The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1921-05-18
POLITICAL CowARDICE.

! POLITICAL COWARDICE.
I There are emanating from Washing
| ton, limitations that there will be no
sales tax law passed by this congress.
| The decision is based entirely on po-
! litical expediency rather than on the
economic welfare of the country. To
put it bluntly congressman are afraid
of the voters. Members of the ma
| jority party are afraid that if they
pass a sales tax law, the opposition
will use such action as a club with
which to beat them out of office. Com
menting on this phase of the situation
the Manufacturers Record says:
Political cowardice is not going to
relieve economic exigencies. There are
some gentlemen, no doubt, who hon
undesirable tax. With them the pub
| lie has no quarrel. They can be edu-
Gated into - vision of sound finance.
| But the intelligent public will be in
clined to- weep at the spectacle of
other men who, when confronted with
a grave emergency, close their ears
and eyes and solemnly announce that
they cannot endorse a sales tax be-
cause. forsooth, the voters may not
! like it.
negative demagogues. The former do
considerable harm by their agitating,
but the latter often do more harm by
their inactivity. The gravest crimes
of men, perhaps, are the things they
| do not do. Any statesman who re-
Trains from support of a sound eco
nomic principle, the operation of
which would be beneficial to his coun-
i try. because he fears it may render
| him unpopular with the people, is a
| demagogue at heart and has the soul
| of a demagogue.
1t is truth that the things political
towards most fear very often are the
very things that would mean their sal
walton.
| The truth is that we have a sales
tax now, in the most Objectionable
form possible. There is tax on the
sale of transportation as real
a nuisance tax as could be found
and there are taxes on the sales of
soft drinks, so-called luxuries, etc
1t would almost appear that they had
been instituted with the idea of dis
gushing the people. Yet they have
been endured and tolerated. A gem
eral sales tax, on the other" hand.
would not be nuisance at all. Neither
would it increase the cost of living.
1t would reduce the cost of living.
| 1t has been estimated that 1t costs
the country at least $100,000.000 a
year merely to prepare the intricate
tax forms which are required, and
| this estimate is sustained by the COM
missioner of internal revenue. The
estimate probably is too low. To illus
trate, thousands of letters have been
going out from Washington making
reassessments on past returns, which
means that tens of thousands of COM
panies and individuals are compelled
to hire tax experts to- straighten- out
their affairs. These tax experts do
not work for nothing. They charge
and get large fees 1t is not an extrava-
gance to say that in the preparation
of tax returns and in obtaining final
settlements of them the taxpayers of
the nation are compelled to spend not
less than one-quarter of billion dol
lars every year. That amount of mon
to the cost of living.
AS an excuse for opposing the sales
tax it is urged that it would be levied
directly on the consumer. But there
is not a producer in the nation who
does not add the excess profits tax to
his cost of production and base his
selling price thereon, when he can
control the selling price. There Is
not a form of federal taxation, that
is not figured in cost of production,
and therefore in selling price. Mani
testify, if the amount of tax is con-
jectural, the estimate of it is placed
at the maximum, which means that
in nine cases out of ten u tax is placed
on the public larger than the govern
ment itself collects.
Men talk about a sales tax being
pyramided. The excess profits tax is
always pyramided, because every
handler of commodity is figuring in
his cost of doing business the paymen.
of the tax.