New-York tribune., 1918-06-30
Sacrifice of Comfort
To Be Asked

AS an aside. / might say that I
view the necessity of making radical
changes in my methods of living with
no concern whatever. | am quite ready
to make any sacrifice of ease, Of COM
fort, of leisure or, up to the breaking
point, of so-called necessities that may
be necessary to insure my bearing my
full share of the load. already
have given to this cause that which /
hold much more precious than any ma
terial possession or any personal hon.
to go to any length to back up this gift.
All of which sums up to the state
ment that l believe in the most drastic
KIND of individual taxation, and be-
lieve, that very large majority Of the
people who have come to understand
that bond issues do not shift the bur-
den or any part Of it onto posterity,
and, therefore, that we, of now, must
pay as we go, whether we issue bonds
or not, is of the same opinion.
AS to ahe nature of this drastic taxa
ton, l also and of course have opin-
ions. | doubt if these opinions will be
of either interest or value, but on the
chance that there may be something
In them to strengthen the hands of
: some members of your committee, /
submit them briefly as follows:
First of all, l believe that bonds
should be issued only to cover the sums
loaned to the Allies and the sums in
vested in quasi-permanent additions
and improvements which can be expect
ed to outlast the war. That is, that
| bonds should be issued to cover only
what the expert accountant would
probably call capital investments; !"
and that taxes should be laid to cover
all OF the remainder of the cost, that is.
what the said accountant would prob
ably. call current expenses" This
would mean that very much larger
proportion of the amount named in
Secretary McAdoo's 1919 estimate
! should be raised by taxation than he
himself has asked for. have no means
of knowing or estimating what this pro-
portion should be, but would think that
at the very minimum it would be more
than 60 per cent. It can, of course, be
figured exactly by any one in possession
OF the detailts of the Sccretary's esti-
mate. hold this belief, first, because
it represents scientific credit theory
and sound business practice, and, sec
ond, because only by adopting some
such ratio as this can we avoid that
most insidious. far-reaching and calam-
ltous of all financial evils-inf1ation
An evil which spells sky rocketine
prices, mal-distribution of war burden,
retardation of war work, and finally. an
impossible after-war situation.
Second, l believe that substantially
all of the increase should be raised
from the taxation of individual incomes
and luxuries, and that if the so-called
( excess profits tax is to be changed at
all, it should be revised down rather
than up. The excess profits tax falls
largely upon corporations. and all cor.
poration taxation by the Federal gov
ernment is at all times both unscicn-
tltlc and unjust, and in war time un-
patriotic as we'll. 1t is unscientific be-
cause its immediate incidence is pro
duction, and because it is needless,
Taxing the stockholders brings about
the same result, and the stockholders
are IN any case reached through the in
come tax and other channels. The
stockholders are the corporation and
own everything it has and earns,
1t Is unfair because it falls on the
rich and poor alike; it comes out OF
what the stockholders otherwise would
receive, and comes out in exact pro
portion as they severally otherwise
would receive. That is, the small
; stockholder pays as much of it in pro
portion to his holding as the large. tn;
poor as much as the rich. This is un
just. 1t is the equivalent of fiat rat,
income tax, and if any one were to pro
pose fiat rate income tax in this da,
and place he would be held to be in
sane.
RaDrae,;o~ &c