The Birmingham age-herald., 1917-07-23
THJE, NEXT LIBERTY LOAN
By HOLLAND

he sought information instead of giv-k ing it.
 So also Secretary McAdoo may haveX
 obtained valuable information. especiallys from governors of federal reserve bankss without imparting to them any vieWE; excepting the single one that it is in# evitable that he offer new loan some@ time in the autumn. E | The governors of a number of thes federal reserve banks and others whof: were of great service in selling the llbH erty bonds are presumed to have in & | general way outlined a plan for sucM perfect organization as will make 1t faE more easy to sell the bonds of the sec4 ond loan than was the case when the i first loan was being offered to the peS7 pie by hundreds and even thousands of l voluntary solicitors. Yet, these bankerE l and the men of finance who are posSesseQ , Of capital but who are not bankers musk ! have realized as they took part II ctlsS discussion the other day that there aaaE some very confusing factors in the presx ent situation some of whIcn ..44 x 1 eliminated if the new loan is to De speed%; | fly marketed. One of the results off i these factors is to be seen ill ene e9ifF parative stagnation in the securities marI ket and particularly in the depfecia tion {! of market quotations for the stocks of l great steel industries. ci 1 Business men ana bankers are all nj | the air respecting the effect of the wart tax legislation when that is adopted, and the effect of price fixing methods when l established by the President through his 1 subordinates. Nobody can tell what eff 1 feet the surtax upon excess profits maya 1 be. It may amount to so much as max | terally to affect incomes and if thAss 1 should prove to be the case the govern-8 ment would find when the next incomeS l tax is paid that there is a considera-& l ble falling off as compared with thes | great receipts that gloated into the taxi | collectors office in June on account Of. l incomes. Should the government imposes 1 very heavy excess profit taxes upon tia 1 American corporations that have beeu l earring great profits it would neverthe- | less be compelled to pay out these taxes | in payment upon prices fixed by itseH l of supplies and munitions of all kinds4 l Another factor much discussed within ! a few days is due to the experience met
 with when the New York city loan, ors as it is legally known, corporate stocks l was offered for sale. In the aggregate there were $55,000.000 of these securities.ss l Within few days after the syndicateS | whose bid was accepted had been notltied1 | of the acceptance, it offered $47, 800 coo | of these bonds at $101, thereby assurngF | an income of $4.42 for each S100 bondss 1 The disposition of investors is stronglyS l setting towards investment in secumtisy 1 of this kind, state and municipal for 1 these securities cannot be taxed. The l income from them is in excess of any in-S 1 come which may be derived from thes' | government war bonds and, furthermore, ,ss | those who receive an income from theses l bonds are not compelled by law to re- l port it to the tax collector. Therefore | 1t is presumed that unless the war reve- nue bill is on the whole satisfactory to
 the business interests of the United | States and unless price fixing does not | impair the profit earning capacity of these industries, the disposition will con- stantly increase to make investment in | state and municipal bonds, for these are | beyond the power of the government to reach by any form of taxation It was with the consciousness that these some what disturbing factors now exist that
 the governors of federal reserve banks ] and others discussed the other day the 1 best method for nationwide organi- zation commissioned to act as solicitors l for the sale of the bonds of the next loan.