Evening star., 1918-11-12
MORE ACTIVE TRADING
IN LOCAL SECURITIES
BY I. A. FLEMING.

On the local stock exchange today
quite large business was transacted
in both stocks and bonds. with prices
generally little stronger and in some
cases materially higher.
There seemed to be a considerable
improvement in the demand for bonds,
with sales of Capital Traction IS to
the extent of s1,500 at 81; of Railway
4s, $4,000 at 7o& to 70B. with
Chesapeake and Potomac Telephone 5s
selling at 96!a. Bid prices were higher
for some issues, including Graphic
phone 6S.
In the stock list Railway common
sold to 81, in all 60 shares changing
ownership, with 501s bid at the close.
The preferred brought 69&, for an
odd lot only.
Capital Traction sold rather freely
at S5% to ssh. Mergenthaler ad-
vanced to 143A and Lanston was ac-
tive at 65A.
Sales of bank shares included Dis
trict National at 154 and Union Trust
at 119, with 10 shares Of each sold.
Additional Loan Subscriptions.
Subscriptions to the fourth liberty
loan are still being received by the
ten banks that agreed to finance the
subscriptions of the commissioned and
enlisted personnel of the Navy.
The first estimate of the amount of
the subscriptions was placed at $5,0OO,-
900, then at $S,000,000, then at $1O,25O,-
600, and now the total is said to be
very close to the $13,000,0OO mark, and
still they come in.
The District will obtain credit for
these subscriptions, as a result of the
financing of this immense subscription
by the ten local banks at ~ per cent,
a sacrifice on their part that will result
tn fNfo 1hco init for
loan going over the 50,000,00O mark.
The War Profits Tax.
Attorney Reid, counselor or the In
vestment Bankers Association, is in
the city today in the interest of the
association in the matter of tax legisla-
ton.
Being interviewed, he said:
'"The suggestion of a war profits tax
for 1918, continued at one-half the
rate for 1919, with credit for any
1918 excess profits tax under the 1917
law, will, I believe, meet the approval
of business interests and of the public
tax will end with 1919, and that after
that year there will be no special or
exclusive tax on earned income and
active enterprise.
The Investment Bankers Associa-
ton has heartily favored the war
profits tax as war measure and has
sought to make it productive and
equitable, but it has always said, and
is glad to repeat at this time, that
such a tax in normal times is impos-
sible in America.
ITO take two men with an income of
S5O,000, one an inherited unearned in
come, the other the income of enter
prise and accomplishment, and to sub
ject the latter income to a special tax
not imposed on the former runs coun-
ter to our basic principles and is neces-
sarily destructive of enterprise. It
taxes the new man and grants rela-
tive immunity to the man of estab-
lished wealth.
In our form of corporate promotion
the men who supply the brains, the
opportunity or the invention receive
the common stock or equity in the en-
terprise, while the men who supply
the capital receive the bonds or Sc
cured preferred stock. The profits tax
destroys the interest and the oppor-
tunity of the inventor and the origi-
nator of enterprise, while assuring
safe return to capital. With the termi-
nation of the war and of the war
profiteer- both the need and justif1ca-
tion of such tax will disappear.