The Cordova daily times., 1921-05-10
SALES TAX WILL PRODUCE
 LARCEAMOUNT
BY COL. WINFIELD JONES

revenue measure would produce $1,-
 25O,000,000 annually. according to authorizations made by Shoot. This bill will figure largely in the de- bates on revision of the taxes aud will be the center of a hot contro. versy in house and senate, as many
 senators and representatives are against sales tax.
 The principal feature of the Smoot bill is sales tax of 1 per cent on all merchandise, with an exemption of $6,000 annually on gross business. The tax would be collected only from mer-
 chants and manufacturers, and would not be directly paid, by the consum- ing public, as are some of the taxes now. A tax of this kind necessarily
 would be passed on to the consumer in higher prices of retail goods, and of course the wholesaler would add the tax to the goods sold to the retailer. Shoot declares that this tax cannot be evaded, it can be collected with little trouble by the government, and it will not cost the treasury much to collect it.
 Secretary of the Treasury Mellon is now studying the Shoot tax plan but MT. Mellon has not yet indicated
 whether he favors or opposes it.
 Shoot believes that out of the four billions of revenue that must be
 raised annually to pay the current expenses of the federal government his tax would produce more than one
 fourth and might produce one half, or perhaps two billions of dollars. Shoot and also other senators who favor sales tax claim it will be adequate to replace the excess profits tax, which
 is now a source of great complaint on the part of manufacturers and merchants. Such tax, believe these senators would enable congress to repeal not only the excess profits but a lot of other imposts which are very unpopular with the mass of the people, such as, for instance, the tax on soft drinks. The Shoot tax, with the income tax, inheritance, and the regular internal revenue taxes now in force should result in collection of the four billions annually needed by the federal government.
 Strong opposition is now develop
 ing in the house against the Shoot
 tax, though the opposition is not as
 pronounced as in the senate.
 The Shoot plan has strong sup port among bankers and business men, but it IS more popular with this class than with a majority of mem | bers of either house or senate. Then, too, despite the claims of Shoot that the sales tax will be easy to collect
 and administer some congressman be- | lieve otherwise, claiming it will be
 easy to evade and hard to collect. ] There is one argument in favor
 
 equitable, for every consumer will | pay it exactly in proportion to the
 amount of his purchases, no more and no less. Those with small expendi- lures will contribute little and those with large expenditures more. Ger
 tainly the tax should conduce to
 thrift among those of the citizenship who have to carefully make up bud
 gets of their family and and personal every dollar count in their living ex-
 penses.
 Such a small rate, too, it is claimed, will really make so little difference in
 retail and wholesale prices that it will not be noticed by the consumer The trouble is that many dealers will be tempted to add not only the one precent to the sales prices but several other percents in the shaps of addition
 just as well be obtained as the one
 percent additional, as long as there ! is any tax to pay.
 There are some members of Cong
 ress, however, who regard the sales
 tax as a device to relieve the business
 man of the excess profits tax at the
 expense of the people. These men
 say that the excess profits tax would
 simply be shifted from the shoulders
 of the comparatively few to the backs
 of the many It is this class of con-
 gressmen who will oppose the Shoot
 with all their powers, and they are
 sufficiently numerous in the House
 and Senate, particularly in the Senate
 to cause doubt at this writing whether
 Smoot will be able to tack his amend
 ment on the new revenue measure.
 Other members of congress are not
 so much concerned with the form of | taxation as with the necessity of re.