The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1927-12-14
TAX PROBLEM
Up TO VOTERS.
BROWN warns
Legislation Won't Help If 1t
Isn't Right Kind, Says
State Chairman.
CALL ANOTHER SESSION
Organizations Differ Widely
on Remedy Best Suited
to Indiana Needs.

"Indiana's complex tax problems
will not be solved by legislation if
the people send to the Legislature
a house full of Railroads who have
been there in the past" declared
John j. Brown, chairman of the
Indiana State tax board, obeying
the impulse to be "brutally frank"
before the tax conference at the
Claypool Hotel Tuesday afternoon.
Agreement Of farmer, banker,
lawyer, merchant, manufacturer
and laboring man on legislative
remedy for the States tax ills was
the Utopia toward which fourteen
State organizations were pointed at
the meeting.
Differing widely in opinions as to
how the remedy is to be achieved,
representatives of the organizations
were in unaniInity on one point
that a change effecting a more
equitable division Of the tax burden
is desirable.
On that basis, decision was
reached to survey the tax situation
from every angle and to hold an
other meeting in about sixty days,
when sleeves will be rolled up and
an effort made to work out tax
legislation fairly agreeable to all.
Want Equal Burden
zone of the important things, as
I see it," Brown said, land 1 have
always believed in being brutally
frank about matters of this char
acter, is that we are confronting a
situation wherein everybody desires
to increase expenditures, and, as has
been suggested here, wants to push
the burden over on to somebody
else.
"The great problem Is to equalize
and the proper distribution OF the
burden of taxation is necessarily i'm
posed upon any government.
zone Of the essential things that
it seems to me has not been touched
upon, is that you men, in your varl-
Gus communities, should study the
personnel of the men who are going
to represent you in the Legislature.
Lets don't have a houseful OF
Railroads who have been there IN
the past.
"Elect men who will have at heart
what is for the best interests Of the
most people and who will work i'm
partially upon the subject Of taxa
ton"
Thirty Give Views
c. Oliver Holmes, Indiana Bank
ers' Association president, presided
at the conference, the associations
tax committee having been instru-
mental in arranging the meeting.
Thirty men representing organ1za-
tons vitality concerned with taxa
ton were called upon for f1ve-min-
ute expressions of their views Tues
day.
William C. Harrison, attorney and
former Secretary of the State Tax
Board, opened the conference with
a review of the increasing complex
ity Of the tax problem.
Utilities Will Halt
H. S. Morse, manager of the In
dianapolis Water Company anc
chairman of the Indiana Utilities
Association tax committee, said
utilities would cooperate in studying
the problem.
G. w. Starr, head Of Indiana Uni
versity's business research depart
ment, said the department gladly
would make an unbiased tax survey
if the organizations would get to-
gether and decide what facts they
wanted.
John E. Friedrich of Kokomo, State
Chamber of Commerce president,
warned that efforts of the organ
izations would be defeated if they
"sat around The table and quarreled
over their own private interests"
Farmers Voice Cooperation
Farmers, whose interest in tax re-
vision are regarded as paramount,
spoke their willingness to join hands
in working out solution, through
L. L. Needler, representing the In
diana Farm Bureau Federation, and
w. H. NewSome of Columbus, In
diana State Grange.
Harrison is to call the next tax
conference when organizations in
form him they have completed in
dividual Investigations.