Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1920-03-01
NO SOLDIER BONUSES
WITHOUT NEW TAXES
Congress Is Considering the Wisdom Of
Making Tea, Coffee and Sugar
Bear the Burden


- wore the United States uniform
during the war is becoming so insistent
that the ways and means committee of
the House of Representatives has begun
to consider how to raise the money that
will be needed.
The American Legion is asking that q
$50 bond for every month in the service
be given to every man. This, We suppose,
would be in addition to the sum of $50,
the payment of which has been author
lied. The legion has compiled figures to
show that $50 is a paltry amount when
compared with the sums set aside by
some of the other warning nations.
France has made special appropria-
tions for all officers above the rank of
captain. From the captain down to the
private the amount given depends upon
the length of service and varies between
$74.31 and S233.5S for each man.
Great Britain, likewise, has made pro-
vision for bonuses varying with the rank
and the length of service. A major gen.
eral receives from S2430 to $7290, with
smaller sums through the descending
ranks till the sum set aside for a second
lieutenant ranges from S310.43 to S1215,
and for private from S2430 to $S2.62.
Canada gives privates from $40 to $500
and major generals from $744 to S+75S.
And the Australian bonuses run from
S751.S2, the maximum for major gen.
erals, to $32S1, the minimum for pri-
Yates.
1t will be seen that uniform gift of
$50 to each man is about as generous as
the amount set aside by Great Britain
and Canada for the privates. But it is
much less than France has seen fit to
give to the privates who fought through
the whole war and is only a little more
than the sum given to those who served
a year or less.
If we are to be as generous as the
French it will be necessary to raise an
enormous sum by taxation. 1t has been
suggested that the money be raised by
tax on tea, coffee and sugar. A majority
of the members of the ways and means
committee is said to favor some tax
which will provide the money.
If the tax on tea, coffee and sugar
were proposed for any other purpose it
would be overwhelmingly denounced as
an unwarranted invasion of the break
fast table of the poor. Indeed, such
taxes have been denounced in the past.
The Democratic Congress soon after Mr..
Wilson entered Office took the tax from
sugar in order that it might be said that
it had done something to relieve the poor
man. But it was soon discovered that
free sugar would reduce the revenues to
such a point that there would be deficit
in the treasury and the free sugar
schedule of the tariff law was repealed.
Whether the breakfast table is taxed
for the benefit of the soldiers or not, we
are likely to hear many proposals for
more general consumption taxes than
have been levied in the past. This is be-
cause the sums annually needed by the
government are so great that they cannot
be raised without resort to new sources
of revenue.
Many of the war taxes were submit
ted to because it was known that they
would be only temporary. They were so
oppressive and so unScicntifically levied
that if continued for any great length of
time, they would destroy the very sources
from which they were expected to pro-
ducc revenue.
The income taxes Of the Civil War
time were paid so long as the war lasted
and no one questioned their constitution
alty. But when the war ended they
were evaded and they were yielding only
few thousand dollars a year when the
law was repealed.
The excess-profits tax in the present
law is likely to defeat itself if it is not
repealed. A way for evading it will be
found by business men who, while the
crisis was acute, responded patriotically
to all the demands of the government.
They feel now that some more equitable
and less burdensome method must be
found for raising revenue.
Some Of them are calling attention to
the case with which large sums could he
raised by a general consumption tax
paid by the consumer. Their estimates
vary from billion and half to three
billion dollars year, with the tax at
per cent. They say that no one would
feel such tax, for it would increase by
only ten cents the cost of pair of shoes
for which $40 was paid.
The consumption tax on articles pro-
duccd in this country would be a direct
tax, of which every one would be aware
when he bought anything. But tax on
coffee and sugar, levied at the custom
house, would be an indirect tax of which
no one would be aware, any more than
we were aware of the sugar duty in the
days before the war when sugar sold for
| five cents pound.
We produce a little sugar, but the bulk
of that which is consumed here is i'm
ported. All our coffee comes from
abroad and all of our tea save a small
amount raised by an expert planter in
South Carolina. The coffee and sugar
duties would be revenue taxes pure and