The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1920-04-17
HIGH COST OF GOVERNMENT.


A drive against profiteers that had
been in progress some time in England
came to a halt when 1t was discovered
that the government was the chief
profiteer. Every lead followed by the
parliamentary board of investigation
cost of living is high because the cost
of government is high. Ta7ation has
put prices where they are.
The drive was conducted with a
great hue and cry from the public for
scapegoats. But in the six months the
board was at work it found few cases
of profiteering, none of them of any
great moment, as the fact that the
total fines imposed amounted to only
$4,000 indicates.
1.-The rise of the cost of living is, in
the main, not due to profiteering and
it cannot be reduced by any penal tax
alton of the rich" is the conclusion
expressed by Sidney Webb, chairman
of the investigating board, a Socialist
leader. Economy in government is
looked upon as the way to get out of
lily AAlOA ass VI AAAS PLA(CS.
Congress is considering general
investigation along the same lines.
There is little doubt that it would
come to pretty much the same conclu-
sion, tho it might not be SO frank to
admit it as the British parliamentary
tribunal. Warnings without number
have been issued that stop should be
A. a. Aw 80 aVaf
time expenditures. but to little pur-
pose. The cost of government contin-
ues upward, taxation continues up
ward, the cost of living quite naturally
continues in the same way.
The national government IS spend
ing more than &5.oo0,ooo.0oo a year.
II gets that money from two main
sources: revenue from customs duties
and from taxes. In the fiscal year,
July l, 1918, to July 1, 1919, the Gus
toms duties amounted to $1s4,457,-
SS7.39 and taxes to $5,145,Ss2, 546.40.
Taxes come from individuals, cor
porations and copartnerships and af-
feet practically everything we buy.
Yet congress refuses to enact budget
bill. 1t insists on following plan I'M
der which nobody knows what the
government has to spend and where
and how the money is to be>spent. 1t
is a plan, says the Buffalo News, that
would bring a private business to
bankruptcy in no time.
Chairman Fordney of the ways and
means committee and Acting Chair
man Watson of the senate finance
committee have agreed that a soldiers
bonus measure must be passed. They
have agreed, too, that there shall be
no bond issue, but that the whole cost
of the bonus shall be paid by this gen.
Grafton, apparently within one year.
To raise the money it has been pro-
posed that the high rates for the year
1918 be restored, the immediate eff
feet of which would be to drive the
cost of living further skyward. An
other suggestion is a levy on capital.
under the guise of confiscation OF war
profits. A third suggestion is gen.
: eral sales tax.
The theory of sales tax has been
tried. 1t is in operation now under the
existing law. 1t is not Only operating,
but of all the taxes levied by the gov
/ eminent 1t is the most easily collected
and the most easily borne. AS auto
mobiles leave the factory the tax on
them is paid by the manufacturer and
passed on to the consumer. the real
payer. There is nothing intricate
about it, no experts are required to de-
termine the amount of the tax, there
is no uncertainty, no feeling that years
hence the government may return and
demand a readjustment, and the
money flows-all of tin a steady
stream into the treasury.
Already every consumer is paying g
sales tax, altho 1t takes the indirect
form OF an excess profits tax, and he i.
paying it from three to five times over
Is it not common sense to change thil
routine and make the tax direct, with
the government getting all of 1t?
/