Great Falls daily tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1895-1921, 1921-01-03
THIS FAVORED LAND.

their lot with others who are the
victims of still greater misfortunes.
In this way resignation and even
some cl1eerfulness can be brought to
bear on present evil. AS the new
year starts in with us in the United
States we can surely find much to
be thankful for If we turn our eyes
to the conditions prevailing in other
countries. In fact, not only are we
az we'll off as other nations, but we
are certainly vastly better off than
any of them we can call to mind
at this moment.
We are accustomed to groan about
the size Of our tax bill. Truly it is
vastly bigger than we have known
before and threatens to grow bigger.
But it is only a trifle compared to
the load that citizens of European
countries are compelled to bear. The
richest Of all the countries of Europe
has been and still is Great Britain.
There Lloyd George is just now
struggling with his annual budget
and trying hard to keep it down to
four and three quarters billions OF
dollars. That is more than our secre
tary Of the treasury, Mr.. Houston,
says we need for years expendi-
lures for the government in this
country, and about twice as much
as the Republican chairman Of the
house finance committee says we
need to raise in our annual budget.
And in this country we have twice
as many people and more wealth on
which to levy taxes. Therefore our
tax burdens in this country are light
as compared with those which con
fronts the British citizen. And the
taxpayer in Great Britain is better
off than in many other countries of
Europe al that.
Secretary Houston says we ought
to raise at least four billion dollars
by federal taxes each year for the
next three or four years in order to
meet our obligations and leave the
treasury in proper shape. The chair
man of the house finance committee
thinks that sum may be cut in two.
That difference in estimates may
extraordinary, but it isn't. In fact.
the difference is easily to be found
in two different financial policies.
Secretary Houston favors paying our
debts as they become due, and SO
stopping the interest on them. The
chairman of the house finance com
mittee favors policy of renewing
our obligations as they come due
at higher rate Of interest and SO
increasing our interest charge on the
future. That is very different
policy and it largely accounts for
the difference in the estimate of the
taxes needed for the next year.
There can be no question in the
mind of any business man, it seems
to US, as to the superior soundness
of Mr. Houston's method. The way
to meet debt when it becomes due
is to pay it if you can and stop
interest, rather than to put off the
payment for many years and pay a
considerably higher rate of interest
for the privilege of postponen1ent of
the evil day when the principal falls
due, but there is political side to
it also. The Republican party has
promised to reduce taxation and 1t
can only do SO by postponing pay
ment of the savings stamps and Vic
tory bonds coming due in the next
few years.
The financial situation of Uncle
Sam is not desperately bad, as is the
case in many countries. 1t used to
cost, before the war, about billion
dollars year to run the government.
1t might be kept down TO that sum,
or a little more, now by stringent
economy in appropriations, were it
not for the interest on its new
bonded debt caused by the war. That
alone causes an additional charge of
about billion dollars. Counting
that in it might be possible to pay
interest and running expenses of the
government with little more than
two billion dollars a year if we post
pone paying war debts due in the
next three years by refunding opera
tons, though we believe it would be
better business judgment to pay
these as they come due as the secre-
tary of the treasury recommends
even at the cost of continued high
taxes for few years. But of course,
such program does not contemplate
paying a couple of billions in sol
diers' bonus bills, and it also conten-