that the latter fish come from the mud, and that they enter the water only after a storm. In another letter I will write of the h. dians and tell how they live
The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-06-20

a great deal of its power to the fact that the Cadburys, Rowntrees and Frys, the three great Quaker cocoa making families, own and control large section of the lib eral press of this country. Among the papers which they own are the London Daily News and Star, and papers in Bir- mingham, York, Sheffield and a number of other provincial cities In addition to those which they own outright they have Investments in a number of others, and in addition to this powerful influence they are all heavy contributors to the liberal party funds Ever since the beginning of tho war there has been steady out cry-from the tory press, 1t is true-for a tax on cocoa, but 1t has not been noticed by the government even sufficiently to draw forth an explanation why cocoa Is exempt.
 Lloyd-George has also had to listen to the reading of the rio. act in respect to his proposal early in the war for tax on wages. There Is no doubt that most of the British workingmen who have not joined the army are making more money than they ever did before in their lives, and that they would be well able to con- tribute small portion of this prosperity to the war fund, but when the idea was suggested the members of the labor party descended on Lloyd-George singly and in droves and warned him that if he dared to attempt to put such a tax into execution he would find the workingmen of the country solidly arrayed against the gov- errment More than that, he is said to have received hints of possible strikes in all was that the proposal was dropped. Brttish economists have played with the idea from time to time since then. but they have received no encouragement from the government.
 Where then, is Lloyd-George going to get his $4.OO0,0O0000 odS, which he will need if the war lasts another year, or the half of that sum if it is over in six months? Much of 1t no doubt will have to be raised by loan, and posterity will have to bear its share of the cost of this war which has broken all records and set aside all precedents in moro ways than one. The only source of taxation which apparently may be tapped with impunity is the income tax. and perhaps Lloyd George will be encouraged by the comparative lack of complaint when 1t was doubled, to clap bit more on. After all. the bulk or the income taxpayers are unorganixed and as they belong to all parties it would be hard to unite them on a single issue. which does not affect the whole of their liv enhood as the liquor proposals did that of the brewers and dtstillers. They have however. another remedy. and that is
The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-06-20

large extent. The only part of the coun- try that Is now being brought into use is the Argentine Chaco and some spots here and there in the Paraguayan Chaco. The Argentine Chaco, which is as big as Illinois, has a population of about 500o0 whites. It has some large estates and it's ranches have more than a half million cattle, 1S,Goo horses. 1900 sheep and 5000 goats. It has something like 15,0O0 acres in corn and 5000 acres in sugar cane. There are no stock statistics of the Para guayan Chaco, and none as to the lands which extend across into Bolivia and Brazil. It is known, however, that the soil is generally fertile, and that 1t will raise corn, sugar cane, tobacco and cot ton. Some cotton has already been plant ed in the far south. The seed came from the United States, and the product is of superior quality.
 As to the pasture lands of the Chaco. they are large enough to fill the meat baskets of millions. The regions that have been explored have shown vast plains covered with rice grass, and in those adjoining Bolivia the cattle run wild. In the northern part of the Para
The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-06-20

tricacies of the law to claim all the abate- ments due them. Since the war the num- Der of income tax experts who undertake the making of the taxpayers return for him. on commission basis on the amount saved. have increased many times, and all of them are doing a fiourishing busi- ness This. of course, is perfectly legiti- ms te. and as long as no undue claims arc made cannot be objected to. but all the experts" are not honest, and the scrutiny of the returns made by them throws much additional work on the col lectors and surveyors.
 The most difficult task of all, however, Is to deal with the fraudulent returns. Business conditions have been so upset by the war that the collectors have little basis
The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-06-20
py FRANK G. cAeprxrnR
ht E1aANn t8nE NSNh Copyright 1siS hy Frank G. carpenter9
 ASeNclON. Paraguay

