The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-08-03
NEW TAX PLANS OF MELLON FIND
 LITTLE SUPPORT
Members Think House Ways and Means Committee Should Direct Efforts To-
 ward Easing Burden
By A..e kssssssN

Washington So n>eN 2.-sqgges- tions for asoC,oS made by Treas ury sss Mellon apparently fov oN support today among meh o2 of the House ways and mean-' committee. Some committee men were plainly outspoken. while others, without entering into the ar guments advanced for or against the proposals, said it was their judgment that the committees effort should be directed toward easing the existing burden.
 With this end in view, it was ex plained, the republican members of the committee had before them today Chairman Madden of the appropria- tions committee; Eugene Meyer, Jr director of the war finance copror- alton, and Director General Davis of the railroad administration Mir Meyer and MT. Davis were called in to discuss railroad financing, and the chairman of the interstate com merce commission probably will be questioned later on the same subject ' Ohdllllfdn FOTuHtY Sdiu the DuT- pose was to get specific information as to the financial needs of the gov ernment, and then to determine just where cuts could be made. He said | Mir Meyer had told the committee that under the plan recently sub- mitted to Congress by President Harding, the railroad financing could not be taken care of without nlore than temporary assistance from the treasury from time to time antil the securities proposed to be issued could be marketed
 Could Cut Estimate
 Should this prove the case, it was said, a material cut could be made in the treasury estimate of s4,675, 100000 needed for the government next year as that included s545,0O0, : 900 for the railroads.
 Chairman Fordney also explained tha- the new tax law would be de- signed to run for a number of years and that the rates should not be fixed for such length of time on uondi- tions believed now to be only tenn lporary He thought there should be immediate reductions of a half bil- lion or more in taxes, even though that brought about a deficit ;t inc end of next year. This could be wiped out, he added. by reven les after expenditures had Ireturned to something more like normal.
 Representative Longworth, repub- lican, Ohio, said while there might be good arguments both for and against the new taxes suggested by MT. Mellon. he thought the time had Z come to reduce taxes rather than seek out new sources
 Opposes. Elimination
 Discussing MT. Melions proposals in detail, Representative Bachararch republican. New Jersey, declared in formal statement that he was op- posed to the elimination to all or any part of the transporta ton taxes and to the proposed tax of S10 on all automobiles. He also declared that he was not in favor of the proposed tax on bank checks. but that, of course he did favor the repeal of the tax on soda water and ice cream.
 q believe the elimination of the higher surtaxes would have a ten dency to get money into investment channels" said MT. Bacharach "On the other hand l see no good in the . argument that we should eliminate l, the higher brackets of the surtaA schedule which affect directly ap- proximately 5,oOe people and raise the rates substantially on 5,00o,0Oc taxpayers or the country.
 The New Jersey member also de. clared against the proposal to make the small corporations pay a tax oi ! Is per cent on their net income. A fight against any license tax on cars was launched today by tho American Automobile association. IT a letter already transmitted to Chair man Fordney. the association saie the federal sale tax on machines and the state and municipal taxes of all forms now totalled s346.720.87S an ] nually, or s34.67 per car and thai any increase would add to the al | ready excessive burden charged ,il against the automobile users.
 The new taxes suggested by MT Mellon are designed. 1t became known today to, yield a total of approxi- mately $24. 4.000.0j0 of which s100,000, 900 would come from automobiles 5000, GOO from the stamp tax or bank checks and about $7o,o00,00t from the 3-cent first class postage rate.