The New York herald., 1922-11-27
The Deadly Tax Scourge,


After a careful study of the tax
burdens which this country is bear
ing the National Industrial Confer
ence Board finds that among the six
great industrial nations the United
States is second in the taxes it pays.
Only the United Kingdom shows q
higher per capita taxation for 1920
Fl, with SAC, as against $41 here.
Let 1t be recalled that tax bill of
SAL year for every man, woman and
child in the country is an average
tax bill of some 5000 year for every
American family. And let It be re-
membered that every dollar eaten up
in taxes is a dollar subtracted from
the driving power of the country's
productive machinery.
What the per capita tax burden In
the United States means is that last
year one-sixth Of the national income
went into taxes. The national in
come is the value Of everything the
country produces. Put it another
way: Last year the American people
worked one day out OF every six day
week for the tax collector.
But to say that one-sixth Of all the
nations income was swallowed up in
taxes does not tell the whole story
OF the damage thus done to the coun-
try in taking driving power out OF
its productive machinery. A sixth
Of the nations income went into the
economically destructive tax mill, but
that sixth did not 60 directly from
the whole country to the tax collec-
tor. For the, most part 1t went In
the first instance from the highly
active industrial centers to tho tax
collector.
The farms, with their vast produc-
tion in the aggregate, do not pay
great mass Of taxes. national. State
OF local. The timber lands do not.
Communities of small population
units. although bulking enormously
in the total. do not. The highly
active industrial centers. with their
metropolitan neighbors of trade and
commerce, do. Thus the per capita
tax burden Of the State of Alabama
was s2647, while the per capita tax
burden of the State of New York
was s14S.36 and of Massachusetts
S125.35.
1t is easy to see from this that
while one-sixth of the nations in
come as whole went to the tax
collector, one-quarter or even one
third of the income OF the highly
active industrial section went to the
tax collector. In some intensely ac-
tive centers or industries as much
as one-half the income may haye
gone to the tax collector.
Now it Is surplus income out Of
which productive machinery is kept
up. renewed, improved and expanded.
But il the surplus income of the pro-
ductive industry is thus eaten up
in destructive taxes that surplus In
come no longer exists to go into the
maintenance, renewal, Improvement
and expansion of those productive
plants to create more employment,
more production and more wealth for
the public and the country.
1t is surplus productive income
out of which new railroads are built,
new mines developed, new mills and
factories established. But IL the sur
plus productive income is devoured
by the tax collector 1t cannot be used
TO build the new railroads, develop
the new mines and establish the new
mills and factories that are all essen
tial to continue the growth of the
country and to increase the welfare
and happiness OF the people.
The tax collector has been and still
is bleeding American productive in
dustry white. And when the tax
collector bleeds American productive
industry white this deadly tax
scourge impoverishes the American
people, whose livelihoods depend
upon a prosperous and growing in
dustry; it threatens the country with
dry rot and II makes for national
suicide.