The New York herald. [volume] (New York, N.Y.) 1920-1924, 1920-12-05
Give the Country Stamp and Sim
liar Taxes Forthwith.

When Senator PENRosE is quoted
as objecting to immediate tax and rev.
enue revision on the ground that there
is not time to do anything between
now and March 4, either those who
quote him don't understand what he
says, or he himself cannot mean what
he says.
How long need it take to introduce
in Congress measure for stamp taxes
on bank checks and other documen-
tary instruments that thus far have
escaped? How long need it take. If
Congress is in earnest about this seri-
GUS national matter-and Congress
would better be in earnest about it
TO vote such measure into law?
How long need 1t take to put it into
operation?
In the business management Of a
great American industry it wouldn't
take much longer that a brief board OF
directors meeting TO clean up such a
piece Of business from start TO finish.
The United States Congress cannot
do work either SO quickly or so-well
as the management of any ordinary
American business. But IL Congress
cannot do in several days or even
weeks thing so simple that any or
binary board Of directors would be
competent to do 1t in several minutes.
what Congress needs is not merely to
revise the revenue laws but TO be
itself revised
And the beauty Of such stamp taxes
as are commended for the early ac-
lion of Congress is not merely that
they can be enacted and made to oper-
ate without long delay but that they
are free Of the serious and dangerous
faults which mark the excess profits
and income taxes. Necessarily excess
profits and income taxes, for example
have to be collected long after they
are due and with protracted intervals
between the instalment collections.
Pending the collections the Treasury
has to borrow stupendously from the
banks. The Treasury pays procigious
sums in interest on It's own deferred
taxes. The Treasury locks up colos-
sal bank funds that ought TO be at
the call of industry and business. The
Treasury hoists the rate at which
the banks can or win lend money TO
anybody.
Stamp taxes are collected every
day. they are collected automatically,
and the cost of collecting them is
merely nominal. Such constant gath
cring Of day TO day revenues never
causes the shock to the financial and
commercial market that mass tax pay
ments give it. The same thing would
he true Of a sales tax. The revenues
would pour into the Treasury inces-
sanity but quietly like an easy rain.
In whole year the volume which
had gone into the Treasury would be
huge, but never would there be any
terrific outpouring like the bursting Of
dam, as there is and must be when
the periodic payments of hundreds
and hundreds Of millions of excess
profits and income taxes have to be
swept out of the money markets upon
which legitimate industry and COM
merce arc dependent every business
day in the year.
Senator PENRosE and other Con.
gress leaders will make no mistake to
bear In mind that if they let any
grass grow under their feet in this
vital business of attending ut once,
wherever they can. to the needs Of
The Treasury and the interests Of the
country the American people viii be
close at their heels TO cut 1t out, the
1rst chance they get with their cleo
toral scythes. r