Evening star., 1926-12-05
AUTO INTERESTS HOLD
TIME RIPE FOR TAX CUT
2O,OOO,OOO Car Owners Will Be Backed
by Makers and Dealers in Eight
at This Session.

it touches the 20,0o0,0O0 who own
cars.
This number, of course. will not buy
automobiles this year or next, but
within five years at the outside there
will have been a turnover of approx
mately 20.000,0 cars. This estimate
is based on the aggregate sales for
the past three years and the fact that
the present car owner is a certain
prospect for future purchases.
Deny Auto Is Luxury.
Defenders Of the tax on the ground
that the automobile is a luxury and
those who are able to afford it should
not complain of the excise levy get
the refined equivalent of heated re-
ioinder wherever they voice this con-
clusion.
Such a position lost it's tenability
years ago, they are told. The domi-
lant place taken by the automobile as
I medium of individual transportation
has taken all force from this argu-
ment.
In addition to the fact that it is the
greatest medium of personal transpor
tation. they declare unhesitatingly
that the automobile is foremost in the
movement of food, fuel, raw material
iIlu Hid dHuIdCluIeu oOIIS
figures can be made to lie, they will
concede. but theirs on this point they
are willing to lay open to the most
rigorous inspection.
Ninety per cent Of all the passenger
cars in America have a relatively i'm
portant utilitaGian value. Five mil
lion cars and trucks are used by
farmers.
What, they ask. has been the basic
factor in the great suburban move
ment that is taking hundreds of thou
sands from metropolitan centers into
the healthful outlying sections? The
automobile is the answer.
! luxury? Far from it, they say.
No one is organized for the myriad
activities Of modern life without a
car.
The whole life of the Nation is
bound inextricably in the less fet-
tered movement of the automobile
Lifting the last of war taxes from
1t is contributing to the welfare of
all, they maintain.
Consumers Would Benefit.
On the subject of whether the tax
reduction would be passed on to the
consumer, the National Automobile
Chamber Of Commerce has this to
say:
while the tax is collected from
the manufacturers. it Is not paid
by them, but is passed on to their
consumers, the owners of the 20,-
600. 600 motor vehicles now plying
the highways of the Nation. All
the presidents of the leading auto
mobile factories have pledged them
selves by personal letter that the re-
peal of this tax will be passed on
to the consumer and the delivered
price lowered to the extent of the
tax relief.
THE annual purchase of auto
mobiles in the United states Is
about equal to the number of per-
sons making tax payments to the
Federal Government. Consequently,
the relief afforded by a repeal of
this tax would be as general in
character as any other relief grant
ed to the individual taxpayer"
Hope that Congress will act on
their appeal is held by the agencies
in the thick of the fight for n!in,;na-
ton of the tax. They base this hope
on the fact that at each session of
Congress since the war taxes have
been reduced and some of the dis
criminatory wartime levies re-
moved.
Leaders of both political parties
frequently have stated that all of
these taxes should be repealed as
soon as revenue needs permit.
The time now is ripe for such ac
ton, it Is argued.
Regardless of the outcome. the
well laid plans of the motoring in
,,1o thpi, hnf
Congress assures that the coming
session will not be without one Of
its most colorful tax issues--tnat
provided by a motoring public that
believes 1t is being Disseminated
against