Evening star., 1935-08-08
BUSINESS REVIEWS
TAX BILL ASSAULT
AS HEARINGS END
Senate Finance Committee
Will Begin Drafting
Tomorrow.
HEAVY ATTACK MADE
BY CHAMBER OFFICIAL
Alvord Urges Further Study of
Revenue Problem Before En-.
acting Measure.

After nnal assault from business
leaders, the Senate Finance Com
mittee today concluded its hearings
on the administration tax bill and
Chairman Harrison announced execu-
tive sessions would begin tomorrow to
consider revisions.
Senator Harrison declined to ex-
press any opinion on whether the bill
will be greatly rewritten from the
form in which it was approved by the
House. However. the tenor of ques-
tIoning by several committee members
has indicated that changes are in
store for the legislation.
Meanwhile, the tax fight broke out
on the Senate floor where Senator
Vandenberg, Republican. of Michigan,
asserted that the proposed Inherit
ance levies would drive the Ford
Motor Co. Into the hands of Wall
Street"
Declaring he spoke for himself and
not for the Fords. Vandenberg called
and said:
"Bluntly, it tthe Ford Coz will be
driven into the hands of Wall Street.
or its equivalent; and the money
changers, who have striven vainly in
years past to achieve this end. and
whom this administration says it pro-
poses to drive from the temple, will
have been handed the dominion
which in no other manner could be
obtained"
Sees Tax Taking Most of Estate.
Assuming the Ford Co. is worth
half a billion dollars and that Henry
Ford's total estate will be $500, 900 ,00o,
he said, the proposed inheritance levy,
on top OF the existing estate tax,
would take $270, 900 900 of that.
In an effort to complete committee
consideration of the legislation Har-
rison said the executive meetings will
continue through tomorrow afternoon.
perhaps in the evening. and again
Saturday. The committee hopes to
report the measure to the Senate in
time for consideration there on Mon
Gay or Tuesday
The broadest attack on the bill to-
day came from Ellsworth C. Alvord,
former special assistant to the Secre-
tary of the Treasury and now repre-
senting the United States Chamber
Of Commerce He formerly was legis-
lative counsel for Congress on tax
matters
Alvord urged the committee to allow
further study of the revenue problem
before attempting to enact legisla-
tion, but went further to say that II
the administration would conflne its
efforts to restoring business prosperity
it would find new tax legislation un-
necessary. Present rates. he said.
would raise sufficient income under
normal conditions.
Excess Profits Levy Hit.
The first attacks today were directed
at the excess profits levy.
F. r. Gamble. representing the
American Association of Advertising
Agencies, spoke first in opposition to
the increases, particularly as they
would apply to such personal services
as advertising.
Alvord. the second witness. then
scored vigorously the imposition of
such q levy.
AN excess profits tax on corporate
earnings violates all principles of tax
alton normally accepted as sound"
Alvord said. 'It is capricious, in
equitable and uncertain. 1t penalties
conservatively managed enterprises
and discriminates against them and
in favor of inflationistic corporate
finance. Even the excess profits tax of
1918, representing probably the best
which could be devised, was admit
tedly unsound, unfair and discrimina-
tory. Tax liabilities were controlled
largely by fortuitous circumstances
having nothing to do with income or
ability to pay.
Liability Not Definite.
"The excess profits tax proposed in
the pending bill violates every funda-
mental canon of taxation. Liability
for the tax can be neither certain nor
definite The tax is based upon
purely arbitrary and fictitious figure.
having no conceivable relation to the
reasonableness of the income or the
capacity to pay Liability for the tax
is not determined by real values or
existing facts. Luck in guessing flu
ture income Is the governing factor.
Taxation of this nature Is merely
lottery.
THE capital stock tax imposed by
the 1884 act is exceedingly objection
able and should be amended to permit
an annual declaration of value. But
an attempt to use it as basis for
an excess-profits tax at the sharply
graduated rates proposed in the bill
is wholly without Justification. Un-
equal burdens, unfair determinations,