The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1920-03-10

Little Aoorns, Great Oaks.
A $50, 900, Surplus.
The Arohbishop's Word.
One War Cause.
BY ARTHUR BRISBANE
(CopxrtHht. lSlOl


tCopyrisht. isss.b
One Standard Oil subsidiary
capitalized for FIVE millions has
piled up cash surplus Of
10000. Those figures are
from the front page Of yesterdays
New York Times, which. to organ
lied capital, is all that Olivier le
Daim was to Louis the Eleventh.
Why did the little five million
dollar company pile up its bank
accounts? Answer: Because IL
the $4,000, 900 had been handed
out in dividends to the stockhold-
ers, at least thirty millions would
have gone to the Government in
income tax.
The recent decision of the Su-
preme Court, one of the most dan
!gerous and reactionary ever
handed down, enables the five
million dollar company to pay out
its fifty millions surplus in stock
dividends, and the stockholders
will pay not a dollar of income
tax. Small business men and
others must carry the extra load.
The thing is done simply. The
five-million dollar company in
vests its fifty millions surplus in
excellent securities or In new in
dustrial development. 1t issues to
its stockholders new stock better
and safer than cash, and on this
stock distribution the Government
collects no income tax. Rich men
don't need the cash, they would
much rather have the stock which
will pay them dividends every
year.
1t is as though you happened not
to need cash, and said to your en-
ployer: "Don't give me money,
the Government will take part of
1t. Give me a mortgage on the
business, l know it's good, and the
Supreme Court has fixed it so that
/ pay no tax on that kind of in
come"
This Supreme Court decision
robs the nation of hundreds Of mil
lions a year, and adds that load
to the backs of little men.
1t is a dangerous decision.
The fact that judges rendering
1t are unguestionably honorable
men makes it more dangerous.
Dean Swift, abused by a fish,
wife, called her "a parallelepipe-
don and isosceles triangle"
Startled, the lady lost her abu-
sive vocabulary.
Most surprised person since the
day Of that fishlady is probably
Mr.. Anderson, of the Anti-Saloon
League, when Archbishop Hayes,
head Of the greatest Catholic dio-
cese, calls him q brewer.
Archbishop Hayes in public life
is a dignified, austere son OF the
old Church; in private, Patrick J.
HAYES. a young Celt, with much
hun,or. No doubt he chose his
word carefully when he spoke Of
Anderson, head Of the Anti-Saloon
League, as a "brewer-of bigotry.
For the religious man it is dis,
uuieting to read that fve hundred
Methodist preachers applauded
Mr.. Anderson when he repeated
his attack upon the Catholic
Church. Attack upon an estab-
Iished Church respected by mil
lions Of followers is dangerous for
all other churches.
To those that never worry about
religious quarrels, knowing that
Providence will protect its own,
the Anti-Saloon League attack on
the Catholic Church is important,
apart from religious questions.
Hitherto, when legislators heard
the Anti-Saloon Leagues voice
thew understood it as the voice OF
all churches. AS a rule they
obeyed. .,
Now the voice Of the And-Saloon
League will be that OF an organ
ization whose chief fighter accuses
the Catholic Church OF seeking to
DEFY the Constitution and encour-
aging disobedience to law. That
NAV make a difference to the leg
islator.
War will end when people out
grow It. They'll outgrow 1t when
education causes emulation to
take the place OF competition.
Foch, who knows something
about 1t, says the Peace League
can do nothing because it is only
words.
No words" put together by tri-
umphant victors will bind hun
dreds Of millions. For instance,
in a Berlin restaurant a Prussian
Prince, Joachim Albrecht, helps
others attack a French officer,
Roughevin, because he and friends
refuse to stand when the German
band plays Germany Over ALL"
At this moment a sense Of humor
1 uonld gave ANYBODY but Prussian