The Washington herald., 1917-08-02
HOLLAND LETTER
The Biggest Daily
Financial News Feature Of
the CouRhy's Best Newspapers.

and nXeQ the aggregate at TWO nun
dred and forty billions. That figure
is about ten billions less than another
estimate made by- an equally good
authority. OF course estimates of this
kind are likely to be somewhat mis-
leading. They involve occasional dup
lication exactly as estimates Of bank
deposits for any one city represent
Implications and sometimes triplica-
tions. Furthermore. it would be inter-
esting to know whether this money
value of our wealth represents both
developed and undeveloped resources.
Presumably the undeyeloped resources
of the country are not included, or at
least are only partially accounted for
in the estimate. The resources of the
United States which are awaiting ex-
ploitation must be in money value
vastly in excess of two hundred and
fifty billionsJ
Undoubtedly this estimate was made
public at this time SO that there could
be good understanding by the people
of the somewhat trivial relation OF
the! 81, ,ooo, 100000 which Is the
estimated expenditure by the United
States in the first year of the war.
to the total wealth of the United
States. Presumably the war will not
be continued longer than two or three
years and If the yearly expenditures
should be equal to that incurred In the
first year of the war, or even twenty
| billions, then in three years our ex-
penditures on account of the war
would be a little under sixty billion
dollars, or only 25 per cent of the
estimated wealth of the United states.
In addition there Is another point OF
view and that is to be found in the
fact that no small part Of the ex-
penditures on account of the war VIII
be reflected in increased manufactures
and larger agricultural industry and
lin expansion of our foreign commerce.
1t would be interesting to men OF
finance to know accurately what the
aggregate yearly income OF the people
OF the United States is. 1t must De
vastly in excess of the amount need
ed to carry on the war, but there Is
no conceivable way of reaching con-
clusion which can be relied upon
which would show the aggregate OF
! this income.
In the early spring Otto II. Kahn
delivered an address before a body
of highIy-cultivated men in this city
in which he set forth some Of his
| views of what the relation of busi-
| ness to the war should be. He spoke
of the policy adopted by Congress
| in taxing incomes, intimating that
IL the income tax were too high II
would necessarily be followed by a
| falling of in the report to tax col
| Iectors of the amount of income.
He also spoke of the ability with
which Canada has been financing her
end of the war. deeming 1t remark
4 worthy of the heed
| of American law makers that the
Canadian government had not i'm
| posed any Dominion income tax
There seemed to be an intimatior
| in Mr.. Kahn's remarks that Canada
| might in time be compelled to re-
sort to this method OF securing some
of the funds the Dominion needs
| That intimaticn was justified by the
recent action of the Dominion gov
! ernment which has found it essen
I tial to impose an income tax although
the total amount to be raised there
/ by is not very large. The imposi'
| ton, however, of this Canadian in
come tax makes it clear that the
Dominion is disposed TO utilize to
reasonable extent all Of 1t resource:
| in order to raise funds.
| It Is not deemed likely that Congress
Twill SO legislate as to provide the
/ government with money whereby the
telephone system OF the United States
shall pass into government ownership
Presumably as much money would
be needed as it represented by the ag
gregate obtained by the first Liberty
| loan. However, it is not so much q
| question of the expense entailed by
buying the telephone. should the bill
now before Congress to that end be-
| come q law, as it is a question oi
men and efficiency. For the govern
ment would not be willing to pay the
salaries which the highly efficient
executives of the telephone compan!
receive and earn. Although at tht
present time there are many business
men whose earning capacity is eact
\ year high in the thousands Of dollars
1 one or two of them capable of earn
! ing approximately a million, who are
working for the government for moth
ing. nevertheless it will not be pos
sible to secure for the administration
of the telephone or railway service
| competent men for any salary the
government would feel justified ir
offering.
| Government-ownedt telephone service
in other countries is woefully in
efficient as compared with the tele-
phone service in the United States
/ The argument has sometimes beer
I offered in favor Of this government
ownership that If the government can
successfully control the postal system
of the United States there Is no rea-
son why 1t should not as successfully
direct the telephone or telegraph sys-
TENS. But those who are best in
| formed say that IL the Postofice sys-
| TEN of the United States were man.
aged with the ability and by men
who command as high salaries as
is the case in the great corporations,
it would yield a large revenue each
year to the government. at the same
time reducing the cost of postage.
That was the opinion of the late
| Thomas i. James, based upon his
successful experience as postmaster
of New York and as Postmaster Gen.
eral in the Cabinets of Presidents
Garfield and Arthur
The return Of Howart Elliot to lead
ing executive authority in. the North.
ern Pacific Railroad Company in.
evitably suggests the insurmountablt
difficulties he met with when endeav-
oring to put the New Haven Railroad
system upon its feet. Mr.. Elliot was
called from the Northern Pacific tc
the presidency OF the New Haven on
the advice of Theodore n. Vail, J. p
Morgan and others who believed that
his selection as president would be
welcomed by the citizens of Massa-
chusetts and Connecticut. In this
view they were correct, but the diff.
eulties, many and complex, into which
the New Haven system was plunged
chiefly as result of legislative inter-
ference and prosecution by the De-
partment of Justice at Washington,
| npuETIA,c cIATc