The Tabor independent. [volume] (Tabor, S.D.) 1913-19??, 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
working population. Will salaries and
wages have to go up to enable the work.
ers to pay them7 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
diers.' who must pay the taxes7
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"
The 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
jority Is so confident In Germany's thor
ough economic soundness and in her eco
nomic future that they maintain, In eff
fect 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
who do believe that increased emoluments
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 that it
may easily be that employers will feel
that 1t Is just II 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 salar, g: 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 II that
becomes necessary. In virtually every in
stance the answers to the questions in the
opening paragraph applied to workmen
getting wages rather than to workers re-
ceiving salaries
Sigmund Bergman, principal owner
and director general of the Bergman
Germ of its kind in Germany OF its kind
in Germany, may be said to be a fair ex-
ample of the majority, except that he
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
Nd ha
after the war;" he says "I expect to see
a tremendous boom in electrical and me-
chanical industries In general. We shall
need that much time merely to resupply
our own countries with the things that
have been used up during the war. We
shall not need an order from outside
to keep everything going full blast.
THE continued We'll being Of the Ger
man workman after that depends, in my
opinion, entirely upon the foreign coun-
tries. If England, France, Italy and Rus
STA continue to hate us, II they are will
ing to try to injure US by not buying
our goods and by using others no matter
how expensive, then there is no question
but that wages will go down.
such course is in the nature Of cut
ting off ones nose to spite ones face and
1 do not think that any Of the countries
in question will do It Russia and Italy
especially need our goods, and England
cannot manufacture them as cheaply az
we, nor as we'll, because her labor is in
flnitely more expensive.
Wages today in Germany are unprece-
dentedly high-high enough, according to
my belief, to meet the expenses that are
going to come after the war. The return
OF a few million soldier-workmen won't
drive them down either, because we need
the men. They will stay where they are
and take care Of after-the-war-expens
until such time as our internal needs are
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 Opt
mistic standpoint because he says that
Germany even today, with war loans OF
almost 26.0OO.0OoOOO marks, plus the en-
lire debts Of empire and all the states, is
really only just about even now. This
enormous debt, he says, is balanced by the
state and national possessions--railroads
forests, domains and mines. The entente
powers, collectively and individually, he
believes, are so much worse off that after
the war they will be broken, and Ger
many much better off, will have COM