The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1921-10-22
DELAYED TAX ACTION.

Senator PenrOSe is reported to have
indicated that revision of the revenue
law may be laid over until next year.
A proper revision and a reduction uf
taxes is the greatest need of the coun-
try today, but since little relief is
promised by the pending bill, post
ponement of action can hardly make
the situation worse.
Sentiment of the business world IS
reflected in the following from the
Bachs Review:
Lacking competency and courage,
surcharged with the determination
that political expediency shall stand
ahead of the eountry's good, the tax
revisers in both houses have ADAM
doned all attempts to improve the
situation and have fallen back on a
revision sponsored by the treasury ex-
perts who are responsible for the
abortive system of taxation which has
proved so destructive to American
business in the last three years.
The two committees in the house
and senate, which have had the mat
ter in hand, have used the old ways
and means of taxation, which have
already been discredited. There is not
in the bill now before the senate, one
single constructive change that is vital
Inc part OF the mouse cOnnllLL6e IN
tax revision was to prepare tax
measure in two weeks. In this short
time there was not and could not have
been any attempt to formulate real re-
vision, and the measure sent in was a
botched-up replica of the present sys-
TEN. 1t has not been changed ap-
preciably by the senate finance COM
mittee, which has not, as a committee,
evidenced the slightest fitness for its
important position, but has, in vacillat-
ing mood from day to day, allowed the
sands to shift back and forth, with the
result of the present unimproved,
abortive proposition. And no aid of
any kind will be accorded to business
thru the enactment of the bill.
Otto H. Kahn in letter addressed
to Senator Lenroot says:
Among the influences which are
primarily responsible for the prevail
ing unprosperity and unemployment
in this country. one of the principal
ones is the faultiness of our taxation
system.
1T is difficult to resist the conclu-
spread distress makes so loud and ur-
gent an appeal for the remedy Of
craftsmanship, the matter of tax re-
vision is being approached by some
legislators in the spirit of narrow par
tisanship and with prejudices unat-
tenuated by the all too irrefutable les
sons of the past four years.
Mr.. Kahn points out that from the
merely selfish standpoint, the man of
means need have little quarrel with
the existing schedule of surtaxes. If
he chooses to avail himself of the
lawful opportunities at hand, he can
invest a greater or less portion and
in some cases, all of his capital in tax
exempt securities at an attractive rate
of interest, and, to the extent that he
does so, the income tax and surfaces
will cease to trouble him.
In regard to the surtax, which 1t is
proposed to maintain at so per cent,
Mr.. Kahn says:
The higher brackets of the surfaces
have ceased to be productive. They
have, in fact, largely abolished them
selves, but in the wrong way. To the
extent that they are collected, they
penalize the working capitalist, the
man engaged in enterprise and active
business as against the idle capitalist.
Our extreme surfaces have all the
Ill effect of a measure which hampers
and deters enterprise, drives funds
into taX-eXempt securities or into hid
ing and interferes with the free flow
of capital, without even having the
advantage of producing anything like
commensurate revenue. They are one
OF the most perfect demonstrations of
the perverse workings of an unwise
and economically unsound law.