The daily banner. (Cambridge, Md.) 1897-2008, 1918-10-01

Washington, Sept. 25.-No mat
ter what sort of a revenue bill Con-
eress finally passes, one thing 'Iay
be set down as assured. The num-
Der of income taxpayers will be i'm
mensely increased another year.
The Internal Revenue Bureau is OF
the trail of the dodgers, innocent and
otherwise; but particularly of the in
nocent. There are unquestiouahiy
many thousands of people who ought
to be paying income tax, and to have
paid it for several years, who do not
realize that they have been rerelict.
This is particularly true of the far
mers
Until the last year large proper
zion of the income tax slackers were
classified as rather unintentional Of
tenders. But the tax and Its mean
ing was so well advertised last year
that it became pretty hard for any
body to justify plea of innocence.
Still, thousands of them try to do it,
and they are going to be brought to
book. most of them with big bills for
arrears.
Income tax collections for the fiscal
year will be very much in excess OF
estimates, possibly a billion dollars.
This will be composed partly of ar
rearages and partly of excess over
calculations Several months ago a
systematic campaign was set afooL
for location of the slackers. Certain
restricted districts were designated
for intensive studies of conditions
and developing methods of ascertain
ing the truth about incomes of peo-
pie not reporting or making dishon-
est returns. Some of these We're city
and some country districts. In both
classes of communities it has been
found possible to get remarkably &C
curate information about the bust
ness affairs of even the most seCTe-
tive people Results have oeen as
tonishing.
A thousand Tonances of the un-
known great fortunes could be writ
ten if one had access to the data
which reposes under seal of secrecy
in the revenue offices. 1t would be
found that multitudes of people
known in their communities as mill
lionaires really possess very limited
incomes, while a still more interest
ing class are the possessors of great
but unheard-of fortunes.
There are, roughly. two classes of
these great but unknown fortunes.
One comprises estates of people who
have quietly accumulated property in
land that has appreciated or in secu-
rites that have increased in value;
the other of people who have in very
recent times made immense fortunes
in lucky business operations or spec
ulations. Since the 1907 panic, a
big class of new multi-millionaires
has grown up, and it has beeRf in
creased largely by the profiteering~Q o.
wartimes. 1t wasn't so fashionable
to call this process profiteering, so
long as the profits were made off 9TH
err countries and we were not in the
war. War profits accumulated out
of the misfortunes of other countries
were looked upon as testimony to
acumen and vision, but since our own
country has been paying war bills
these have come to be regarded in a
very different light.
Many of the sudden fortunes have
been made out of war contracts for
this and other countries, and these
can be pretty easily traced because
of the public records. The system is
now so far perfected that corpora
lions can hardly hope to fool the tax
Continued on Page Two.)
WiIis---Phllips