The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-04-12
REACH NO DECISION
 0N TRAFFIC BUREAU
Matter of Selecting Manager Has Not Yet Been Con- sidered by the
 Committee

The special committee of the business council of the Chamber of Commerce ap- pointed by J. D. Moore, chairman or the council to investigate the proposed es- tablishment of traffic bureau and the employment of a freight rate expert reached no decision at it's meeting yes terday afternoon The committee, of organized and took steps to secure the necessary information and data upon which to base it's recommendations.
 we merely perfected the organization at this meeting," said Chairman North ington yesterday. we will have to tion concerning the proposed bureau be- fore we will be in position to make an intelligent report. It is probable that an- other meeting will be held within the next week or 10 days, at which time the matter will be considered more in detail. This is a question of great importance and we intend to act only when we are thoroughly cognizant of all the details connected with the proposal"
 It is considered certain that the com mittee will recommend the establishment of traffic bureau after securing the necessary data, and the business council, to which the recommendation will go, is known to look with favor on the proposi- ton. The same is true of the directors, It is probably only matter of a short time until the bureau will be an estab- lished fact.
 Concerning the man who would be se- lected to take the place of traffic man ager, nothing has been done and the matter has not even been considered by the business council nor the directors of the Chamber of Commerce. It has been officially announced that should the bureau be decided on, committee would be named to recommend the traffic man. ager President Bush is known to have expressed himself on this matter, and he will not make any recommendations, nor will any of the railroad men who are members of the committee. The railroad and transportation members of the coun- cil have already announced that they favored the bureau, but would make no recommendations nor would they take any part in selecting the manager
 York city is improving, although the debt of the city is greater than that of the United States and is increasing, then credit on the whole in the United States is improving
 THE QUESTION OF TAXES
 When MT. Rockefeller and MT. Baker took the whole issue of New York state bonds, with intent to keep them for per- manent investment, the comment was generally made that one of their reasons for so acting was the fact that the bonds are exempt from taxation of any kind. The collector of internal revenue and the state tax gatherer must ignore them and the income from them cannot be in- cluded in the taxable income of their own CTS.
 This feature is very likely one of those which make an offering of New York city bonds popular and it has been observed that everywhere offerings of state or mu- nicipal obligations have been more or less affected by the fact that income from them is exempt from taxation of any kind.
 PAYING BY INSTRUMENTS
 One of the observations which the ex- perience of the late Abram s. Hewitt as mayor of New York justified him in mak- ing, as he thought. was conveyed in his assertion that, properly handled, the in come from the puDnc utlnlleS, puDllc works, franchises and various privileges which New York city should and could receive might under wise and economic handling be sufficient to pay no small part of the annual expenses of the city. Mr. Hewitt, however was convinced that those of later generation would solve this problem and not those of his own. He was persuaded that it was highly in- expedient and uneconomic for New York city to market bonds that had many years of life. He thought that the best financ- ing would provide for the sale of serial securities so that the serial bonds could be paid for out of taxes and in comparatively short time.
 Mir. Hewitt did not live to see that method adopted. When he advocated it., the financier upon whose earnest recom- mendation it was adopted was student at Harvard university. for it was in no small measure due to the counsel of J. F. Morgan that the city adopted last year. a plan of serial issues except for bonds which represent investments in proper ties that produce sufficient revenue to meet the interest and to wipe out the principal in due time
 TOO Risky