cCopyright, 1sis. hy Frank G. carpenter)
 AseNc1oN. Paraguay. fSFE 1WRITE this morning of one of the 6TE E I biggest blocks of unexplored 6TzS11 land known to the world. The kSsgeSJ territory has an area four or
 five times as large as New Eng land, and three times that of New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania combined. There is enough land in 1t to make seven states the size of Ohio, five the size of Illinois and almost 40 as big as Massa- ohusetts. It combines more than 3Oo.o square miles, and if it could be lifted up and spread over the United States 1t would hide almost one-tenth of our country from the light of the sun.
 This region is known as the Gran Chaco. Some of 1t belongs to Para quay some to Argentina, and 1t runs ever into Bolivia and Brazil. It ex- tends for five or six hundred miles along the western side of the Parana and Paraguay rivers and runs back al- most to the foothills of the Andes. The Paraguayan part of 1t Is opposite where I am writing these notes, and its cap ital is Asuncion. where this letter is dated.
 The Gran Chaco is a vast plain. the most of which is less than a thousand feet above the sea. It has some great swamps and lagoons, and 1t Is .traversed by the Pilcomayo and Vecmejo rivers, ca eh of which rise in Bolivia and. cross ing the Chaco, enters the Paraguay. The Pilcomayo is about 1o00 miles long, and the Nermejo So0 Attempts have been made to explore both rivers, with a view to opening a route to Bolivia, but with out success Both streams are crooked and shallow and obstructed by sand bars. There gre small boats on the Pilcomayo, and navigation Is being opened up on the Vermejo, on account of the lumber interests and plantations along it's banks, 1t is now possible to go several hundred miles up the Vermejo. and small steam boats. which have a speed of about seven miles an hour travel upon it. The boats are fitted with cabins and are lighted by electricity They do not move during the night
 The Chaeo in general is well watered although some parts are semi-arid. It has millions of acres of uplands covered with grass, and undeveoped forests of
The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-06-20

II respondence )-How will Lloyd Hs----& George, the English chancel- F4%zsAh. Tor of the eXchequer, raise the
 immense sum, roughly $5 700, ,O00, 000 which he will need if the great war lasts another year2 Taxation at the pres- cnt rate will bring in about sl l.350, 000,000 leaving deficit of more than S4, 25O,O GOO to be made up either out of fresh taxation or by loans. It is against all the English traditions and policies to finance war entirely or even in large measure by loan, and so place the real burden of the struggle on posterity, but Lloyd George recently had sharp lesson in the difficulty of imposing fresh taxes on the great trade interests of the country.
 England accepted the increased income tax at the beginning of the war without too much grumbling, and even the very rich had little complaint to make of the super-tax on unearned incomes. Lloyd George even stated in Parliament that he had received scores of letters from wealthy people telling him how delight ed they were at paying their super-tax, and thus doing their share to beat the Germans. The great ajority of the peo- pie of moderate means paid their income tax cheerfully enough, although it must be remembered that the rate Of 36 cents on every $5 of earned income over $500 a year is not really an excessive one, and represents no real hardship to the aver age taxpayer. Even that however, has given rise to a great increase in the at tempts at fraud and evasion and there is no doubt that for every unsuccessful attempt there have been dozen that have succeeded.
 Lloyd Georges great lesson has been taught him by .hs liquor trade, which is one of the strongest political bodies say that it has given him the most se- rious setback of his political life. The fact that the new taxes which he pro- posed to place on the trade were not designeS, to raise revenue. but to restrict consumption in the interest of the pro- duction of munitions of war. does not al- ter the principle. Lloyd-George has learned that he will have to walk very warily in, imposing new taxation on pow erful English interests.
 American readers will remember, no doubt, that the proposal was to double the tax on spirits, by which are meant in England distilled liquors. and to impose an increasingly heavy tax on beers in proportion to their alcoholic strength. The object. of course, was 10 discourage the consumption of hard lruuor" and of the strong English type of beer and to encourage the brew ins and consumption of light nonintox- lcating beers, and thus to increase the efficiency of the workers who' at was
The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-06-20
Chapels of Salt


