The Bismarck tribune., 1925-06-13
SENATE CHIEF
DEMANDS NEW
TAX MEASURE
CONTINUED from page one)

of our dollars on some great enter
prise and buying the brains and the
labor to put it through. This takes
idle money looking for investment
and you will not find it at the ap-
pointed hour if you tax it to death.
During the Great War the Amer
lean people accepted excessive rates
of taxation with patience and with
out complaint, and are entitled to
great credit for the sacrifices they
made in order that our armies might
win the war. They had the right
to believe that after the war was
over they would be relieved in large
part from the excessive burdens
they had borne without complaint.
Burdens Repealed
MANY. of the war tax burdens
have been repealed by the Congress
including the so-called excess profits
tax and the small taxes on transfers,
annoyance than they did revenue.
The general trend of tax legislation
has been downward, but nevertheless
the burden resting on the larger
accumulation of capital has remained
in the confiscatory class. The prob
lem we have to solve is whether it
is wise from the standpoint of the
whole people to allow the conditions
to continue. What | have just said
applies. to the inheritance tax as
well as to the income tax.
During the summer of 1917 we
passed the first war tax bill and IN
creased the normal tax to per cent
and pyramided the surtaX until the
highest tax levied reached as much
as 81 per cent of the income in
volved. This was war and only war
could justify the confiscation of
mems property, for it matters not
whether you take the principal or
the interest, when the government
absorbs 67 per cent of either it
amounts to confiscation. After the
war was over, in 1919 with the war
debts unpaid and not provided for,
with an inflamed public sentiment
against the war profiteers reflect
ing itself into the halls of the
Congress, an act was passed that it
wilt always be hard to justify, ex-
cept by the desire of the legislator
to reach back in the war year of
1918 and take from the profiteer a
large part of his war profits. The
normal rates were made IL per cent
for 1918 and slightly lesser rates in
1919 anu lSGO, Dul Cie sui CoA law
commencing in 1918 was to remain.
of five thousand dollars and increas-
ed until it reached a maximum of
65 per cent or total tax of II per
cent on the larger incomes.
Reaction Set In
"In 1921 a reaction in public SEN
timent set in and the Congress re-
sponded in part in favor of reducing
the manifest burdens of taxation.
The House of Representatives passed
a bill making I; general reduction all
along the line, bringing the maxlum
surtaX down to 80 per cent, but the
Senate would not accept the House
bill and adopted amendments pro-
viding for higher rates. When the
bill came out of Conference and was
adopted, the Senate had won it's con-
tention and the act provided for a
normal tax of 8 per cent and maxi
mum surtax rate Of so per cent max
ing the total highest tax SO per
cent.
"The revenue Act of 1924 should
have relieved the country Of large
part of the war taxes assessed
against it. The Secretary of the
Treasury recommended that the ex-
listing surtax rate be cut in two and
general reduction be made all
along the line. He pointed out that
the confiscatory rates of war taxa
tion had driven the great incomes
into tax exempt securities and that
gained revenue thereby. The result
was a reduction in some of the low
er brackets, but the maximum sur
tax rate was left at 40 per cent
making total high tax rate of DC
per cent when the normal tax was
added
can increase in. estate taxes to i
maximum of 40 per cent was car
ried in the bill without any justifi-
cation, unless you are an advocate
of the confiscation| theory. We now
face the problem again. Shall we
again make an honest effort to re-
duce the burden of, taxation that
rests on our country? Seven years
after the signing of the Armistice
shall we continue to levy taxes that
only war conditions could justify
What do you want with taxes except
to meet governmental expenses
Who knows most about what money
is needed to run the Government
the men who actually run it or the
men who make the laws and are not
part of the executive branch that
spends the money? AS far back 'as
1919 Carter Glass, "a Democratic
Secretary of the Treasury, in his an
nual report to the Congress, declared
that the high surtaxes had already
passed the point of productivity and
were driving capital from the field
of development and stimulating
c,,1 1,1
ditures.
Become a Menace
at was in the closing days of tho
Wilson Administration that Mr.
Houston, then Secretary Of the