New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-08-24
Amendment Providing
Drastic Increase Loses
by So to Fl
Senate to Boost
War Profits Tax
Depend on 1t to Provide
All Additional Revenue
Needed This Year
Especial corr-spondeneel

a
ther increases in the income tax Sec
ton of the revenue bill were de-
c,sively defeated in the Senate to-day,
there was no sign Of a let-up in the
big drive for the conscription Of
wealth. Indeed, il is not impossible
that the La Toilette amendments would
hsvo been adopted had they been Of
fered by any one else.
Chairman Simmons of the committee,
however, played a shrewd game when,
early in the debate, he bitterly at
tackled certain people" for desiring to
make the taxes just as unpopular as
they could because they wanted to
nuke the war unpopular.
Mr.. La Toilette replied hotly, saying
that any one who disagreed with the
committee was unpstriotic. but the
Simmons sting had its effect, as rea!
friends of boosting the income taxes
had feared right along. This is the
first amendment offered by Mr.. La Fol-
lotte, and the Senate buried it
5s TO 81.
Vote Proved Nothing
As a matter Of fact, the vote on the
La Toilette amendment proved nothing.
Most of the thunder was taken out OF
the La Toilette attack when Senator
Gerry, of Rhode Island, for the COM
mittee, as it afterward developed, in
troduced his amendments boosting the
surtaxes to point where 81 per cent
OF all income above S2,000,000 is taken.
Mr.. La Follette's amendments had
been printed at the time, and imposed
rates lower than those imposed In the
Gerry amendment. In his colloquy
with Chairman Simmons, Mr.. La Fol-
lette said he was personally willing 20
make them higher, but was offering all
he thought the Senate would give him.
The Senate was satisfied, apparently,
with adopting the Lenroot amendment
boosting the taxes on income from
100000 up to 100000, and the Gerry
amendments, boosting incomes above
that amount, and did not take to the
La Toilette amendment, which would
have boosted the taxes on incomes
more rapidly in the scale upward,
though il would not have changed the
levies fixed ia the Gerry amendments.
Provides Sharp Increase
Briehy. La Toilette would increase
the percentage of tax with each addi-
tional thousand of income, instead OF
by larger units.
The difference between the two sys-
.ems-that retained by to-day's vote
and the La Toilette plans perhsps
best illustrated by an example. A
nan whose income is $4,000 year
would pay, on the thousand dollars be-
tween $4,000 and $4,000, surtax Of s
p.r cent, under the bill as ii stands,
and a surtax Of IL per cent under tbs
La Toilette plan.
Aside from the objection to the
source OF tne La rOiicNNo ahVhuNSo,
there was a disposition among many
Senators that there was no great good
to be obtained by further boosting In
come taxes, now that the excessively
large incomes had been hit so hard by
the Gerry amendments, because II 10
the fixed determination Of the majority
tax to a point where it will provide all
the revenue considered necessary this
wear. or nearly all of 1t. Such war
profits taxes, of course, will cut deeply
into many incomes.
Supporters of La Toilette
The Senators who voted, notwith.
standing this feeling. 10 adopt the Ia
Toilette schedule Of income taxes. were;
Borah and Brady, Of Idaho; Owen
and Gore, of Oklahoma; Gronns, Of
North Dakota; Hardwick, Of Georgia;
Hollis, Of New Hampshire; Husting and
La Toilette, Of Wisconsin; Johnson. Of
Californis; Poindexter and Jones. Of
Washington; Kenyon, Of Iowa; Kirby
Of Arkansas; MeKellsr, Of Tennessee;
McNary, of Oregon; Norris. OF Ne.
braska; Reed, of Missouri; Townsend.
Of Michigan; Trammell. Of Florida,
and Vardaman. OF Mississippi.
Senator Borah, in a speech looking to
the war profits section Of the bill, de.
clsred that a policy Of big bond issues
and light taxation meant only one thing,
and that was that the porer people
of the country would pay the bonds At
maturity and the interest In the mean
time BY consumption taxes. War prof.
it's, now SO easily taxable, will dis
appear when peace comes. he pointed
out, so that the burden will fall prin-
cipally on those least able TO bear IL.
1T Means Sacrifice
The problem OF raising the means
by which TO sustain the credit Of the
Entente Allies, and at the same tina
take care Of our own expenses, neces-
ssrily means business worry. business
anxiety" he declared. at means bust.