Five Mile Beach weekly journal., 1921-12-02
THE NEW TAX LAW HAS FEW
FRIENDS
By George w. Human
In the New York American

In
come law. 1t has few friends outside of
Congress now. 1t will have fewer a
year from date. The sales tax, which
would bring in the largest revenue
with the least injury to the people,
has been omitted. The highest taxes
on income, which will do the most
harm with the least benefit to the
Treasury, have been retained. Hence
forth nearly so per cent of income
in excess of 100000 will be taken
by the Government and be sent to
Washington. In war this would mean
little for American business. In
peace, it means more, much more than
can be stated here, to the prosperity
of the United States.
1t is a common remark that any
man with more than 100000 a year
ought to be deprived of all he gets
over and above that figure. Social
lists are not the only ones that say
this. The writer has heard the same
sentiment from dozens of small bust
ness men in the last few months.
Its too much for one man; the Gov
eminent should take it away for the
benefit of the people" That is the
idea; thousands have it. Is it right?
Is the a bill right in enacting into
law this sort of idea? Under some
conditions it might be; under other
conditions not. Let us see.
An Example
There is in Southern California a
city of medium size that badly needed
a new railroad to bring to it more
people and more business, to develop
old and create new ones.
That in a few years such a railroad
would double the business and wealth
of the city nobody doubted. But there
seemed to be no n to organize or
build it. At last the city's one man
of very large income volunteered to
try. This man had drawn for years an
income far in excess of $%200,00 He
had not squandered it by eating twenty
times as much as the man with $4,000
a year, nor worn twenty times as
many suits of clothes, nor spent
twenty times as much on the roof over
his head or the bed he slept in.
In none of these respects had he
done with his income what many high
takers and many confiscators imagine
such a man would do. After paying
the ordinary expenses of life he had
invested the rest of his income.
Therefore, he had the money to build
much of the railroad, and he set out
to do so. He did this because he had
that particular American impulse to
upbuild a new country, make new
things grow, develop hidden resources.
The result was the only real Ameri-
can railway enterprise that went
ahead during the war. Today it is
complete. The railroad is a piece of
fierce engineering; it climbs noun
tains, skirts precipices, pierces gigan-
tic masses of solid rock. Eleven miles
nearly 100000 a mile. But the object
is accomplished. The city is connected
directly with a great transcontinental
line. 1t already has begun to rise on
the tide of a new prosperity and, al
though the railroad will not show
profit for years to come, it will double
within a decade the business and
prosperity values of some $4,000 peo-
pie, besides multiplying their numbers
and their productive enterprises.
The Income Tax Principle
That is the story of one recent piece
of pioneering that has been under the
writer's observation from beginning
to end. With variations, it is the story
of thousands of business ventures that
long ago built up the East and must
build up the West unless all oppor-
tunity is to be neglected and all en-
terprise is to die.
If the principle of the new income
tax had been applied fifty years ago,
there would be a different United
States today-far weaker far poorer,
far less contented on every level of
income and in every class of occupa-
ton. If the bulk of income above
5000, 900 is to be taken by the Govern
ment and d~issipated in Washington,
who is going to do the development
work of the future? Who is to do
such work as was done on the railroad
which we have described? Either
most of such work will be left I'M
done or it will have to be done by the
Government, which takes the money.
That is the answer. The sums re-
quired are too large; they cannot be
secured from preachers, school teach
ers, doctors and working newspaper
men. So the next question is:
Can anybody imagine the Wash
ington Government, at present, as
wisely selecting the thousand and
one locations for new development
enterprises, as courageously sepa-
rating the needed billions from
the grasp of Congress and the