The Washington times., 1932-06-04
S25O0 PAY SLASH EXEMPTION DEBATED
W. R. Hearst Denounces
Shotgun Taxation
Methods Of Congress

Following is the text of the address on Painfm
and Painless Taxation," made by WiYiam Randolph
Hearst last night nationqOide netqOork of the
National Broadcasting Company. Mr.. Hearst spoke
from Station KFI at Los Angeles:
MY FRIENDS, Congress is about to pass it's
WI tax bill, and very iniquitous one The
suit of this bill will be great lesson to
Congress and the country in the year to come, but
doubtless the lesson will do good if survive it.
The situation is little like the case of the gen.
tleman who was being hanged and who said just
before the trap was sprung:
"This is going to be great lesson to me-"
Well the tax bill is going to be the same kind
of lesson to us.
Of course the Government has to have some kind
of additional revenue. The cost of Government has
increased from one billion dollars year in 1918
to five billion dollars year in 1881, and the only
important economies which Congress can think Of
are destroying our national defense and demoraliz
ing our national defenders.
Sothe question then is not whether we shall pay
additional taxes, but what kind of additional taxes
we shall pay?
WE CANNOT profitaby increase tariff taxa
w ton.
Why? Because tariff taxation is now so high
that it is very largely excluding foreign goods from
the country; and the Government gets tax returns
goods which do not come in.
Therefore, higher tariff rates would probably
exclude more goods and bring less returns instead
of more.
We cannot get the benefit of the thousand mil
lion dollars per year the Government might get
from sumptuary excise taxation.
Why? Because the good people of the country
who adopted the policy of prohibition in the hope
that it would prove a temperance and generally
moral measure, are not yet convinced that it is
happily an intemperance and immoral measure.
When these good people are convinced, we will
have the sale and distribution of alcoholic bev-
erages regulated by the Government, as in Canada,
with an income therefrom of thousand million
dollars year.
D UT these good people may not be convinced for
- some years yet, and in the meantime we will
have to get along with the crime and drunkenness
and corruption and WITHOUT the income.
"But we CAN increase the income taxes" say
you.
We can, but President Wilson, the great Demo-
cratic leader, has warned against too high income
taxes and President Coolidge, the great Republi-
can leader, has warned against too high income
taxes, and Secretary Mellon, one OF our greatest
Secretaries of the Treasury, has warned against
them, and all financial authorities warn us.
Why do they warn us?
Because high income taxes too radically reduce
incomes and reduced incomes means less spend
ing, and less spending means less prosperity.
D USINESS is merely matter of buying and
- selling, and naturally the less buying there is
the less business there is, and the fewer people
there are employed in selling and in producing
goods to sell.
The market crash of 1929 and the consequent
depression have already heavily reduced incomes
and made buying less, and business bad; and if we
further heavily reduce incomes, we will merely
make buying still less and business still worse.
Moreover, there is strong probability that in
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