Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-05-01
TOO HIGH TAXES
ARE ATTACKED BY
C. OF c. SPEAKERS
"Ruinous Governmental Ex-
penditures" Are AssaiIed
at Session.
BUSINESS MEN URGED
TO SEEK CURTAILMENT
President Hoover Will Address
Delegates at Final Banquet,
Scheduled for Tonight.

Big business, as represented by the
United States Chamber of Commerce,
trained its guns today on the Nations
tax muddle" and paved the way for
the final session Of the chamber to-
night by series of attacks on the high
costs of taxation and "ruinous gov
ernmental expenditures"
Following the adoption Of resolutions
putting the national chamber on record
on administration policies affecting the
business, agricultural and industrial life
of the Nation, the 5000 delegates will
hear President Hoover give the princi-
pal address at tonight's final banquet
in the Washington Auditorium. The
President has not announced his topic,
but is expected to address himself to
the business issues Of the day and the
outlook for the future.
Addressing the fourth general ses-
sion of the chamber this morning,
Felix M. McWhirter, indianapolis
banker, described the Nations tax stu
alton as "a combination Of many mud
dies" and urged business men to take
aggressive steps toward curtailing pub
lie expenditures before damage became
''irreparable."
Urges Cut in Budgets.
Americas present taxes, he claimed,
are "inequitable, too high, too numer-
Gus and too complicated"
Fred w. Sargent, president OF the
Chicago & Northwestern Railway, adj
dressed the chamber Immediately fol-
lowing to recommend measures for i'm
proving the taxation system as 1t affects
business interests.
McWhirter said he believed 1--WE al
ready are spending for public purposes
a much larger proportion Of our income
than Is prudent and that substantial
immediate reduction is paramount ne,
cessity, especially in State and local
"All Government-Federal State and
LOCALS spending nearly $4,000, 600, 00o
a year" he warned. Annually for the
last i've years this amount has In
creased about $500, 900, 000."
The year to year increase In taxes to
nav this enormous cost Of Government
must be retarded sharply or arrested
completely" McWhirter warned. Taxes
today, in the aggregate, have reached
the point Of confiscating property IN
sorbing generally q disproportion
part Of income. In this respect the
only alternative is less expenditure"
/ Mcwhirter said the question OF
whether taxes were too high is in reality
the question of whether expenditures
were too high. He asserted that since
| 1915 the wealth Of the Nation has
doubled and incomes had doubled, but
that public expenditures had increased
four times over and public debt seven
times over.
| Cites Comparative Data.
The Government today Is spending
three times as much per capita as In
1918, he added, and nearly twice as
large q proportion of national income
went to public uses In 1928 as In 1913
| At least one-Seventh of the Nations in
come is spent for public uses, he said
compared with one-fourteenth of the
income Is years ago. Reduced to work
| ing-day figures, he estimated 1t meant
a daily expenditure of about $40, 000, 900
None of these figures" he asserted
begins to touch the hidden costs Of
| taxation, the cost of keeping records fol
the sole purpose Of providing basis fol
| tax returns, the waste Of time, delays
and annoyanceS which come from pay
ing too many taxes to too many au-
| thorities"
McWhirter attributed part Of the
causes Of increased public expenditures
to an "overorganization of Govern
ment, failure to consolidate overlap
ping spending units and a failure to
keep governmental operating methods
and control of personnel in step with
private practices"
He said some progress had been made
in improving Federal taxation since
| 1922, adding:
I'VE cannot avoid the belief, however
that during the whole process of Fed
eral tax revision one eye of Congress
has been fixed upon purely political op-
portunitieS, while the other has rested