The American issue. [volume] (Westerville, Ohio) 1912-19??, 1928-05-01

nomic issues involved in the drink queS-
ton?
THE CRUX OF THE WHOLE MATTER
But perhaps Mr.. du Pont is thinking
straighter than we suppose. Perhaps the
answer, however, may be found in the fol-
lowing remarkable statement by Mr.. du
Pont. We will let him speak for himself:
"As our average income tax collec-
lions for the years 1923-1926 from in
diVidualS and corporations were ST.
817000,0 900, resulting in a considerable
surplus, it is fair to say that the Brit
iSh liquor policy applied in the United
States would permit of the total abo-
lition of the income tax both personal
and corporate. Or, this liquor tax
would be sufficient to pay off the en-
tire debt of the United States, interest
and principal, in little less than fiji
teen years.
DO WE NOT HAVE HERE THE GIST
OF MIR. DU POINTS THINKING? He,
forsooth, would like to be relieved of the
payment of his income tax and take it out
of the drinkers homes of America. Such
drinking as is being done today is admit
tedly being done largely by the rich. The
actual economic loss to the world in gen.
eral caused by those who drink today is
not SO great as it would be if taken from
the earnings of the man who has only
sufficient for the necessities and the COM
forts and a few Of the minor luXuries for
himself and family. Economically con-
sidered, what does it matter if Mr. du
Points income tax-paying friends with an
income of million or so should spend
ten, twenty-five or fifty thousand year
for booze and on that should pay tax
levied by the government? That would be
a mere bagatelle as compared with release
from the payment of income tax on mil
lion dollar incomes, and Mr.. du Points in
come taX-paying friends for whom he APP
parently holds a brief would gladly eX-
change position with their English tax
paying brothers. Do 1De not haze here the
cruT OF the 1DIlole matter? This is not the
first time that such an argument has been
advanced. An employer of labor about
year ago advanced the same theory that
if we were to place Great Britain's tax
upon and permit the sale of liquor, the
employees of the factories could pay the
taxes now being paid by the employer.
This is indeed sordid argument and does
not belong to the twentieth century, but
it is the plain unvarnished argument Of
this chairman of the Board of Directors of
a great corporation
mo WOnQer UflaC Ufle rank ana HE OF the
producing class of America do not respond
to that kind of an argument. No wonder
that this numerically large group has seen
and appreciates the value of the prohibi-
ton policy and has at each succeeding
election registered their approval of the
men who have given America a chance to
accept prohibition and who also endorse
those men who stand for its rigid appli-
cation and enforcement
No, Mr.. du Pont, you cannot fool the
people of America. That kind of finan-
cial, economic sophistry will not find it's
way into their pocketbooks. To use an
old American phrase the average Ameri-
can head of the family and the average
co-partner in that headship, recently en-
dowed with suffrage, know very well
(which side of their bread is buttered."
No, no, Mr.. du Pont, you will have to fig
ure some other way to get rid of paying
income tax without unloading it on a new
crop of drinkers in America. Is this the
reason why the president of the Pennsyl-
vania Railway Company and other rep