Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1917-09-03
SENATE IGNORES
HOLIDAY TO WORK
ON WAR TAX BILL
Senator Penrose Shows Flaw
in Johnson's Rea-
soning u.

Washington, Sept. S.-Despite the
holiday. the Senate continued work
or the war tax bill in the hope of dis
posing of the war profits tax section
not later than Wednesday.
The fifth week of debate on the bill
| opened with both advocates and OPP
ponents of higher war profits taxa
| tion asserting confidence in the out
| come.
The defeat of the Johnson amend
ment to the war revenue bill came
late Saturday afternoon.
Only seventeen senators stood with
Johnson. the list including Vardaman.
LaFollette, Gronna and Gore, who
have been conspicuous in opposing the
President and against the various war
measures that have come before the
Senate.
Senator Boies Penrose, as ranking
Republican of the Finance committee,
took a shot at Johnson in speech
in which he made 1t clear that the
committee had not receded in any re-
spect from it's position relative to the
war profits tax. The committee. he
said, had made a sincere and patriotic
efforts to meet the demands of the
revenue situation. He characterized
the attack of Senator Johnson as that
of stump orator at a campaign
meeting, in whose statements there
was lack of sincerity and an abso-
Lutte lack of truth"
"A persistent effort has been made
in the Senate to convey the idea that
In some way the Finance committee
has yielded to pressure and has COM
pletely reversed the conclusions it had
reached after two months of eXhaus-
tive consideration of the revenue
measure" said Senator Penrose.
Lnck of Sincerity
There is n lack of sincerity in that
stat tement, and an absolute lack of
Il nth. In this instance the committee
has not in any way altered the basic
principles with which it presented this
particular part of the revenue bill
relating to war profits. An effort is
made to convey the impression that.
somehow or other the committee has
reported out increased rates. The
rates are identical in the report made
Thursday by the chairman of the FL
nance committee and the rates in the
original report with one single ex-
ception-a ten per cent. raise in the
highest bracket.
THE effort is made to convey the
impression that, somehow or other,
the committee has been driven to
raise 00.00O,000 by increased rates.
Every dollar of that increase. which
will be collected in taxes by the
amendment suggested by the chair
man of the Finance committee. comes
solely and exclusively, with the eX-
ception of the ten per cent. raise in
the highest bracket, from the ten per
cent, restriction on the supernormal
Logical Proposition
"The committee in the beginning
viewed this tax strictly as war
profit tax. 1t was a logical PROPOSE
tion. Here was a tax that was COM
puted on the difference between the
earnings during the pre-war period
and the earnings during the taxable
year.
TT was not the purpose of the COM
mittee to exhause every source of
taxation in the present bill. The COM
mittee is well aware that other
sources remain that must be called
upon as the burdens of the war in
crease with every month.
1T has been a sincere and patri-
otic effort to meet the requirements
of the public treasury, to meet the
views of senators here on this floor,
honestly expressed. not in the accents
of the stump orator, or of the cam
paign meeting, but in the calm and
deliberate consideration which ought
to be extended to a fiscal measure
meaning so much to the American
people as this does"