The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1933-06-09
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National Topics Interpreted - fSYVTRFTFA
by William Bruckart IaEn37fF

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I good many of them that have voted
dry over and over again.
But we must not forget the power
full leverage that Mr.. Farley exerted in
the matter of taxes. / think it is a
fact that there is not a state in the
union where taxes are not the subject
of complaint. The taxes laid by the
federal government also have been
criticized plentifully during the depres-
sion. So when the President says and
congress agrees that additional taxes
are necessary to pay for public work
| to stimulate business recovery, it is
not unnatural that mighty howl was
heard. It always is easy to complain
about taxes and it is easier to COM
| plain about them in hard times.
The Roosevelt administration, with
Mr.. Farley waving the magic wand,
promptly told congress and the coun-
try that all of these new taxes could
be repealed If prohibition would be re-
pealed. They won't be in effect a
month longer than the Eighteenth
amendment, said the administration.
Taxes from liquor will more than
offset the levies lately put through by
congress, for the records show that
| liquor taxes in the days before the
| Eighteenth amendment was adopted
were yielding something like $350,0OO,-
600 annually. The present addition to
the tax list will produce only an esti-
mated $225O0O,O00, so there will be
some to spare if the old figures hold.
The country has just witnessed an
other "show" staged by senate COM
mittee. This time,
| ProbeMorgdnan investigation dis
Sec~eee closed for the first
time the secrets of
the House of Morgan, the greatest pri-
vate banking firm the world has ever
known, and one about which there al
ways has been a veil of mystery con-
cealing it's affairs from prying eyes.
The firm of J. P. Morgan and company
is firm of 20 partners; from the in
ception of the organization by ]. P.
Morgan, the elder, late last century,
people have known only that it was
banking firm of immense power, of
almost limitless resources and one not
subject to the laws governing CONNER
cial banking houses. The Morgan
partners, as their number increased,
always kept to the tradition that their
business was their business and that
despite the fact they constituted an
institution of enormous power, their
affairs should be treated like those of
any other individuals.
But the senate thought otherwise.
1t instructed it's banking committee to
dig around and see what this giant in
finance was. 1t has found out. The
country has been shown, in preSenta-
ton as dramatic as any great play
wright could have presented from his
Imagination, the naked truth about the
House of Morgan. The senate ma
jority that wanted to draw back the
curtain on the Morgan bank are tickled
about the Job. Ferdinand Pecora, a
Sicilian, who roseg to considerable
prominence in New York city, likewise
is tickled about the job, for he was
the lawyer hired by the committee to
handle the case And so another niche
has been cut by a senate investigation.
1t seems to me, however, that the
senate is not entitled to be praised
much for its job. After all, it may
be asked properly what has been &C
complished. 1t Exposed the House
of Morgan, it is true. 1t showed that
J. p. Morgan, the younger, and the
present head of the firm, escaped pay
ment of income taxes in two years,
and it got coolies of publicity for indi-
vidual senators and Mr.. Pecora, as well
as smearing the names of some well
known persons because they once had
dealt with the House of Morgan. 1t
showed as we'll that Mr.. Morgan had
used his brains to comply with the
very tax laws congress enacted and
vet had escaped tax because he had
received no income as congress had
defined that word.
One result may be, and believe 1t
Is the only one, that there will be some
revision of the tax
Tax Revision laws to prevent re-
Likely eurrence OF - the he cir Il.
the country's richest men escaping in
come tax. 1t is difficult to foresee
anything else of helpful nature that
can come from the "show" staged by
the senate committee. The reason is
a practical and simple one. AS ex-
planned above. the House of Morgan
is a private banking firm which by
long and honest operation has builded
confidence among the people of
wealth who deposited their money with
the private firm. 1t created good will
just as the local merchant in your
town has done, by preserving to those
who were its customers the rights they
were entitled to have. That local mer-
chant, by the way, could accept money
on deposit if he wanted to and his
customers wanted to make them.