Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1918-09-10
WATCH THE REVENUE BILL
DEBATE
II Is Likely to Foreshadow the Issues OH
Which Future Presidential Cam.
paigns Will Be Fought

debate on the eight billion dollar reve-
nue. bill, which began in Congress yester-
day, and look for the reactions of the
country to it in order to discover what
the issues of future political campaigns
are to be.
The admission of Mr.. Kitchin, chair
man of the Ways and Means Committee,
that the peace budgets for many years
after the war will not be less than four
billion dollars indicates that the question
of taxation and revenue must occupy the
attention of statesmen almost to the ex-
clusion of everything else.
Taxation is the very essence of gov
ernment. No government can exist
twenty-four hours without the power to
levy taxes. How those taxes are to be
levied has divided men into parties. 1t
has produced wars. The schoolboys know
that it was tax question which precipi-
tated the American Revolution. Stu
dents of our political history are aware
that tax questions have divided parties
almost from the beginning. There was
bitter controversy in the first half of the
pay for internal improvements, and the
tariff question provoked almost as much
difference Of opinion. The fight over
these two issues was hottest in the years
of peace between the War of 1912 and
the Mexican War.
After the Civil War the protective
tariff issue, which is tax issue, grad
ually overshadowed every other question
and for years it was the question which
divided the Republicans from the Demo-
Gratis. Several presidential campaigns
were fought out on it between the Civil
War and the Spanish War.
At the present moment all parties are
agreed that the money needed to prose-
cute the war must be raised. There is
no disposition to block the plans of the
Administration by being hypercritical
over the methods to be employed to raise
it. Consequently the debates in Congress
will be to some extent academic, for the
nation is willing to put up with revenue
bill that has many injustices in it. 1t
knows that it is difficult on short notice
for the enormous sums needed. But it
will not be deaf to the warnings sounded
by the critics of the BILL nor will it fail
to note the tendency of the present Con-
gress to exempt certain groups of the
population from taxation and to lay
heavy burdens on other groups.
1t will be exceedingly unfortunate if on
this issue Of taxation-on the question
of how to raise four billion dollars year
after the war-the country should be
divided into a party of the rich and a
| party of the poor-that is, a party of
the vested interests and a party which
| lives from hand to mouth. The English
| labor leaders are looking for such divi-
sion of parties in Great Britain, for they
| are committed to the destruction of great
| fortunes by taxation and to the gradual
| taking over of all great industries by the
! Government, and the use of the profits
| and the levies on the great fortunes to
pay the war debt
Republicans and Democrats alike will
vote for the revenue bill from patriotic
motives. But when the war ends it will
| be discovered that the taxation issues as
they will then be presented will cut
| across the old party lines. They will
appear in a form which they have never
before taken in America. Republicans
and Democrats will find themselves fight
ing Democrats and Republicans and
there will be readjustment and realgn-
ment Of men in accordance with their
beliefs on the new issues.
The Government ownership issue will
appear as a phase of the taxation issue
just as internal improvements made by
the national governments was once a
taxation issue in which the constitution
ality of the use of national funds for
such purposes was involved .@
While the criticisms of the theory on
which the new revenue bill is framed will
be largely academic, they will serve a
useful purpose in assisting the public to
knowledge of the great financial ques-
tions that must occupy our attention in
the near future and the records made
now will rise up to bless or curse the men
in Washington when they are candidates
for office in the future.
Those who are wise will recall that it
was the heroic stand of Rutherford B.
Hayes for sound currency in Ohio while
he was Governor that made him a presi-
Dental possibility in 1876. The voters of
| America are essentially honest and es-
sentially just, and they will not stand for
any policy of confscation, however
plausibly it may be presented.