Askov American. [volume] (Askov, Pine County, Minn.) 1914-current, 1932-11-03

can be shifted by the landlord to the
tenant in the form of increased rents.
The taxes on farm lands are least
capable of any of being shifted. I'm
der normal agricultural conditions the
farmer can rarely shift his taxes to
others for he cannot fix the prices of
either the things he sells or the
things he buys.
"'Can an income tax be- shifted?
While some hold to the view that such
taxes cast burden on the consuming
public, NEST students of taxation hold
ITO the theory that the burden of a
general income tax ordinarily rests
upon the taxpayer upon whom the tax
is first imposed. Only in very rare
cases can the burden of an income
tax be shifted to others. This con-
clusion is quite generally cOncurred
in by tax administrators in states
having effective income tax laws
1T is apparent from the above that
the members of the Minnesota Tax
Commission lack also little study
of high school economies quoting the
former governor. The three commits
siOners making the above report were
his appointeeS. / take their view
point and feel that Mr.. ChristiansOn's
argument is that of the opposition to
of the matter is that the opponents of
the income tax argue about as the
former governor Tax reform cannot
be brought about by lip service but
it must have aggressive and militant
leadership.
Mr.. ChriStianSOn says corporations
carry all taxes as an overhead. How
ever that does not apply to the indi-
vidual stakeholder of the corporation
Furthermore, corporations will not
pay an income tax if they do not show
profit. Wisconsin corporations or
corporations of any state where they
have corporation income taxes have
met the competition of Minnesota cor
porations or the corporations of other
states that have not had the income
tax.
"The former governor says that our
national wealth amounts to two hun
dred billions Of dollars and our debt
is one hundred and fifty billions. Now
we are paying Tor attempting to pay)
interest on this debt. The amount
of this interest is about nine billion
dollars annually and since the debts
are carried at a fixed rate of inter-
est it is hard to see how the coupon
81 Of 20
their incomes from this source, es-
pecially on the interest from the
great bulk of it-$120,OO0, 900, 900,
which represents the private debt.
'Mr. Christensen seems to have
very grave doubts that an income tax
will help to shift the tax burden from
the poor to the rich and still he
claims that he has made enemies of
the rich by advocating such a tax
If the rich are opposed to the income
tax is not that the best possible proof
that it DOES affect them?
1.-The fact that taxes take $40 or
more of the farmers income is known
to many of our readers as have COM
mented on that frequently in the ad-
vOcacy of state income tax There
must be shifting of the burden of
taxation. Economy in government as
well as private affairs is a good thing
to practice and is undisputable.
IF we permit the strong to go I'M
restrained it will wipe out the funda-
mentals of moral laws and justice.
''In his Askov speech Mr.. Christian
son talked much on economy but got
over armament expenditures quickly.
The editorial of Sept. 29th, said that
about 20 per cent of the federal ex-
penses are for ornaments or the
causes of war. There is a good place
to take ahold and cut. When we
set out to cut expenses it is natural
that we can reduce more from the
20 per cent than can be reduced
from the 80 per cent. The 80 per cent
expense of the federal government
takes care of the executive, legisla-
tive and judicial branches, all de-
partments including agriculture, fed
eral roads, etc.-in fact all federal
expenses outside of militarism. Who
wants militarism? Isn't it the crowd
that Mr.. ChristiansOn is batting with
hn trAo