The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-11-19

| lthe next few weeks. Il h0 .NA Hare that public clamor will compei either the administration or the opposi- ltions to bring relief measures torwaIu lat the impending session. Shouio no llaction be taken before adjournment | |lthen there is every probability that special session will be demanded ana lcalled.
 Secretary Mellon told me, after he |lfirst brought forward his proposftion' |lthat he did not want haif way meas, lures; he wanted congress either 10 adopt his general policy or reject It \ entirely. After his rather disappointing N experience with the politicians who make up the present congress, he may |fbe reasoning that satisfactory actloh His not to be expected from them, not withstanding the temper snown oy the electorate on November 4.
 N MT. Mellon is 8 calm, deliberate 1n- | dividual. He may fear that full justice + would not be done even by the recon + Istructed congress at short special ses- | sion. President Coolidge is so consu- Ututed that he doubtless would prerer |Inot to have to call special session or
 our legislators. But both ne o,,nn: ana MT; II Mellon may find the public's insistence irresistible.
 There are weighty reasons for giving | the country definite tax reliet peiore |l1926, There are reasons apart rom the |; most obvious one that everybody wants | to pay as little as necessary and wants \ to know especially just how much VIII II be eXacted.
 H Everything points to very substanuai II business expansion. If the demand for Il merchandise of all kinds greatly in Il creases. the tendency will be for prices | to rise. A lowering of corporation as
 well as individual tax rates should' ana Il probably would, do something to mooiiy
 the rising of prices.
 II Again, anything approaching busi- | ness boom will call for large amounts | of credit and capital. IT those posses Il sing the means to invest heavily in cor II porate securities receive proper encour- II agement from our tax leviers-that IS II to say, If the highest surtaxes are low II cred in accordance with Mellon's plan, II then it should be relatively easy to Il raise all capital needed by our business H enterprises; but if the impossibly high Il surtaxes are not lowered, then we can Il count upon investors of large means H continuing to put their funds into tax Il exempt obligations, the great bulk or Il which are not for productive purposes. I Many thoughtful citizens who look
 
 II armed over the. rate at. which capital II being drawn from productive chan Il .ls and diverted to unproductive pur- II oses.. They question how, long our I economic structure can successfully | withstand the strain if no halt be called. Think of this: Last year California taxpayers had to pay as much in taxes as the value of all products from the \ soil of that fertile state, all products from farms and fruit lands combined They alone paid more than $500, ,000. Paul Shoup, of the Southern Pacific, Pacific Oil and other enterprise, inn pressing these facts Tn an address the other day, added:
 "One-seventh of the. income of our people Gin California; now goes to taxes. We are paying three times as much per capita as we did in 1912" How do you like the idea of having to work one day in every seven to pay taxes? It is hardly necessary to ex- plain that those who think they es- cape the income tax, for example, really
 pay even though their income may not
 exceed &, ,000 year, for those who have
 to hand over income tax payments take good care to pass along every dollar
 possible of the burden to ultimate con-
 sumers. Lower taxes are needed quite
 as much in the interest of those mod
 est incomes as in the interest of those
 earning larger incomes.
 Washington had better get it into its
 head that tax relief will be demanded
 without more than a years delay.