Audubon County journal. (Exira, Iowa) 1884-1993, 1918-03-14
No Extortion to Be Tolerated, but
Liberal Disposition Toward
Business Needed.
Shrinkage of Values Would Cur
tail Capacity to Provide
SineWs of War.
'@conscription Of Men, CONSUMPTION Of
Money" Analysed.
BY OTTO II. KAHN.

Much IS being said about the plau,
0tble sounding contention that ber
cause certain portion Of the young
manhood Of the nation has been con-
scripted, therefore money must also be
conscripted. Why, that is the very
thing the government has been doing
1T has conscripted a portion-a rela-
lively small portion-of the men of the
nation. It has conscripted portion
a large portion Of the incomes of the
nation. Capital and business pay more
than four-f1fths of our total war taxa.
ton directly and large share of the
remaining fifth indirectly.
If the government went too far in
conscripting men the country would be
crippled. If it went too far in con-
scripting incomes and earnings the
country would likewise be crippled.
Results of CONSUMPTION of Capital.
l would ask those who would go
further and conscript not only incomes,
but capital, to answer the riddle, not
only in what equitable and practicable
manner they would do it, but what the
nation would gain by 1t?
1t is true that few years ago
capital levy was made in Germany, but
the percentage of that levy was so
small as to actually amount to no more
than an additional income tax and that
at time when the regular income tax
An Germany was very moderate as
measured by the present standards of
income taxation.
Only trifiing fraction of a mans
property is held in cash. If they con-
script a certain percentage of his pos
sessions in stocks and bonds, what
would the government do with them?
Keep them? That would not answer
Its purpose, because the government
wants cash, not securities
Sell them? Who is to buy thenAwhen
every ones funds would be depleted?
If they conscript a certain percent,
age of mans real estate or mine or
farm or factory, how is that to be ex
pressed and converted into cash?
Are conscripted assets to be used as
basis for the issue Of Federal Re.
serve bank notes? That would mean
gross imitation, with all its attendant
evils, dangers and receptions.
Would they repudiate percentage
Of the national debt? Reputation IL
no less dishonorable in a people than
In an individual, and the penalty for
failure to respect the sanctity of obi.
cations is no different.
The Thrifty Would Be PenaIized.
The fact is that the government
would gain nothing in the process of
capital CONSUMPTION and the country
would be thrown into chaos for the
time being. The man who has saved
would be penalized, he who has wasted
would be favored. Thrift and construc-
tive effort, resulting in the needful and
fructifying accumulation of capital,
would be arrested and lastingly dis.
couraged.
l can understand the crude notion of
the man who would divide all possess
sions equally. There would be mighty
little coming to any one by such distri-
button, and it is, of course, an utterly
impossible thing to do, but it is an I'M
derstandable notion. But by the con-
fiscation of capital for government use
neither the government nor any indi.
yidual would be benefited.
A vigorously progressive income tax
is both economically and socially
sound. A capital tax is wholly un-
sound and economically destructive.
1t may nevertheless become neces-
sary in the case Of some of the beliger-
ent countries to resort to this expedi-
ent, but can conceive of no situation
likely to arise which would make If
necessary or advisable in this country.
More than ever would such tax be
harmful in times of war and post-bel-
lum reconstruction, when beyond almost
all other things it is essential to stimu.
late production and promote thrift, and
when everything which tends to have
the opposite effect should be vigorously
rejected as detrimental to the nations
strength and well-being.
There is an astonishing lot of hazy
thinking on the subject of the uses OF
capital in the hands Of its owners.