The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1919-05-30

tGrpfise and that our deaii1gs with the
countries that have need of our prod
ucts and ouf money will teach them
to deem us more than ever friends
whose necessities we seek IN the right
way to serve
Our Merchant Marine.
Our new merchant ships, which have
In some quarters been feared as de-
structiye rivals, may prove helpful
rivals, rather. and common servants,
very much needed and very welcome.
Our great shipyards, new and old, will
be so opened to the use of the world
that they will prove immensely serv-
iceable to every maritime people in
restoring, much more rapidly than
would otherwise have been possible
the tonnage wantonly destroyed in
the war. / have only to suggest that
there are many points at which we
can facilitate American enterprise in
foreign trade by opportune legislation
and make it easy for American mer-
chants to go where they will be well
coined as friends rather than as dread
ed antagonists. America has great
and honorable service to perform in
bringing the commercial and indus
trial undertakings Of the world back
to the old scope and swing again, and
putting a solid structure Of credit un-
der them. All our legislation should
be friendly to such plans and purposes.
And credit and enterprise alike will
be quickened by timely and helpful
legislation with regard to taxation. ]
hope that the Congress will find it
possible to undertake an early recon-
sideration of federal taxes in order
to make our system of taxation more
simple and easy of administration and
the taxes themselves as little burden
some as they can be made and yet
suffice to support the government and
meet all its obligations. The figures
to which these obligations have arisen
are very great indeed, but they are
not so great as to make it difficult for
the nation to meet them, and meet
them, perhaps, in single generation,
by taxes which will neither crush nor
discourage These are not so great as
they seem, not so great as the inn
mense sums we have had to borrow,
added to the immense sums we have
had to raise by taxation, would seem
to indicate; for large proportion of
those sums were raised in order that
they might be loaned to the govern
ments with which we were associated
in the war, and those loans will Of
course constitute assets, not liabili-
ties, and will not have to be taken care
of by our taxpayers.
The main thing we shall have to
care for is that our taxation shall rest
as lightly as possible on the produc-
tive resources of the country, that it's
rates shall be stable, and that it shall
be constant in its revenue yielding
power We have found the main
sources from which it must be drawn.
/ take it for granted that its main
stays will heneeforth be the income
tax, the excess profits tax, and the
estate tax. All these can SO be adj
justed to yield constant and adequate
returns and yet not constitute a too
grevious burden on the taxpayer. A
revision of the income tax has al
ready been provided for by the act
of 1918, but / think you will find that
further changes can be made to adj
vantage both in the rates of the tax
and in the method of its collection.
The excess profits tax need not long
be maintained at the rates which were
necessary while the enormous expenses
of the war had to be borne; but it
should be made the basis of perma
nent system which will reach undue
profits without discouraging the en-
terprise and activity of our business
men. The tax on inheritances ought,
no doubt, to be reconsidered in its
relation to the fiscal systems of the
several states, but 1t certainly ought
to remain permanent part of the
fiscal system Of the federal govern
ment also.
Many of the minor taxes provided
for in the revenue legislation of 1917
and 1918, though no doubt made neees-
sary by the pressing necessities of
the war time, can hardly find suffi-
cient justification under the easier
circumstances of peace, and can now
happily be got rid of. Among these,
l hope you will agree, are the ex-
cises upon various manufactures and
the taxes upon retail sales. They are
unequal in the incidence on different
Industries and on different individuals.
Their collection is difficult and expen-
siye. Those which are levied upon ar
ticles sold at retail are largely evaded
by the REIMBURSEMENT of retail prices.
On the other hand, should assume
that 1t is expedient to maintain a con-
siderable range of indirect taxes; and
the fact that alcoholic liquors will
presently no longer afford a source of
revenue by taxation makes it the more
necessary that the field should be care
fully restudied in order that equivalent
sources of revenue may be found which