Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1918-06-05
FIND THE MONEY
IT, a Cotton Tax and Protective Tariff Will
Raise Revenue, Congress Should
Not Fear Them

TNHE Republicans who have stood by
- the Administration in its prosecution
of the war are evidently determined to
give it the benefit of their advice in the
preparation of the new revenue bills.
They would fail in their patriotic duty if
they did otherwise. The Republican
party has drafted more successful reve-
nue. bills than the Democrats have
dreamed Of Indeed, most of the Demo-
cratic revenue bills in the past have been
such stuff as dreams-not revenue-were
made of.
Representative Fordney, Of the Ways
and Means Committee, has begun already
by reminding the House of the impor-
tance of resorting to the tariff He has
computed that if the Payne rates were
levied on the imports of the current year
they would produce a revenue Of $751;
100000, or nearly $350,0O0.000 more
than has been raised under the existing
rates.
When we are confronted with the
necessity of raising enormous sums in
an emergency like the present it is sim
ply the part of wisdom to profit by the
experience of the past and to adopt tried
methods. There is no doubt whatever
that vastly greater sums could be raised
by the tariff than the Democrats have
seen fit to raise. There is no doubt,
either that such taxes, falling indirectly
upon the people and distributed widely,
could be paid much more easily than
direct taxes such as the party in power
is considering. AS Cleveland said on a
previous occasion. the country is con-
fronted by a condition and not a theory.
Only theorists will fail to recognize the
fact. We are likely to hear much more
of III, tariff in the mex few weeks.
The Democrats are not to be allowed
to forget that mere are sources of war
profits also which they have not yet
touched. They have already been
reminded that they have kept their
hands off cotton. 1t sells normally at
$50 a bale. But it is selling for two or
three times that sum now. 1t has been
estimated that between half and three
quarters of a billion dollars could be
raised by just war-proft tax on cotton.
With this sum added to what could be
raised by the tariff we would have a
round billion dollars, little less than
three quarters of which would be taken
from. the profits Of producers who are
getting enormous prices on account of
the war and more than one-quarter of
which would be so widely distributed that
it would not be felt.
The fact that one of these taxes would
involve the acceptance of Republican
practices of taxation and the other would
involve the taxation of the southern
Democrats ought not to be sufficient to
deter the financial statesmen responsible
for the revenue bills from giving them
the most serious consideration. 1t will
not commit the nation to any policy when
the war is over, for then our whole
economic relation with the world must be
readiusted. Conditions may arise under
which the ancient protective tariff sys-
TEN of the Republicans will have to be
so modified that its friends will not recog-
nize it, And again, it may be that
Europe will make tariff combination
against us, which we must fight if we
would preserve our industrial independ-
ence. No one knows what the future
holds. We all do know that the tasks of
the present are so grave that every
instrument that can be found which may
be useful in performing them should be
freely used.
Mr.. Fordney and his associates will
set out a fine assortment of instruments
ready to hand before the revenue bills
are finally passed.