Evening star., 1943-07-11
Battle Due This Fall
On Forced SAVINGS
Or Additional Taxes
By the Associated Press.

By the Associated Press.
The administration and Congress
are heading for a showdown on the
issue OF compulsory savings versus
direct taxes when the lawmakers
return from a summer recess.
Leaders said yesterday the con-
troversary may be one Of the hot
test that has marked enactment Of
any revenue bill.
Chairman George of the Senate
Finance Committee told reporters
before he left for a vacation that
the question of inaugurating sys-
tenn by which the Government will
make individuals save their money
to prevent inflationary spending
necessarily will claim the attention
Of Congress in the autumn.
Without disclosing his point of
view, Majority Leader Barkley said
he believed a projected new revenue
bill, on which the House Ways and
Means Committee will 60 to work
September 8, will present the major
issue before Congress when 1t re-
turns.
Plan to Be Drafted.
Senator George said that the staff
of the Joint Committee on Internal
Revenue, which he heads, had been
instructed to cooperate with Treas
ury experts in drafting plans for
presentation to the legislators.
There has been much opposition
In Congress to the assessment of any
additional direct taxes against indi-
viduals, on the grounds that the
present rates extract about all the
revenue from that source that the
trafic will bear.
Senator George and others have
contended that any effort directed
primarily toward whiting consumer
purchasing power necessarily must
take into account some form of
compulsory savings through which
the individual will get a postwar
rebate.
Secretary Morgenthau and Treas
ury officials thus far have opposed
enforced bond purchases, preferring
the voluntary method under which
the Government now raises the
funds to finance its tremendous
borrowing for war expenditures.
Special Levy Is Possible.
Senator George said if Congress
decides to place much discussed
excess income tax on individuals-
special levy on the increased
amount they are earning in the war
period over some basic normal
period-it should take the form of
postwar savings instead of direct
taxes.
When the new pay as you go"
revenue bill was before Congress,
President Roosevelt said in letters
to Senator George and Chairman
Doughton of the Ways and Means
Committee that tax program of
proportions necessary to finance the
war and to curb imitation must in
evitably reach far down into the
income scale" Rates in the higher
brackets are already so high that
substantial additional taxation
cannot be imposed upon these
groups" he contended.
However, Senator Vandenberg,
Republican, of Michigan said there
is doubt in his mind that Congress
can add much to either individual
or corporation taxation.
The return of Congress in the fall
also may see action on bipartisan
demands for appointment of a
group of specialists to help the law
makers rule on the huge wartime
appropriations counted now in bill
lions, belittling the millions that
once seemed big.
Maloney Proposal Supported.
Before the recess, Republicans
generally applauded the suggestion
of Senator Maloney, Democrat, of
Connecticut, that the Appropria-
tions Committees of the House and
Senate be given permanent staff
of experts to recheck all depart
mental requests for funds
Senator Truman, Democrat. of
Missouri, an Appropriations Com
mittee member, said he was con-
vinced that the military spenders
particularly should be called strict
ly to account for construction and
other funds"
Senator Nye, Republican, of North
Dakota, suggested also some new
plan be adopted for speeding ap-
preparation bills "in order to ex-
pedite their consideration to avoid
leaving Congress with log-jam of
bills at the end of the fiscal year
on which it must act without the
time it should devote to their con-
sideration."