Omaha daily bee., 1921-08-08
Secretary Mellon Suggestion
-, Businesslike Proposals to Get
Money Enough for the Government
From the Boston Transcript.

The report that the self-styled leaders" OF
the house OF representatives are displeased at
the recommendations OF the secretary of the
treasury relative to tax revision will not surprise
those who take the preca, ion to recall that
Secretary Mellon is not politician. He Is a
great constructive economist endeavoring to as
sist the legislative branch in raising the revenue
necessary to run the government by ways and
means that the people will clearly understand
and recognize as honest and intelligent. The
fundamental difference between Secretary Mellon
and some OF his critics in the republican house
lies in the fact that he is opposed to deceiving
the taxpayers or insulting their intelligence by
trying to deceive them. His recommendations
are based on the theory that i'll the raising of
taxes an expert knowledge of the theory and
practice of taxation is better guide than the
whims and faneies OF pork-barrel politicians.
Secretary Mellon proposes a federal license
of $40 on automobiles, believing that their own
ers will cheerfully make this contribution to
help pay the costs of the war; He proposes a
stamp tax on checks, because it has been tried
in the past and found to be good revenue pro-
ducer, easily and cheaply collected Moreover,
the people who pay it constitute an intelligent
public alive to the fact that in spite OF new
economies in public expenditure, and in spite of
retrenchments all along the line, the tax bill of
the nation for many years to come must be
heavy. We see no reason why the same sort
of tax should not be levied on papers exchanged
in all sorts of legal transactions.
Instead of taxing the children for their ice
cream, and men. women and children for their
"soft" drinks, Mr.. Mellon proposes to increase
the tax on tobacco, and here again his proposal
will commend wide approval outside of con-
gress. The increase of the present 10 per cent
income tax on corporations to IS per cent and
the repeal of the excess profit tax; elimination
of the $1,000 exemption corporation tax, and the
elimination of the income surtax above 40 per
cent, with an increase on these rates of income
from $4,000 to $4,000, are among other recon-
mendations that have excited the ire of certain
republican politicians who come up for re-elec-
ton next year. ..r
II Secretary Mellon can command the unfal-
tering support of his chief, it will not take long
to develop in the senate and in the country at
large an intelligent sympathy with, and an un-
derstandng of his program that will prove to
are their personal anxietes and selfish suspicious.
1t is not surprising that the present house should
take a cynical view of Secretary Melons faith
in the common sense and common patriotism
of his countrymen, because large number of
medocrties in congress today owe their election
to the fact that they were able to nisrepresent
themselves as men of real ability, dsinterestedly
desirous Of an opportunity for national service.
They hope to be reelected next year by resort
ing to the same deception. This ambition Sec
retary Mellon may not have taken. into account
in the scientific study that preceded his recon-
mendatons for revising taxes. Let US hope that
the administration will share his faith in the
peoples willingness to meet the costs of the war
and to maintain the government even at the
expense of replacing at the next election many OF
the medocrites in the lower house OF congress
today.