The daily times., 1922-02-18
CLEVER POLITICS
CAUSED ADVOCACY
OF A SALES TAX
POSTPONED THE BONUS
MIR. Harding Knew That a
Sales Tax Would Not be
Popular and That Such
Strong Forces as the Farm
ers Would Oppose it and
That This Would Mean Post

That This Would Mean Post
(Ry David Lawrence.)
( Copyright, 1922 by The Daily
Times.)
Washington, Feb. 1.-THE soldier
bonus with It's multitude of lives is
dead again.
Whether it will bob up once more
depends upon the agricultural bloc,
which group never had more friends,
politically speaking, than it has to-
Iday. For the agriculturalists who
!have from the first opposed a sales
tax as a means of raising revenue are
not likely to accept it as the best way
to pay the soldier bonus and Presi-
dent Harding's ultimatum to the
Congress of the United States is final
either pass sales tax or postpone
the payment of the bonus indefinite
lly.
The maneuyer of the Chief Execu-
tive is considered one of the shrewd-
est bits of strategy of recent years.
1t was a political situation which
troubled Mr.. Harding from the be-
lginning by his own admission and it
lis a political situation which he has
fcreated as means of extricating him.
iself from the dilemma which his par
| ty leaders forced upon him.
Mr.. Harding doesn't believe
sales tax can pass Congress-he fear
ed as much in his letter to Chairman
Fordney of the House Ways and
Means Committee. The canvass of
the House on previous occasions in
dicated that the sales tax didn't have
more than eighty votes and the
strength of the proponents of the
scheme is not any greater today than
| it was. The objections to sales tax
are multiplex. Nobody has ever work
led+out plan for sales tax on which
all economists could agree. In prin-
ciple, the plan has received enthusi-
astic support but in formulas of ap-
plication there have been wide diff
IcIouCSS VI Op1uIOu
In fact, few men in Congress or in
the Treasury Department could to-
day give a definite answer to what is
meant by s'sales tax Here are the
various proposals.:
| First, a general tax on manufac-
lturers and producers collected at the
source but admittedly passed on to
the retailer and finally the consumer
! Second, tax on retail sales only
ALSO passed on to the consumer.
i Third, turnover tax on all things
being a tax of a small per cent on
lgross receipts. This also would be
ipassed on to the consumer to pay.
Fourth, a tax on well-defined list
|of commodities. This would be re-
Elected in the final prices of goods
|bought by the consumer.
Many advocates of a sales tax
make no bones about what they
mean by sales tax and they frankly
Icall it consumption tax" That's
Iwhy the spokesmen of farmers and
Ilaboring folks here have fought the
lsales tax. They believe it will mean
la higher cost of living for the aver
Iage man-that it will give sellers OF
commodities an opportunity to in
lcrease prices beyond the amount OF
1.-THE tax The fear is that the curve
which has started downward on the
lcost of living chart will turn upward
p
lagain. Small chance of the agricul-
ltural bloc agreeing to a tax which
might mean more taxes on the pro-
duce of the farm and a higher cost te
the farmer on the. things he must buy
for his farm and family.
In a nutshell, therefore. the Presi'
dent has proposed solution which
Imeans postpdnement of the bonus
payments. The sales tax cannot gath.
Ter enough votes to pass Congress un
J Hess all other taxes are repealed and
1.-THE whole revenue bill is revised. Al
,ta substitute for all taxes it had many
friends. AS an additional means o.
/ Continued on Page Eight.)