The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1920-09-23
KAHN BITTERLY FLAYS AMERICAN
 TAX MEASURES
Says They Are Incredibly
 Cmplex and Show Glass f Distinction.

Dayton, Ohio, Sept. 23-In the course of an address on "Our Tax ation System," delivered before the Chamber of Commerce of Dayton, Ohio, yesterday, MT. Otto H. Kahn said in part:
 Our existing taxation measures in various important respects fly in the sense and of equity. They are cum bersome, vexaious and almost in credjbly complex. They bear the inn print of class and sectional discrim1- nation. They penalize thrift and in duStry, and leave the wastrel and shirker untounched. They discd'Fr- age, disturb and impede business and place the American business man at pean competitor.
 At a time when America is aiming to become a world center, they deter foreign capital from coming here are a strong contributing factor in bringing about the prevailing high level of priceS-a grave and serious evil which can and must be mitiga- i upon those men and women who live I on moderate salaries and who are 1 all the more entitled to sympathy i and redress as they have borne their
 troubles with great patience, and a i noteworthy absence of importunate
 agitation.
 I hope you will do me the justice 1 of believing that I should have my years, if I came before you with the i idea of advocating plan of taxation | from the point of view of the man 1 of wealth. My eagerness is not to gain but to
 serve. Materially and in other ways ed country, and I am anxious to re- pay such part as I may, by placing 6jSnnCaJ Gynarlnnca
 modest capacities for what they may be worth.
 With the right solution of the prob lem of taxation and other economic
 questions which now confront the
 nation, our prosperity and progress
 in" the years immediately before Us
 are largely interwoven. do no
 claim that these views which I holG
 on these complex subjects are fret
 from error. I do claim that they art
 free from the bias of conscious self
 interest.
 It may be said: "We11, supposins , made to pay up to three-uarters O it in taxes. He still has plenty left l. But that is not the poiRtA The poin 5 is not what happens to the rich mal he can protect. himself-but wha is the effect on the country? Capita 5 for business or for corporate invest , ments is a necessity for the upkee] t and expansion of trade and industry And it is out of annual savings o
 the individual, after meeting Twin. ; expenses and taxes, that the mean , are provided for that necessity.
 Excessive SurtaxeS accompliSl $ double harm: They greatly diminisl
 the incentive to thrift and they ap 5 propriate to an undue extent tn , I.means which ought to be availabl for industry and enterprise And thos
 means are more than ever needed a - present, first because the world urgently in need of increased produc . tion after nearly five years Of un
 derproduction during tn ewar, and I secondly, because merely to do tn same volume of business as befor
 the war a great deal more capital required nowadays, owing to tn F largely increased cost of labor an \ materials.
 , Perhaps the most conspicuous ex : ample of the effect of our taxatio ' in stifling enterprise and preventin capital from accomplishing it's nor U | nal and necessary function, is see 5 throughout the country. To quot 0 from the testimony of MT. John I Parish, Secretary of the Advisor f Council of Real, Estate Interests ( e the City of New York, before tn e United States Senate Committee o = Reconstruction and Production: = The withdrawals from mortgag
 investments in real property in tn
 l Borough of Manhattan during tn - first six months of 1920 amount |
 Approximately sS3,000,0oo net