Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1923-06-14
TAXING THE POOR
By DR.. Frank Crane


When the angry child strikes the corner
Of the brick wall with his fist because he has
run into it and hurt himself, all he gets is
bloody knuckles and pain. The brick wall
Is uninjured.
When ignorance and anger make the tax
laws Of country and try to arrange it so that
all the money will come from capital and
that the workers will escape, the result is
similar. Capital remains unhurt. The work
ers themselves are injured.
The present tax laws, including the income
tax and surtax and so on, are made on the
theory that the rich, including the people who
have saved money and the people who are
making much money, should pay the bulk OF
the taxes and the poor should escape. a.,
What is the result?
Senator Capper, of Kansas, In the New
York "Times," shows us clearly and convinc"
ingly.
The result of our present tax laws is that
S3O,OOO0O 100000 of property in the United
States will pay no tax at all this year.
This $4,000, 100000 of property, how
ever, inevitably must pay tax, but the
wealthy owners of it will not pay it.
Whenever tax payer gets out or paying
his full share, some one else has to pay 1t.
The wealthy owners of this $50, 600, 000,O 900
evade the payment Of their taxes by simply
turning their property into tax free securities.
those who are poorer, to pay, along with their
own taxes, an invisible burden, enough to
make UP for the defalcation of their weather.
brothers
This $4,000, 900 represents the tax
free securities now held in this country. This
amount we are increasing at the rate of ST.
600 000,0 900 year.
The Federal Government alone is now is
suing $500,000,O00 in tax free securities
which will not only be tax exempt, but will
q i1a%n FOR he VT
years.
All this means a steady increase Of taxa
ton on land, on railways on public service
corporations, on manufacturers, on storekeep-
ers, and on everybody else that Is hard at
work making this country prosperous.
Ultimately the householder and small tax
payer foot the bill.
President Howard, of the American Farm
Bureau, says that if we go on at this rate
the tax free property in the United States
will soon equal the value OF all the farm
property
The late Jacob Schiff left an estate of $685.
600, 900 most of it in tax exempt bonds.
The money left by the late J. J. Hill to his
widow was increased from $365.0OO to $3.50,
600 year by putting some of her tax hold
ings into tax free bonds.
Since the war, it is estimated the Astors
have turned $45,000,000 worth Of property
into no-tax securities.
All this is shutting off the flow of money
into industry. It is attack on business. 1t
is penalizng efficiency. 1t is throttling pro-
duction.
Secretary Hoover is quoted as saying that
our railways are unable to finance the mod
est construction programs because surplus
capital is pouring by hundreds of milliong
monthly into tax free securities.
Ex-President Benjamin Harrison said,
twenty-four years ago, at the Union League
club, "This country cannot continue to exist
half tax and half free"
What are we going. to do about. it?
The answer is plain and simple.
Adopt the sales tax.
This sales tax is tax on spending, while
the income tax and surtax are tax on saving.
The sales tax would distribute taxation
evenly oyer vast area and nobody would es-
cape
Copyright 1929