Willmar tribune. [volume] (Willmar, Minn.) 1895-1931, 1918-08-28
NEW PATRIOTISM FOR OLD
Letter of Amos Pinchot to the Hon.
Claude Kitchin, Chairman of
The Way and Means
Committee.

The Way and Means
Committee.
101 Park Ave-, New York City
Aug. 10, 1918.
My Dear Mr. Kitchin:
l take the liberty of writing you
about the revenue bill, first because l
know how earnestly you want to see
justice done in raising war funds, and
in the second place because you were
kind enough last year to give the com.
mittee of which was chairman very
friendly hearing when we advocated
heavier taxes.
Last week we read in the newspap-
ers that the trainers of the revenue
bill had decided that the English 80
per cent tax was too high; that the
excess profits tax now favored by your
Committee will probably yield only
81 $50 100000, or about 1920, 100000
more than the present law which is
approximately levied at an average OF
81 per cent; and finally, that the rea-
son for this comparatively light tax
on American prOfteer corporations
is that our business cannot stand
heavier one.
The question which naturally rise to
ones mind are: What is the matter
with American business? English
business corporations have prospered
under an so per cent profits tax; why
cannot ours? In 1915, Great Britain 8
1916 95O6, 100000; in 1917 &526,O00,-
900. Does this show that an 80 per
cent tax is crushing British business
If not, why should a similar tax crush
ours?
Moreover, our corporations have a
decided advantage over British ones
from the fact that, for almost years
before we went into the war, and while
we had no excess profits tax at all,
they were making big money selling
to the Allies. In fact they put them
selves in an excellent position to pay
taxes, most of them writing off, as
they went along, the cost of new
plants built especially for war bust
far better able to pay an 80 per cent
excess profits tax than the English
companies. Why then, Mr.. Kitchin
|
distinction between British and Ameri
can business that makes necessary a
special coddling of American war pro
filing concerns?
have tabulated the earnings Of two
hundred and eighty-seven of our more
important companies from 1911 up tC
and through the last fiscal year (1917.)
The figures which follow (and which
should be accurate as they are take1
from the companies own annual re
ports) also show the so-called excess
profits, that is to say, the amount by
which present earnings exceed average
earnings before the war
A Billion and a Half for Three Humid
red.
The sum of 81, 1881 ,730, which a!
you will see, these two hundred an(
eighty-seven companies have made
this year in excess of the pre-War aver
age, Gan average taken in years of un
usual prosperity represents, of course
only a small part OF the total excess
profits of American business available
for taxation And yet, if you subjec
just these few companies to the Eng
lish 80 per cent tax, you will get ave
81 ,247 ,OOO, 900 of revenue, or, accord
ing to the Times, within about $440
900 900 of the total sum you propos
to raise from excess profits taxes o.
all our war profiting companies.
The corporations that are perform
ing the tremendous work Of supplying
the government with war material
should be encouraged. They shout
be we'll paid for their efficient an
individual services in helping to bea
the Kaiser. But it seems little to-
much that the public should have t.
pay fifteen hundred million dollars
year to less than three hundred CON
panies, in order to keep them on tn
job, and key them to the necessar
degree of patriotic activity. After al
intense as may the patriotic effort O
the executives and stockholders O
these companies, it amounts to los
ser sacrifice than does the effort Q
our officers and common soldiers i
France, who are facing death on tn
firing line for a much smaller re
ward.
To Destroy Special Privilege.
= In war we are all in the same boa1
This war, we hope, will prove might
leveller; indeed, to make the war
democratic force which will destro
special privileges throughout tn
world is the American peoples deal
est purpose in participating in il
If this is true, the man who serve
with his brain here at home shout
be satisfied with a reasonable return
He should scorn to enrich himse]
out of the war, while so many of hi
fellow citizens across the sea ar
fighting at modest pay and in SUI
roundings that are far less safe an
comfortable. If our profiteers do no
see this now, it is not because the
owing to the fact that they have nc
ent day patriotism. When they DE-
they will quit worrying about ho'
much excess profits they will be a
lowed to keep, and devote themselve
exclusively to the project of defeatin
the German war power.
Just how much war revenue 20
could raise by an excess profits Ia
like England's, levied on all Amer
can excess profits, l do not ventur
to predict. It would in all events, be
sum more than double that which 20
now proposed. Unfortunately, the il
formation conveyed by the appende
tables is too limited to be specific o
this point For the work of maxim
a complete tabulation was too larg
and too expensive for me to undertake
In fact it was impossible, as man
companies, for one reason or another
do not publish annual reports, a
though, in view of the right of Cor
gress and the public to know who
making money out of the war and no,
much, it would seem that they shoul