Willmar tribune. [volume] (Willmar, Minn.) 1895-1931, 1921-08-24
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WASHINGTON 1 ! s; HI ! ! ] \ NEWS !;
LETTER
BY Walter w. Liggett

~. ~ ~ 5: i : ~ =
BY Walter w. Liggett
Washington, D. c., Aug. 22--An in
surgent movement of unexpected
strength. led ,by James "A. ,Frear of
Wisconsin and former Republican
House leader "Jim" Mann Of Illinois
temporarily defeated President Hard
ing's plan to give a bonus of about
$360,000,000 to the war profteers by
making retroactive to Jan. /, 1921, the
repeal of the excess profits tax and
the reduction. the higher surtaxes
on. individual incomes. 4 Backed y by
nearly all the progressive middlewes7
tern congressman, including Sinclair
Of;NOrth Dakota and Keller of Mime
sofa, the Republican members Of the
House in caucus last week turned
down the ways and means committees
Recommendations to this effect by a
vote: of 50 to 81 Practically all other
provisions of the bill reported by
Chairman Fordney of the ways and
means committee were left unchang-
ed, and, under a special rule which al
lowed only two days of debate and
made it almost impossible to amend
the bill item by item, the revenue nlea
: sure, passed the House last Saturday
by a top heavy majority.
The Fordney revenue bill retains
most of the equitable provisions which
have been criticized in my previous
letters. BY repeating the excess pro
fits tax and reducing the. higher in
come surtax from maximum of 65
per cent to 30 per cent, it relieves less
than 5000 millionaires Of taxes aggre-
eating more than $600,000;000 and
A.. I'll
small merchants, manufacturers and
jobbers by increasing the corporation:
. income tax from 10 to 1917 per cent.
individual exemption for head of a
family from $4,000 to $4,000 and the
additional exemption for dependents
is raised from $500 to $500. The say
, ings accomplished by these two chan
ges. only aggregate $70,000,000 and
will not begin to offset the great re-
auctions made in the tax burden f
the wealthy: The bill also repeats the
TRANSFORMATION tax, thOrOly merltOr-
ious move, which will reduce the
country's annual transportation bill
by 1892, 100000.
The bill finally adopted by the
House caucus is much better than the
measures originally planned by Ford
ney, LongwOrth, Mellon and Harding.
The first draft, according to "insplr-
ed": neWSpAper. announcements, re-
tanned the transportation tax and all
the nuisancet taxes, levied $40 tax
on automobiles and proposed to in
crease the first class postage rates
from two to three cents. AS. crown
ing perfidy, this bill not only repealed
the excesssprpfts: tax and reduced by
oreIhah thAfStAK On incomes OF more
than $1O0NESbut proposed to make
this: retre4exNnat to Jan. 1, 1921, which
would Vittdh1le shave made a gift of
$3.50, 100000. 10 the great profiteers as
most of these concerns had included
their tax in their prices and already
passed it along to the consuming pub
lie. Thiss&&efenssble proposal IS
said to have been suggested ny Pres
ident Hardin4 himself and it was on
ly defe4sSkt THE vigorous protest
of a haha4 M Republican progress
sives who Threatened to carry the
fight onto the floor of the House.
Lowers faxes BY Borrowing
Republican Leaders are claiming
that the Forahk revenue bill will re-
duce taxes sSMs, $40, 900 for the pres
ent fiscal: Ys4,s SS7 'a9o,oo0 t Tor the
nScal year $IT1A, 'dllo p'oV'ooo'ooo III
the fiscal year 1923; but these savings
are, purely prdb,ematical and only
have been accomplished on paper by
very misunderstanding of figures. Aug
ust 4, 'SeaEakfXrsM eflon reported to
the ways MN RIAeans committee, that
the TFeaaNsE lIlepar tlnent estimated
the expenditures for the current year
ati$4, $50 100000 of which $3.50, 100000
must be provided by taxation. This
was considerably higher than the es-
/; Inmates made by Chairman Fordney
and created CONSERVATION in Repuhi-
can ranks There were hasty confer
ences at the White House, and, as
result, Aug. 10 Secretary Mellon is
sued another statement that govern
mental expenses would be only 3d.
G34, GOO, 900 of which but $3,075,000,0 900
must be raised by taxation.
Secretary Melons first report sta
ted that 1.-The estimates which the
treasury has represented may be re-
garded as conservative and after
pointing out that. the actual money
paid out for July was $55,000,000 more
than for the same month a year ago,
added that. eff expenditures are to
continue at anything like these rates,
the estimates will be greatly exceed
ed" In view of these strong state
ments his sudden drastic reduction
evidently made under presidential
pressure-lay considerably doubt up:
on the accuracy of his '''revised esti-
mate" Secretary MELONS revised
figures depend largely upon the sal