New Britain herald., 1916-05-10

FantageS, but it has deprived the great trusts of an opportunity to con- tnue their plunder of the American people. Indeed, our Republican critics almost without exception, have abandoned the claim that American Industry requires higher schedule
 rates than tf ose now in force. The
 chief criticism that Senator Mclean
 makes of the Underwood law is that
 it has not supplied the revenue neces sary to run the government. It is amazing that in the face Of the off, cial reports concerning the revenue obtained under the Payne-Aldrich law
 and the Underwood law such 9 con- tentiOn should be made.
 Any candid student of the question
 will easily see that the source of much
 of the disagreement as to the per formances of the two acts grows cut of the fact that the critics Of the Un-
 derWood law Intentionally fail to take into account the fact that the pro-
 vision for an income tax is part Of the revenue bill and that it was the purpose of the Underwood law to re- lieve the people of some of the burden of taxation at the Custom House and to make up the difference in income taxes upon the wealth of America.
 The government reports disclose that all ordinary receipts for the ns- cal year 1912 amounted to s691.7SS,-
 465; for the fiscal year 1913 to SPA Ill, ,229; and for the fiscal year 1914, the first year that the Underwood law was on the statute books to S734,343,
 700. In other words, the Underwood law in 1914 collected $1O,232.471 mere revenue than the Payne act in 1913, and s43. 235 more than the Payne act in 1912. Nor is the Senator any more successful in his discussion of trade balances. The favorable bal ance for the fiscal year ending June 30 1914. during nine months of which the Underwood law prevailed was nearly three hundred million dollars greater than the corresponding year under the Payne 1aw-and if we select ten months from the passage of the Underwood law until the breaking out Of the war, and compare them with like period following the enactment of the Payne law, we find g -avOr able trade balance of over one llun dred and fifty million dollars greater under the mOcratic law than under the Republican law. Our Republican friends, however, tell us that we are now obliged to increase the income tax in what they call "a time of peace.' It is unthinka ble that an intelligent people will be disturbed by assertions of this character. It Is common knowledge that additional appropriations have been made to in crease and strengthen various branch es of our government. Republicans and Democrats participated in passing these measures
 Amongst them were appropriations for the Federal Trade Commission and the Alaskan Railway. Moreover, we are upon the eve of expending more money upon our army and navy in obtaining a greater degree of pre- paredness. In the meanwhile, the war has interfered with importations and some means must be taken to supply the taxes for the support of the government if we are to have the things for which no one clamors more loudly than the leaders of the Re- publican party.
 It is hypocrisy pushed to the ex- treme to demand large appropriations for army and navy and, at the same time, criticise the Democratic Party for attempting to pass the laws which are necessary to secure the revenue to carry out these projects. But Senator Mclean tells us that we must have a Republican tariff because after the war the goods of Europe will be dumped upon American shores. Here speaks partisanship rather than statesmanship. It is much more like ly that after the war comes to an end the United States will be unable to make goods as fast as Europe will take them. After the war Europe will be industrially disorganized. Eu rope is organized for war and not for the orderly processes of peace. MIL lions of her strongest citizens are disabled Or dead. It is a provincial spirit which inspires the Senator to fear the industrial competition of crippled and depopulated Europe. The real anger is that Europe will have enough goods to trade for our goods. International trade consists 1 in the exchange of commodities for commodities. Is it possible that Sena- | tor Mclean imagines that interna- tiOnal trade can be carried oa with out an exchange of goods? The sup ply of gold is limited. Trade that de | pends upon getting the other mans 1 SOld ana not nlS SOouS WOulu not | last very long.
 The Tariff Commission.
 But against even this possibility the ! of President Wilson | had protected us.
 The president advocates and con- ! eress will shortly pass, a provision for | a partisan tariff commission. The | president says, "A commission such as | l have suggested would have nothing l to do with theories of policy. They ] would deal only with the facts of in dustry and of the conditions of eco-