Evening star., 1924-11-23
YOU AND UNCLE SAM
OF Educational articles Telling Hosu Federal Govern
Nment Is Organized and Functions-Written
Expressly for School Children.
BY WILL P. KENNEDY

about the tarin-one that II should
be for revenue only, and the other
that 1t should be protective. The
theory of the first il to tax articles
SO as to obtain merely enough money
to meet the needs Of Government.
The theory Of the second Is to tax
articles so as to equalize the cost Of
production in this country and
abroad, and thus build up industry
at home and at the same time protect
the American workman in American
standards Of living against cheap for
eign labor.
Internal revenue Is a system OF taxing
certain articles produced in the United
States and sold in this country. and
Is direct tax. Examples Of this are
the sales tax, the tax on incomes and
inheritances. an admission tax and
levy on tobacco, automobiles and
so forth.
Inheritance Tax Leads.
Today our greatest source of rev.
enue il from the Inheritance tax.
while the tariff produces about $780,
100000 annually.
The total receipts for the fiscal
year 1928 were s4.o07.00o. 900. OF this
the customs duties, which were the
largest received by the Government
to $562,0O0.000. The income and
profits tax brought in $1.67s.000. 900
internal revenue, $945.S65, 900. and
from miscellaneous sources. 1858 .00o,-
000--that is from such sources as in
terest, sale of public lands. fees, rents,
penalties and assessments.
Under the Constitution, Congress
is tho only authority to tax the people.
and there has been a question wheth-
er this authority could be delegated.
That Is why all revenue measures
must originate in the House, where
the members are the direct choice
and representatives of the people.
elected every two years, so as to keep
them close to the people. In the tariff
act of 1922 an innovation was made
when authority was given the Presi-
dent to make the tariff flexible when
on investigation he found that 1t
did not equalize the difference in
cost Of production at home and
abroad. But the maximum and min
imum rates were fixed by the Con-
gress. and the agencies such as the
tariff commission are not really tax
ing bodies, but only investigation
work. The President Is prohibited by
the law itself from raising or lower
ing the tariff more than so per cent
of the rate fixed in the law.
Tariff DimcuIt Problem.
The drafting of a tariff act is one
of the most difficult jobs that Con-
gress tackles. The ways and means
committee. which writes the bill, is
COMPOSED of 26 members, most of
whom are veterans in service and
have for years been close students of
tariff problems. There are more than
10000 articles covered in the act
from aids TO zaffer.
II took just about nine months to
work out the Payne and Aldrich
tariff laws. The Fordney tariff act
consumed 22 months. Hearings be-
fore the House committee. with 1856
persons, each an expert on some par
ticular item or phase of the tariff,
assigned time on the committee CAL
endar. occupied So working days. 1t
required S4 working days to draft
the bill in the House, and there were
19 days Of debate on it in the House.
The Fordney bill was before the
Senate for 33S working days. The
printed hearings comprise 1896 print
ed pages.
All Of this shows the great amount
of work Congress does and the care
taken to get at the real facts before
1t exercises the authority it alone
has under the Constitution to tax
the people.
Copyright. 1924. by VIII P. Kennedy
(The fourteenth article in this series
will be on The Cabinet and Admin
istrative Departments" 1t will be
printed in this newspaper next Wed
nesday)