 At Wfeliezka. a small town nine miles from Cracow, where the German and Russian forces have been fighting, are the most wonderful salt mines in the world. Those are on seven different lev els, connected with the surface by Il shafts, and have over 65 miles of cham bers and passages. The mines have been worked since the eleventh century, but their productive power seems amending. They are remarkable for the many cham- bers which have been cut, some of them with statues and candelabra, including two large chapels and high altars with all their ornaments complete. a large dancing saloon, and many other rooms, each of them having been cut out. of rock salt Within them is also the Lake Fry sikes, 195 feet long, 120 feet broad, and varying in depth from 10 feet to 26 feet" says MT. George Hume In his book, ''Thirty-five Years in Russia"
The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-06-20

to go on In checking the returns of profits from business. Thousands of business men have lost heavily and are entitled to re- lief. but for every one that has lost there is said by the income tax men to be another who is claiming to have lost. and who has concealed his profits and juggled his books to support that claim. Then there are just as many thousands who are making more money than ever because of the war, and many of them are concealing this extra profit from the income tax men.
 It Is evident, therefore, that even if the income taxpayer is not organized to re- sist the imposition of fresh taxation as some of the trade interests are. he is at least able to "get bit of his own baclk.' as they say in England.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-06-20

fraud and evasion. Lloyd-George no doubt told the absolute truth when he said that he had received "cheerful giver" letters from super-taxpayers. but 1 doubt if he received many from the ordinary income taxpayers, and collector of taxes to6 me the other day that the inland reve- nue department had been having more trouble in collecting the full amount due since the taxes were increased than 1t had ever had before. The methods adopt ed are twofold There is the deliberate concealment of income which, of course. Is plain fraud. and there is the plan of taking the utmost technical advantage of the exemptions and abatements allowed by the law. Under the latter head comes what the income tax collectors have named the Insurance game" The income tax law exempts from tax all premiums laid on life insurance policies, and a number of enterprising companies have put on the British market five-year en- dovment policy, with all sorts of loan ad- vantages, which amounts simply to . savings bank account from which one can withdraw at the end of five years. Under ths strict interpretation of the law the prcmiums-or deposits-are exempt from income tax. but steps have already been taken to stop this leak by defining what Is meant by a bona fde life insurance pol icy. Another form of evasion which ap- breaches more closely to definite fraud Is tho 'loan game" Interest on loans is ex- empt from tax. and the income tax collec- tors have found in the last 10 months or so heavy increase in the number of mortgages on houses and other property held by close friends of the mortgages The income tax man Is by nature sus- picious. and my friend unlsindly suggested tha' no money had ever passed in these transactions. either by way of payment of the principal of the loan to the mort gagor or of interest to the mortgagee. This is a harder form of evasion to count CT. for if both parties are prepared to sw ear that there has been a bona flde transaction it is difficult to go behin3 this record. The collectors, however, are exercising their power of close and rigid scrutiny and cross examination in all sus- picious cases, and the people concerned have at least to pay for their immunity from taxation by spending some very un- comfortable half hours under the col- lector's probe.
 Other and more legitimate forms of evasion are taking full advantage of all the exemptions allowed. It Is hard for a layman to draw up an income tax re- turn properly. and there is not the slight est doubt that thousands of people have been in the habit of paying little moro than they ought to have paid. simply be- cause they failed en account of tho h.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-06-20
Gesture Sets Him AbIaze
the Philadelphia Record.

From the Philadelphia Record.
 New York.-Lawyer Tomasso O. Cont was defending Paolo Miraglia, on trial yesterday in the Brooklyn county coufA Tor sending men out to solicit money for fake mission. He was in his best form. He called heaven to witness tho supreme innocence of bis much abISsd client. He beat his breast.
 -Counse1or, you're arirei~ cried Judge Hylan.
 But mol" cried the signor. in great surprise
 But yesw shouted two husky court attendants. grabbing off the signor's coat and beating out the flames in a box of matches that he had hit as he struck at his heart.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-06-20

