Evening star., 1925-09-20
81 JOHN T. FLYNN.

7 MAGINE a man laboriously driv.
ing his cart loaded with his wares
along a city street. From the
Il roofs of the buildings, from be.
hind doors, out Of the windows of
the houses. from alleyways and cross
streets, sharpshooters are taking pot
shots at the hard-pressed little man on
his cart. The little man represents
the American business man. The cart
represents American business. The
sharpshooters are the tax collectors of
States, cities, counties and Nation
And they are shooting the cart full of
holes.
That is the picture of American bust.
ness I carried away from a talk with
Luctus S. Storrs, the new managing
director of American street railways
who has just tackled the problem of
standing the trolley companies of the
country on their feet and keeping
them there.
Utilities Hit Hard.
I had been reading in the papers
about the extraordinary volume OF
business in this country. The stores
sold more goods this Summer than In
any. other Summer In history. The
wholesalers report bigger sales vol
ume. The railroads loaded more cars
with freight few weeks ago than in
any other week in their long careers
Factories have begun to turn out more
goods. Everything looks rosy. Even
the street railways carried more pas
sengers, including their supplemental
GUS service. But what Is the good OF
all this II there is no profit in it? And
II there Is no profit in it, l gathered
from Mr. SfNrrc io te, ho
cause there Is a gang of tax gatherers
hanging around the merchants cash
register, the theater box office, the
railroad ticket Office. the pay window
at the factory, looking for the lions
share OF the receipts. And the tax
gobbler that seemed to worry Mr.
Storrs most is the fellow representine
Nation, city and State, who rides with
the trolley conductor and grabs the
fare of every tenth passenger that
boards the car.
St0rrs Studies Taxes.
1 called on Mr.. Storrs because
knew he had been making a study O,
public utility taxation. And / expected
to find him more or less merry over
the recent announcement that Presi
dent Coolidge hoped to carve some
vooVpVVOpVVV oul VI Tic IlOuS6nOiQ 6X
penses of the Federal Government
next year. Mr.. Storrs was pleased
with this. of course. But his merri
ment was under perfect control Ir
fact. his smiles over the Federal ta1
cut were very much moistened by hi.
tears over the enormous tax eXac
tions OF the States and cities.
Il think" said Mr.. Storrs, "thi.
whole question of taxing business is {
little too serious to be treated lightly
or course. we are delighted at the fins
program Of economy which Presiden
Coolidge is imposing on the genera
Government. And we applaud Gov
ernment economy wherever we find 1t
Last year about IL States reduce,
their tax rates. That was fine. Blu
when the year was over American
business found its bill for taxes highel
than ever. because for every State tina
| cut its taxes there were two that in
| creased theirs.
State Expenses Grow.
Just consider these figures for ,
moment. In 1917 the cost Of runnins
the State governments was $4,000,
600. Five years later the cost wa.
1880. 100000. That means that Stat,
government expenses increased an av
erage OF 80 per cent a year for fivt
years. Today the expenses are greater
still. The same thing is true of THE
cities. Take the cities of over 10o, ,0O(
population. In 1923 they increased
their running costs per cent, ant
they boosted 1t again last year. TIL,
smaller cities had an even worse rec
ord. They lacked up their operatine
costs Is per cent in the same time"
Where does the burden of thes,
taxes fall heaviest?" asked.
We'll. there are a lot of people wht
think that 1t Is easy to make the ricl
pay these taxes. But that is the
greatest folly in public affairs. The