The Birmingham age-herald., 1917-06-06

I under consideration it was deemed expe- l dient and even necessary that men of ex- pert authority should be called into con- | sultation. The advice given by these men 1 did much to correct various lmper1ec- ! tions in the bill as it was originally drafted So now it is regarded as expe- dient for senators to listen to counsel offered by men who are competent to give good counsel and there are excellent req sons for believing that counsel of this kind, much of it communicated by letter, i has been carefully considered by Senator Simmons committee.
 Mir Kahn says that it would not be amiss for the government to give some heed to the practical experience and judgment of business men while consider ing the war revenue tax bill. The states men of Great Britain did this and found that service of that kind was of great value MT. Kahn says that he is cer- tain that competent spokesmen of the business community would give their time and their dsfnterested service to the task of cooperating in devisng wise and fair scheme of taxation, just as readily as they have already done and are still doing to the task of placing the liberty loan.
 TAXATION OR CONSCRIPTION
 Word comes from Washington that pe- titions in all aggregating signatures of SOHle iV,uvV peFSOIS nave DSSu CllCuidteo in Congress with intent to persuade that body to tax in full all incomes in excess of s100,000, although some would put, the limit at $500, ,000. If this were done, the government might in the first year get large revenue, but there would be heavy falling off in income revenue after the first year. Moreover, all those who are competent to, speak say that an ex- cessivc income tax, which has been avoided by Great Britain, Canada going so far as to have even no federal income tax, would surely dislocate capital and might drive much of it out of the coun- try.
 While the British commission was in Washington its members did not, even indirectly, offer any suggestions based upon Englands experience ill taxation since the war began. They are unders- stood to have said, as Lord Cunliffe said in private in this city that England has succeeded in preventing a violent finan- cial dislocation of the kind that would be caused unless taxa ton were appor- tioned both with good judgment and in accordance with the principle of the scientific law of taxation:
 TOO HIGH A TAX
 The best judgment appears to be that a war revenue tax bill that would return to the government Sl,S00, ,0O0,O00 provides for excessive taxation and that is some- thing that should be avoided in the in- terests Ga business
 Professor Seligman is persuaded that $1, ,250, 00000, or perhaps ' a little more, would be a sufficient amount to raise by extra taxation. And he bases his iudg- ment not upon guess, but upon what he deems sound economic and construc- tive criticism.
 One of the greatest of American bank CTS said few days ago that the relation of taxes to loans is really a purely busi- ness proposition. That statement in al- most precisely these words was made by Professor Seligman, who believes that it would be mistake if we did not rely to large extent upon loans at the out set of the war.