Evening star., 1936-10-28

ton as they discover the mammoth
pay roll tax. The New Deal, on the
other hand, is charging that employ
ers are not telling all of the story,
namely, that the pay roll tax has to
be paid by the employer as well as
the employe.
This has only served, however, to
make matters worse when the work.
ers find out all the facts. For when
the laboring men learn that, while the
employe only pays per cent a year,
the employer has to pay 2 per cent
next year, and per cent the next and
4 per cent the next, they recognize
that such a burden cannot be imposed
without being passed on in higher
prices on food and other costs of liv-
ing, or that it cannot be carried and
yet have increases in wages also
granted.
$I,120,0O0,0 900 Next Year.
"There goes my raise" said one
workman, as he found out what the
employer was up against for the next
three years. incidentally, workers and
employers will have to pay for So
called social security" taxes about
s1.l20, 900, 900 next year, and this Is
more than was collected in 1929 from
all income tax collections from indi-
viduals in the country. 1t amounts
also to nearly the amount that was
paid in corpora ton taxes alone in
1929, and it greatly exceeds what was
paid last year in corporate taxes.
The new taxes eventually, under the
present plan, will take $4,000, ,000, 900
. year out of industry in addition to
Ill other taxes.
But the direct tax on the pay en-
velope is the real sensation. Hereto
fore only about 100000 persons have
ever paid a direct tax on incomes to
the Federal Government. Now 26.-
100000 are going to pay a direct tax
on their pay envelopes beginning next
January. From bookkeeping point
of view-keeping track of 1.-THE job
is colossal.
Already the bureauracy in the Ma
tional Capital is overf1ow1ng and Is
seeking Office space in Baltimore.
Can People Be Sold?
But the educational task-selling
the idea to the peole- even
greater.
Can the benefits, for instance, that
come to a person at IS be sold to
the average person of Is or 80 years
of age now? Will not that person
prefer to make his or her own ar
rangements to buy social security
through life insurance and to pay for
1t annually, not weekly, If desired?
Will the workers accept a compulsory
plan or demand of Congress a repeal?
Employers have begun to notify
their employees that in less than 80
days a pay roll tax goes into effect.
Workmen are beginning to ask ques-
tions. Many cannot be answered with
out q lawyer. Here are some Of the
queries:
What right has the Federal Gov
ernment to break into the pay en-
velope of the working man."
Recalls Court Ruling.
NV own answer Is that it has no
right, that the Supreme Court Of the
United States said, in the famous
railway pension case in 1885, that
taxes levied on one group for the ben
eft Of another are unconstitutional.
In this instance the employer is
lated, not for the support of the ex-
oenses of the General Government
but for pensions and unemployment
tsurance-benefits to be bestowed on
ne group at the expense Of another
coup.
"Why does the Roosevelt admins
tntion put into effect an unconstitu-
tisnal law in the face of that de-
ci,ion?"
My answer to this is that the Roose-
veE regime does not regard the de-
cisions of the Supreme Court in one
case as binding on it in another.
is there no way the tax can be
held up till the constitutional question
in the pay roll tax law Is decided?'
Inhnctions May Balk Collections.
There is, If the Federal courts will
grant lnjunctions next January against
collection of this tax, just as they did
against the collection Of the process
ing tax, which was later held uncon-
stitutiorRl.
I mention the above questions as
typical because I have been informed
that the workers are asking them.
They might ask many more. One, for
instance, that comes to mind Is:
Why, if the Federal Government can
tax the pay roll today for one pur-
pose, can't 1t tax the pay roll tomor-
row for something else? Once con-
cede, the validity of the pay roll tax
and Congress then has q wide grant
Of power to levy taxes on pay rolls
for any purpose that it conceives to
be for the general welfare"
There are a lot of pamphlets be-
ing circulated about the pay roll tax.
Some employers are obviously trying
to influence votes by it because they
refer In their notices to New Deal
legislation and ask the workmen to
decide on November what they want
to do about it.. They tell them frankly
that Gov. Landon IS pledged to repeal
the law. There may or may not be
anything wrong in laying ones views
before employees. The Roosevelt ad-
ministration not only lays its political
views before Federal employees, but
collects money from them for cam
paign purposes.
Some Notices Impartial.
But the fairest notice to employees
which have seen Is that which does
not mention politics at all and clearly
shows that the employer has to pay
1 tax on the pay roll, too.
It is wholly within the right OF the
employers to send out such notice,
and many of them consider 1t q duty
to do so because. within few weeks
the workers budgets win have to Be
adjusted anyway, to take care Of the