Evening star., 1921-10-15
Editorial Digest
The Victory Of the Bloc.

The agricultural bloc" in the Sem
ate has again struck fire from edi-
torial writer's by forcing compro-
mise on the tax bill, which. while de-
Tended in some papers. Is decidedly
unpopular in many Of them. The in
crease to SO per cent of the surtax
on incomes of the highest group, in
stead of the 80 per cent provided in
| the House bill. is condemned by many
principle of furnishing wealth" and.
from more practical viewpoint, as
continuing the evil of diverting an
enormous amount Of money from
productive use into taX-exempt Sc
curities. The Surrender" of the
Senate finance committee to the farm
element is generally regarded as a
political expedient which ignores
sound principles of taxation"
Since. according to the New York
World (democratic), "the finance COM
| mittee had prepared a bill which IA
! possessors of large incomes" the
agricultural bloc 'revolted and deliv-
cred an ultimatum which re-
| suited in recasting of the measure
| which will soften the dissatisfaction
Of the farmers" And in spite of the
dispatches from Washington declared
that Mr.. Harding did not approve Of
blocs and groups and things Of that
sort and did not purpose to tolerate
any of them" when this ultimatum
| came Mr.. Harding was the first to
sion, as the paper sees it. is that
Congress is playing politics with
taxation, and that is all it intends to
do" The New York Tribune (repub-
lican) agrees that in accepting the
changes for the worse" which the in
urgent group has forced upon the
cmmittee sound principles of taxa
zion are being departed from at the
behest of political expediency."
Acceptance of the proposal to in
crease INCOME surtaxeS from 32 per
cent to so per cent, TO satisfy the
insistence of the class conscious ag-
ricultural bloc that taxation must be
promise" declares the Newark News
independently; it is a rank surren-
DER which makes it appear that the
great republican party. which used
to pride itself upon it's ability to
think straight has gone over, bag
and baggage. to northwestern gran
gerism like the western and south
western grangerism that SO long was
a millstone about the neck Of the
democratic party
By entertaining "the delusion that
| they. are taxing wealth" through in
creased income surtaXeS, the farmers
the Philadelphia Bulletin independent
republican, believes. persist in ignor-
! ing the fact that so long as exorbitant
surtaxes prevail. capital will seek fields
Of investment which are exempt from
| income taxation rather than fields of
| productive and necessary enterprise"
The Brooklyn Eagle Independent DEM
ocratic) agrees that "the rich are quite
capable of taking care of themselves"
merely by changing their holdings
from the taxable to the exempt"
hence Others must make up what
they fail to contribute. and these 9TH
"rs are less fortunately situated finan-
ciaIly."
Nevertheless. says the New York
| Globe GndependenD IAN instinct as old
as human government operates TO
shift the burden of taxation" from
| the class in power TO other less
powerful groups" and middle west
ern aericulturists appear finally to
.ave nad more to say about the rails
! ing OF national revenues than have
nankerS or manufacturers" And
while their policy of Redistribution
OF national resources" through the
income tax may be mistaken" the
Globe. believes that it is sincerely
conceived" The farmer wants taxes
reduced. but he wants them reduced
equltably.' the Omaha World Hera Id
independently states. $50 that the poor
md the moderately Well-to-do NAV sha
in the benefits the same as the very
wealthy. and further. it is not the
farmer alone who objects to pro
nossd system of tax relief that cuts
N half the tax on million dollar in
comes while making only negii-
sible reduction in the tax on ordinary
While the Wheeling Register fdemo-
tatlc) approves of the increased surtax,
does not provide bill wanted bv
the people" since nothing definite
in the way of actual tax reductions
fnecting average citizens is to be