guayan Chaco are the ranches belonging to the Americans. of which Tex Rickard is the managing director Their territories comprise about 100000 acres or 1000 Para guayan leagues, and the cattle ranch they are establishing Is to be one of the lar- gest in the world. As have said, they have already about 3O,O0o head of stock on them and I am told that this number Is rapidly increasing. The majority of their cattle are a cross between the h. dian zebu and the South American tran quero, but good breeding stock will be imported and the ranching is to be sci entifically carried on. The company is studying markets and MT. Rickard has been shipping some of his stock down to Buenos Aires The animals are sent down the river to the port of Asuncion, and thence south by rail through Paraguay proper and the province of Entre Rios to the capital of Argentina. MT. Rickard es inmates that it costs something like $40 head in freight duties and loss of weight to get the animals to the market, and nevertheless he says they can be sold at a profit
 movement Is under way in Blazi, to build a railway from San Paulo across country westward to Matto Grosso, striking the northern edge of efn Chaco will have a haul of only cattle of Matto Crosse and the north ern Chaco will have a houl of only about GOO miles to the markets This Is about as far as from New York to Cleveland and the freight cost would be low. An American packing company ss now erecting its buildings at San I'sulo with the expectation that much of it's beeves will come from those egions.
 Among the other railroads proposed to open up this territory is the sys- tenn that will go from Argentina eventually be extended on to the Anna zon A number of lines have been planned and when under way they Will open up a vast empire of rood country. a great part of which will pc in Bolivia. The Argentine republic is making a narrow gauge railway to cross It's part of the Gran Chaco, run ming from the Parana river at Rcsis- tencia back into the province of Salta, and 1t will have other lines extending out from this into the grasslands and forests The only railway now in oper- allon In the whole territory Is a line Built by French capital which con- meets Resistencia with the Argentine system In addition there are sev- cral hundred miles of narrow gauge timber roads. made by the Quebracho ard other companies to get out their lumber and logs for tanning.
 And this brings me to the forests of the Chaco. They are of vast extent not only In Argentina, but also in Par aGuay. During my stay in Buenos Aires I had an interview with one of the experts of our forestry department who has gone to South America 10
 aid Argentina in the exploitation of it's timber resources. This mans name Is IT M. Curran. who Is now con. nected with the forestry department of Argentina. He had samples of many of the woods of the Chaco and Is per haps the best posted of all men upon the forests of this part or the world Said he:
 "The area of the Argentine forests is
The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-06-20
Modern Antiuues

From the Louisville Herald.
 "Is this a genuine antiqueT' asked the prospective buyer
 Yes" replied the dealer.
 "Why, here's mark that indicates 1t was made only 20 years ago"
 We are living in a rapid age It doesn't take nearly as long to make an antique as it used to-
The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-06-20
His Demonstration
From the Louisville Herald.

From the I0u1sV1IIe Herafu
 MT. Brown had just had a telephone put in connecting his office and house, and was very much pleased with it.
 T tell you the telephone is.a wonderful thing. I want you to dine with me this evening, and will notify Mrs. Brown to expect, you" Speaking through the tele- phone: My friend Smith will dine with us this evening" Then to his friend. Now listen and hear how plain her reply comes back" MT. Browns reply came back with startling distinctness.
 Ask your friend Smith if he thinks va keep . hotel" ,,sz.,,..,.-l
The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-06-20

sections, the upper section being for tho use of the public as a safety deposit vault and the lower for the storage of the banks currency and securities. A floor of solid steel separates the two sec- tions.
 The vault Is guarded by circular steel door 10 feet in diameter, 31a feet thick, X and weighing fl tons, which is opened and closed by electric motors. When all pre- cautionary devices are set, three different alarms are sounded by the slightest tam- pering with the doors.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-06-20
n, JOHN $. srMwAE

By JOHN $. STs,ELE
 )NDON. June 10.-(Special Cor respondence.) )-How will Lloyd George. the English chancel- Tor of the exchequer, raise the immense sum. roughly S. 700. .OOO.-
The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-06-20

I asked Mr. Curran as to the intro duction of American lumber into the basin of the Plate. He replied that the most of the lumber now used in this part of the world comes from the United States. Some of it is shipped from Puget sound and the Columbia river around through the Strait of Magellan. and some comes from New England and our south
The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-06-20

The Chaeo in general is<well watered although some parts are semi-arid It has millions of acres of uplands covered with grass, and undeyeloped forests of