Evening star., 1919-04-13

RIVER THERE WILL BE
memorized statements with great ac-
curacy. The ollowing day he address,
ed the committee and riddled the ar
guments of the senators. The treaty
was reported favoraby. Five differ
ent efforts were made to get action
on 1t, but Aldrich always happened to
be absent. and out of courtesy to
him 1t was not pressed. In that way
the treaty failed of ratification.
X X
In 1909 Mr.. Mccoy worked on the
Payne Aldrich tariff bill, and again
he encountered the senator from
Rhode Island. The following year,
when Senator Lodge made the high
cost-ofliving report of the select
committee Of which he was chairman,
Senator Johnson of Alabama persuad-
ed Mccoy to analyZe 1T and 'shoot 1t
full of holes" Mccoy discharged the
task SO satisfactorily sa that hts memo
randum was printed by the demo.
cratic national committee and sent
into every congressional district. The
democrats gained control OF the
House that year.
came back to Washington he called
Mr.. Mccoy to the Capitol and together
they worked out the revised chemical
schedule which Taft vetoed. Mccoy
analysed the veto message for tho
democrats and presented an argument
which Senators Lodge and Smoot
sought vainly to offset.
Immediately after the 1912 election.
when democratic Senate and DEM
At< A
wood, who was chairman of the ways
and means committee. began work on
the new tarin bill. With Mccoy he
started on New Year day OF 1918 and
they worked almost constantly until
the following spring, when President
Wilson called the extra session to revise
the tariff. Daniel Co. Roper. now COM
missioner OF internal revenue, was clerk
OF the ways and means committee
The finance committee. unable to get
Mccoy away from Underwood, en-
ployed about twenty tariff experts"
including customs officers from New
York. When tho Underwood bill left
remained with the Senate COMMITTEES.
When 1t went to conference all had
disappeared except Mccoy. Mr.. Nc.
Coy wrote the silk schedule In the
Underwood Simmons act.
The principle of the excess-prohts
tax was developed by Mr. Mccoy from
the famous German stew" tax which
Sweden imposed when expectations OF
canned beef stew to Germany
reached such an imposing figure that
the Swedish government put tax on
all profts above certain hgure.
Mccoy began on this plan as means
of checking the increase In the price
Of gasoline by taking all profits above
a certain price per gallon.
q n to~
in 1913 there was nothing but the
thin air Of speculation on which to
base estimates of the amount Of money
the levies might bring into the Treas
ury. Only one state in this country
has such a tax--North Carolina--and
1t derived but $4,000 annually from
1t. When Mr.. Mccoy proposed to fur
ntsh the committee with an estimate
Of the yield. Senator Gore OF Okla
homa said:
Mccoy. what's the use OF saying
you can give us an estimate? why
don't you just say you'll make >
But I will get you an estimate"
Mr.. Mccoy retorted.
Back to his office he went and gath
cred about him all that had been
written about income taxes. He
studied the English tax. but found II
could not be applied to the United
States because the English tax 10 coll
lected at the source. Mccoy took UP
the German systems and found that ex-
cellent laws were In force In the states
Of Saxony and Prussia. and that they
were so nearly like that under c0nsia.
GRAFTON by our Congress that he could
by adapting them to financial sta
tistics for this country, making GER
tain allowances for different condi-
ttons, arrive at very good basis TOT
an estimate. He did and his estl-
mate was so accurate as to cause gen
eral amazement.
On the corporation income tax his
estimate of what the tax would yieio
during the year 1914 was within W.
600 or $4,000 OF the actual returns 70
the Treasury and the estimate was
made eighteen months before tne
Treasury report appeared. Treasury
officials believed he had gone wronB
on the munition tax which was car.
ried in the preparedness fund tax !aw
Of 1915. Two months before the Close
OF the year 1t appeared unlikely tnsy
1t would yield around $%O,0O0,vvV.,
which Mccoy estimated. The nnai
figures showed thats"around $4O,0VW-