Baraboo weekly news. [volume] (Baraboo, Wis.) 1912-197?, 1920-08-26
LENROOT TELLS
OF GREAT ISSUES
Continued from page cno.)

broker must pay taxes too, he adds to
his cost his taxes and his profit, and
sells to the garment maker who does
the same thing. From the garment
maker the, wholesaler buys, and he
adds his taxes and profit. He sells to
the retaileE and the retailer to you.
So in the sixty dollars you pay for the
suit of clothes you are helping to pay
the taxes of the American Wooden
company, the broker, the garment
maker, and SO on down the line. These
men only act as tax collectors for the
government and they usually charge
a good big commission for collecting.
Now we must find a way that will
make it more difficult to pass all the
taxes on to the consumer, for there
that is that everyone should contri-
butte to the building Of government
according to his ability to pay. 1t can
be done and should be done
We can very materially increase in
come taxes upon incomes in excess Of
$4,000 per year. In this connection
permit me to say that when the pres
ent law was framed I was a member
Of the House. The Committee of Ways
and Means brought in their bill, but
believed that their proposed sur
taxes upon incomes of more than $40,
600 per year were much too low, I
therefore offered amendments in
creasing such taxes twenty-five per
cent. After a hard fight they were
adopted by the House. They went to
the Senate and were adopted, and
as result of the fight I made for
increased taxes upon large incomes,
the government is now receiving one
hundred million dollars year more
than it would have received If it had
not been for my amendments. AS /
have said, further increases can be
made, and these taxes cannot easily
be passed on to the consumer.
During the war, and to a large ex-
tent since, the government has been
grossly extravagant. There has been
no thought of economy upon the part
of the administration. Those charged
with expenditure have seemed to re-
gard the money in the treasury as
coming out of the blue sky and in
nearly all departments there has been
no thought of how much they could
save but only how much they could
spend. The last congress reduced the
appropriations over one billion dol
lars below that asked for by the ad-
ministration, and more could have
been accomplished had the admins
tration shown any willingness to CO.
operate with congress to effect econ
omieS
Capital and Labor
Another cause of present unrest is
the relationship between capital and
labor. Since the war more than ever
before they seem to disputes. I am
opposed however to making it
criminal offence to strike I fought
that provision in the original Cum
Minis bill, because human slavery or
compulsory service was abolished for
the black r'nn after four long years
of war, and it is not going to be re-
vived again for any man white or
black. We got that provision out of
the Cummins bill and it is not in the
law today. There is provision Great
ing tribunal to decided wage dis
putes but no power is given to en-
force decisions. That is not necessary,
for with fair tribunal and fair
decision it will be accepted by both
sides and lately had been done when
the railroad labor board increased the
wages of the railroad employees on the
average twenty-five per cent. The
award has been accepted by the en-
ployes and a disastrous strike has