Pierre weekly free press. (Pierre, S.D.) 1889-19??, 1916-03-16
GERMANY IS FACING
GREAT TAX PROBLEM
Business Men and Statesmen
Looking Ahead to Needs
After the War.

Berlin-New taxes, perhaps an entire
new taxation system, are in prospect for
Germany after the war. What is to be
their effect on the great mass of the
working population. VIII salaries and
wages have to go up to enable the work.
ers to pay them? Will retrenchment in
personal expenditures, alone, be sufficient
to cover them? How, probably, will SAL
aries after the war compare with those
paid before the conflict started? Will the
before-the-war industries that are all but
dead now revive Immediately so as to give
employment and money to men. now SOL
dlers, who must pay the taxes?
These are questions put by an Associated
Press correspondent to some of the lead
Ing industrial men and economists of Ger
many IN an effort to get at least a hypo-
thetical solution of the problem that Is be-
Ing discussed in almost every newspaper
IN the empire under the heading, New
Taxes"
h majority of men TO whom the fore
going questions were put seemed to be
unanimous in the opinion that salaries
and wages after the war probably will not
advance beyond their present height
which is far beyond what they were be-
fore the war in the case of wages-be-
cause they are high enough to care for all
proposed Increases In taxation. This ma
)orlty is so confident In Germany's thor
ough economic %soundness and in her eco
nomic future that they maintain, in eff
Feet, no Increase is going to be necessary.
A combination of frugality, which the av-
erage German is easily capable of, and of
a business boom of unprecedented proper
TONS, these men believe is going to do
away with the necessity of imposing the
burden of higher wages on employers.
The minority is divided between those
ryt~ in H. tl--A
for workers are going to be a necessity,
with a consequent reduction for a time of
capital available for investment, and those
who are not sure, but who think tina 1T
may easily be that employers will feel
that it is just If not the necessary thing
for them to lengthen their payrolls.
The correspondent found, however. an
almost universal tendency to touch but
very lightly on that salaried class of
workers, petty officials. clerks, and so on,
who benefit least from their country's
economic we'll being, but who must help
carry the burden of extra taxation If that
becomes necessary. In virtually every in
stance the answers to the questions in the
opening paragraph applied to workmen
getting wage rather than to workers re-
ceiving salaries.
and director general Of the Bergman
Electrical works. probably the second con-
Germ OF It's kind in Germany of its kinG
in Germany, may be said to be a fair ex-
ample Of the majority. except that ne
makes certain reservations. He believes
existing wages are high enough to cover
whatever taxation may ~come-unless the
countries now at war with Germany con
sistently and for a long period of time
refuse to renew commercial relations with
her.
For approximately a year and a hall
after the war;" he says, II expect to see
a tremendous boom in electrical and me.
chanical Industries In general. We shall
need that much time merely to resupply
cur own countries with the things tina,
lave been used up during the war. W.
shall not need an order from outside
to keep everything going full blast.
1.-THE continued we'll being of the Ger.
man workman after that depends, in m
opinion, entirely upon the foreign coun.
tries. If England, France. Italy and Rus
STA continue to hate us. II they are will
ting to try to injure US by not buying
our goods and by using others no mattel
how expensive, then there Is no question
but that wages will go down..
Such a course is In the nature of cut
ting off ones nose to spite one's face ane
/ do not think that any Of the ~countrie,
in question will do 1t. Russia and Ital,
especially need our goods. and England
l coAAAO 1udiluldClOIc NteIH dS Cnedply a.
We. nor as well. because her labor is in
fnitely more expensive.
Wages today in Germany are unprece
dentedly high-high enough, according Il
my belief, to meet the expenses that ar,
going to come after the war. The retur,
Of q few million soldier-workmen won
drive them down either, because we nee,
the men. They will stay where they ar
and take are OF MISUNDERSTANDING
until such time as our internal needs ar
supplied and the present enemy countries
decide they can afford to boycott u.s."
Prof. DR.. Julius Wolf, one Of Germany.
best known economists assumed on opti
mistic standpoint because he says tina
Germany even today, with war loans O
almost 8,0oOsto0.00 marks, plus the en-
sire debts of empire and all the states, i
really only just about even now, Thi
l enormous debt. he says, is balanced by tn
state and national rossessions-railroad
forests, domains and mines. The entent
powers, collectively and individually, h
believes. are SO much worse of that ate
b war they will be broken. and Ger
many much better off, will have q com