The producers news. [volume] (Plentywood, Mont.) 1918-1937, 1919-02-21

been issued to the amount of $685.
900 by the seven Joint Stock Land
Banks then in business, There is no
legal limit to the amount of these
be organized. Two such banks began
business December 2. 1918, in Mem
phis, Tennessee. An official OF the
banks predicted that these two banks
alone would issue $7,500,00O of tax
free $50 bonds within six months. An
nouncement is made of the organiza-
ton of a Joint Stock Land Bank at
Fort Wayne, Indiana, and of the ap-
plication for charters of two IN Min
nesota. This makes five new banks
that have come into public notice IN
| the past month.
Wealthy Persons Can Evade Taxation
Ordinary taxable securities in the
| possession of very rich people are re-
CURED to pay an income tax OF 66Ge,
and Liberty Bonds in the possession
| of the same very wealthy persons are
required to pay an income tax OF o.
per cent when held in excess of the
exemption limit. This rate of taxa
| ton is according to the law of Octo-
Der 8, 1917, now in force. By pur-
chasing Land Bank bonds millionaires
can evade all taxes.
On January s, 1919, the Chicago
papers advertised $1,000,000 worth OF
Joint Stock Land Bank tax exempt
| 5 per cent bonds of one bank for sale
at 1924. These were alPof one issue.
| The advertisement recites that the
bonds are instrumentaities of the
United States Government, and are
issued by authority of Act of Con-
gress, under Government supervision
and control. While these bonds of a
privately owned corporation sell at
102A, the papers of the same date in
the stock market reports show that
Liberty Bonds drawing Az per cent
interest sold in Chicago the day be,
fore at 95.16, price OF $1,000 cheap
er for bond of $1,000.
1t is plainly evident that the sale
of 5 per cent Joint Stock Land Bank
bonds, entirely exempt from income
tax and local taxes, will have a de-
pressing effect on the price of all
competing securities that are re-
!; quired by law to contribute toward
the public revenue. There is no
, legal limit to the eamount of these
Joint Stock Land Bank bonds that
/ may be offered in the open market
During the ensuing year the market
may be called upon to absorb S25,-
: 100000, or possibly ten times thai
amount. Very wealthy people who
desire to evade war taxes are anxious
, to buy these tax-free bonds as fast
as offered.
! Liberty Bond Funds Loaned to Fed
q eral Land Banks
: Senator Weeks, of Massachusetts,
v in debating the merits of the $500,
!. 100000 appropriation last winter, a!
= reported in the Congressional Record
: said:
p GLOW is the purchaser of Lbert!
r. Bond going to feel when he is impor
tuned to buy a bond, either by tn
sacrifice of some security which n
$, has, or by failing to invest his none
- in something that will pay him BET
y ter, if he is told that the money
~ not to be used to prosecute the wal
l but it is to be loaned to another on
x of his fellow citizens simply becaus
- that fellow citizen cEn borrow 1t q
! lower rate of interest than he
now paying on his Indebtedness
or That is the gist and essence OF TIL
S: proposition. This is exactly what
L going to happen"
IN There is no law now to authorii
fn the Secretary of the Treasury to bu
ne Joint Stock Land Bank bonds to kee
ly them out of the market to prote
Liberty Bonds Or other securitie
al The effect of their public sale is
al demoralizing to competitive securiti
L. as the sale of Federal Land Bar
IS bonds.
*, QUESTION No. 2.-Do you THU
ed it would be desirable to have Co
* gress to appropriate $500,000,O0O,
at such an amount as may be necessa
to buy up all Joint Stock Land Bal
n bonds that may be offered within t
ry next year in order to protect go
raj eminent securities?
l, Only One Farmer in One Hundred
to During the last year and n
IN Federal Land Banks have made loa
rty on about l per cent of the farme
of the United States through t
ms use of tax-exempt securities and t
COIlS ItSSIOIdI Apply 1is@eAoiA' - -
nd dollar of tax exemption granted
re- wealthy owners of tax-exempt Fe
in eral Land Bank bonds must be ma
ion up by other tax payers in the TO
for Of taxes, or by consumers through
1ar creased cost of merchandise ma
oTn higher in price by higher taxes p;
he by merchants and manufacturers.
lcb Somebody Must Pay the Taxes
Congressman Dick 7. Morgan,
So Oklahoma, in his book on Land CIR
10, its, page 218, says: at must also
ept borne in mind that to relieve c
to class of property from taxation
on ways places an additional burden
rtv on all other property, so in the 6
me somebody must pay the bill"
in Unless the law is amended, al
nnr where from VITO to four billion d
the lars worth of tax exempt Land Ba
he bonds may be issued long before
Liberty Bonds are redeemed.