Every evening, Wilmington daily commercial., 1918-09-13
PRESS COMMENT.
TAXATIONS AND LOANS.

But IL 1t sound theory thnt this
war ought to be paid Tor so largely by
taxation? Is II sound theory, even
though the taxes are distributed among
the whole people rather than among n
relatively few, as Chairman Kitchin tres
to distribute them9 And IS 1T not
true that the public IS grossly deceived
as to the real percentage of war cost which
1T Is trying to meet with direct taxation?
In the first place, when the govern
ment talks of meeting our war expen-
ditures one-third with taxes and two
thirds with loans, 1t does not state the
Is one-third of S24 ,000, 900, 900 to be
raised, some $4,000, 100000 of that
s24 900, 100000 will go to the Allies
as loans. That $6,00O,0O0 900 In an
investment, not an expenditure, of the
United States government. The prin-
cIpal, unless Germany wrecks the Allies
will be returned the United States
government. 1t pays interest. II paws
the government more interest than the
government pays our Liberty bond sub
scribers. Clearly, money borrowed from
our own people TO be lent to the Allies
will not have to be paid for by our future
generations. On the contrary, that
money borrowed from us today will be
paid back to the generations after us
Ii we subtract that $4,000, 900, 900 from
the estimated S24 900 100000 to be
raised IN tins country IN a year, there
Is left SIS,000,000 900 to be spent by
us on the war The $1,000, 900 900 Of
proposed taxation therefore, will not
be one-thIrd of our actual spendIngs
on the war, but will be nearer one half
than one-third; instead of 33 per cent,
IT will he A per cent
Again, If 1T Is a sound theory that
this war should be paid for largely by
direct taxation, that direct TAXATION
should be SO widely and fairly distributed
that 1T will not be a crushing burden
upon anybody. Consumption taxes of
81 900, ,O00, 900. a year could be laid upon
our whole population and the average
per capita cost would not be 50 n year,
or perhaps half of 50 year, The man
whose consumption expenditures were
$4,000 a year, on as low a basis
/ per cent, consumption tax, would yield
5000 into the treasury. A man whose
consumption expenditures were only $500
n year would yield into the Treasury
IS year And how favorably would
an average consumption tax Of s. year,
or SO year, compare with the many
of increased cost of living that every
today !
But surely II is not safe theory that
nearly half or even third of our stu
pendous war expenditures should be met
by direct and immediate taxation,
particularly upon comparatively limited
number of taxpayers 1t can be SAID of
this. as Mr. McAdoo frankly confesses
about his own surtax theory of last year,
1T will not do, however, To press any
theory, however sound, to an extremity"
You might as well say that for a small |
merchant wishing to build a store and |
not having the cold cash to pay for all |
the work it would be q sound theory, |
when he could borrow some of the cost on |
mortgage, for him to stop feeding and |
his family, to quit paying his |
insurance premiums, to strip his shop of |
IFS stock, To dismiss his clerks, to ruin his |
business, so as to put all his resources |
into that building as immediate pay
York Sun.