The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1923-12-22
IN
TAX PLAN
SEEN
Hard Says Fight Is on to Cut
Lower Brackets and
Leave Others Stand.

ny WILLIAM hAROe
Congress will enact a revenue
bill which will meet MELONS re-
quirement for a genreal reduction
Of the tax burden but which
emphatically will not meet Mel
Ions requirement for encourag-
ing big capital to go into pro-
ductive industrial enterprises.
This is the present prospect as
revealed through the results of
conversations between Democrats
and Republican 'progressives"
who together have a majority in
both the Senate and the House
Of Representatives.
Committee Quits Work.
The Ways and Means Committee
of the House Of Representatives,
after considering some fifty pages
out OF the three hundred and forty
four pages which Mellon sent to
1t on the subject of taxation, is
reported to have adjourned from
d.
, On January 4 Robert Marion La
Toilette, senior United States SEN
ator from Wisconsin, and real
leader Of the Progressive Group
in both houses Of Congress, will
leave his sick-room and appear on
the floor Of the Senate.
La Toilette, by seniority is high
up in the Finance Committee of
the Senate-the Committee which
must consider Melons taxation re-
duction plan. The chairman of
that committee Is Reed Smoot of
Utah. Right next to him comes
La Toilette Of Wisconsin.
On the Democratic side OF this
Committee is Senator Simmons of
North Carolina. Senator Simmons
and Senator La Toilette are old
cronies on many points Of taxa
ton legislation.
Worked Together.
In the last session of Congress
they worked together successfully
to defeat the project for lowering or
eliminating the American taxes on
American corporations trading In
the Orient. Senator Simmons is not
a radical, but the point which is fire.
quently overlooked by the public in
Eastern and Northern States is that
Southern conservative Democrats, in
spite Of their general conservatism,
are very strong for heavily taxing
the very rich, most Of whom do not
live in their States.
It IS no guess-but an absolute
certainty-that in the Senate Sim
mons and La Toilette will work hand
in hand, with a combination major
ity behind them, to amend the Mel
lon taxation reduction plan in the
following way:
They will increase the reductions
which Mellon proposes for persons
Of incomes under SIC, 900 q year, and
they will diminish the reductions
which Mellon proposes for persons
with incomes Of more than $50, 900 a
year. They will strive to do more
than Mellon proposes fCr the Flower
brackets" and they will equally
strive to do less than Mellon pro-
poses for the higher brackets"
Frear In House Fight.
In the House Of Representatives
there will be a similar spirit of CO.
operation in the Ways and Means
Committee between most of the
the other hand, Congressman Frear
Ol w ISGOIISIAEp WIN SPO1hS AOL thO
Progressive group" in the House
on the subject Of taxation and who
has been a member Of the Ways
and Means Committee for quite a
while.
The result Of this combination of
efforts, II 1t is allowed to happen,
will take the following form:
The total reduction in the tax
burden will be just as large as the
reduction which Mellon proposes,
but it will be differently distributed.
Tax payers in the lower brackets"
will find themselves exceptionally
favored Tax payers In the high.
er brackets will find themselves
burdened as heavily as at present.
Melons Purposes.
From the revenue standpoint the
outcome will be the Same. From the
business industrial standpoint the
outcome will be entirely different
and, in Melons view, It will be dis
astrously different.
Mellon in his taxation plan has
had two equally important purposes.
The first is to reduce taxation but
the second Is to encourage industry.
In his view the encouragement to In
dustry can be provided only by free
ing the possessors of large fortunes
from the taxes which impel them to
go into unadventurous tax-exempt
pursuits. Mellon would like to zee
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