Great Falls daily tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1895-1921, 1919-12-04
Secretary of Treasury
Says Revenues Will Be
Almost Four Billions
Short This Year.
Blames Excess Profits
Levy for Much Of High
Cost of Living; Passed
on to Consumer, Adds.

Washington, Dec. 3.-Reyision Of the
suftaX laws, so as to place q heavier
burden of tax on the normal income. was
urged be Secretary Glass in his annual
report to congress.
Mr. Glass declared that the excess
profits provisions of the present law
should be eliminated and the revenue
thus sacrificed be made up from an in
crease III the taxes on the average in
come.
Revenue derived from the lower
amounts assessed under surtax provisions
OF the law may well be increased. said
Mr.. Glass, who added that the topmost
amounts listed under these provisions al
ready had passed their usefulness. The
only consequence Of increasing the tax
on the larger sums under the surtax law.
he said, would be TO drive ''possessors of
great incomes to invest their wealth in
billions OF state and municipal securi-
ties which are wholly tax exempt.
The treasury plan seeks to raise more
revenue from incomes above $1,000. with
out attempting to disturb incomes Of
persons whose salaries barely meet liv-
ing costs' as any change in that tax
would only add burden on class un-
able TO bear it,
No Tax Reduction.
No appreciable reduction in taxes for
the next fiscal year is TO be thought of.
Secretary Glass declares. Government
receipts must be kept at their present
figure, he said. in order to bring govern
ment borrowing to an end.
Facing expenditures estimated ut So
629. 4S6,359 for the year ending June
80, 1920. and S4,473 SOC. .35S for the year
ending June 30, 1921, the government
must enforce rigid economy, Mr. Glass
declared. He placed the deficit for the
current year at S3,905 900, 900 and for
the year ending June 80. 1921. at approx
imately S2,0O5, 900 900.
sress to deny every appropriation for
expenditures in new fields" He said the
same policy should obtain until the gov
ernment had its sinking fund well under
way and repayment of the var debt
satisfactorily begun
Government H. C. |. Source.
Mr.. Glass charged that excessive
government expenditures were "the most
vital factors" in increasing the cost of
living and argued that it was urgently
necessary to keep down public expenses
tor this reatson as we'll as because of the
drain on the taxpayers.
The present revenue laws need revIs-
ing TO meet new conditions. he said. He
referred particularly to the excess pro-
fits tax laws which he described as be
ing Objectionable even as wartime
expedent' 1T would be still more OBJ
lectionable in peacetime. he added. Less
harmful forms" of deriving funds for the
government should be employed, the sec
retary said. adding that the excess pro-
fits tax had been responsible for much
of the increase in living costs because
It had been passed on to the consumer.
Raps Excess Profits Tax
1T encourages wastful expenditures,
puts premium on over capitalization
and penalty on brains" the secretary
1T discourages new ventures
and new enterprises and establishes old
ventures in their monopolies. In many
instances. it acts as a consumption tax, /
Is added to the cost Of production upon /
which profits are figured. determining
as it remains on the statute books. con
finue to be material factor in the in
creased cost of living.
Relations between conditions IN Eu- I
rope and those in the United States were +
discussed also by Mr.. Glass. He said /
that, undoubtedly. there was very great |
need in Europe for financial assistance, I
but that the situation had been mucn !
Financing Europe Exporters Task.
I'VE must all feel deep sympathy for
Europe today he said. but we must /
not allow our sympathy to warp our
Judgment and, by exaggeratng Euro
pean financial needs, make them more
difficult to fill. 4%**%* The problem of
financing Europe belongs largely to the
exporter because industries cannot be
re opened without raw stocks. Govern
ment financial assistance in the past and
talk Of future government or banking
aid to finance exports have apparently
led our industrial concerns to the err
expectation that their war prof
It's, based largely on exports, will CON
tinue indefinitely without any risk on
their part To them will fall the profits
Of exports and upon them will fall the
of failure to make the ex-
ports
Wants U. S. to Quit Business.
Closely related to any activities of
he government in foreign trade is the
subject of Incorporated government
agencies. withdrawal of which Mr.. Glass
strongly urged He said their manifest
were proof sufficient that
such arrangements were not happy ones