The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1922-06-23
LABOR AND THE SALES TAX.

/ The American Federation OF Labor
/ in convention assembled. has placed
itself on record in opposition to the
I sales tax. No better reply to the fed
oration's action could be made, per-
haps. than is found in a speech by
Albert ]. Beveridge during his sue
cessfuI campaign for the Republican
| senatorial nomination in Indiana.
Mr.. Beveridge said in part:
The ma: 4 woman with an income
must invest it. or suffer loss, since
Idle capital is shrinking capital Tn
er to the purchase of tax-exempt Sc
curities investment is made in produc-
tive industries, such as factories,
mines, stores. banks, apartment houses
and the thousand forms Of busineEs
enterprise. When the government
takes most. or large part. of a mans
Or Woman's income, does the govern
mcnt invest it in factories, stores,
mines, farms. houses, inventions, no
tells. railways or any other form OF
industry whatever 1t does not. The
money goes to defray the gigantic ex-
penses of the government employees
who make up our intOlerable bureau
crazy.
Not only this, but incredibly compH-
Gated rules, regulations and exactions
are imposed upon business by this
burdensome and unscientific tangle of
war taxation. The upshot of the
whole mess is that business is bound,
gagged and put thru the third degree
all the time. Hordes of spies on bust
ness men have been put on the track
of practically every business transac-
ton. Large business concerns are
compelled to maintain a complicated
system of bookkeeping Intricate re-
turns must be made out by the aid OF
expert public accountants.
Years afterward government &C
countants go over the books again to
find items on which additional taxes
can be levied. The business must pay
and appeal afterward; and from eight
to ten years are required to carry such
a case thru various appeals to the SUI
preme court of the United States
None but the greatest and richest cor
porations can afford the process.
In the end we must put tax on
Expenditure nOncumulative tax on
sales-which all, alike, and equally,
must pay in exact proportion to pur-
chases. That would be genuine and
an honest tax on wealth. The buyer
of an extravagant car would pay thir-
ty or forty times as much tax as the
buyer of a cheaper car: the man who
pays $40 for a suit of clothes would
pay only a third as much tax as the
clothes; the woman who wears expen-
sive gowns, rich furs and costly jewels
would pay a hundred and a thousand
times more taxes than her sister OF
humble means.
1t is said that to repeal or reduce
taxes on business and, instead, dis
tribute the tax burden over the whole
limitless field of consumption general
ly. would release the rich and Cypress
the poor. If that statement is true, the
/ resulting arguments Weighty. But
that statement is not true. The pies
ent business taxes bear more heavily
on consumption than a noncumulative
sales tax possibly could bear. The
excess profits tax, the income tax, the
surtaxes, the corporation tax and the
entire brood of taxes on business are
all added to prices whenever possible.
But under the present tax tumble,
which enmeshes all the people, the
process of adding taxes to costs is con-
cealed. 1t is a secret process, hidden
from the people, who do not see how
these taxes are shifted, but who feel
the effect in the high cost of living.
on the contrary. a sales tax is open,
above board, and in plain light of day.
1t is fixed. certain and cannot be null
tiplied at the expense of the consumer
by underground manipulation. Above
all. it releases investing capital, and
thus starts the wheels of industry and
sets in motion all business activities.