The Daily Worker Newspaper, October 31, 1925, Page 7

RRR 3 ~ agencies “The idex becomes power when it pene- trates the masses.” —Karl Marx. SPECIAL MAGAZINE SUPPLEMENT THE DAILY WORKER. SATURDAY, OCTOBER 31, 1925. <qggm200 enn ee SECOND SECTION Thia magazine ‘supple ment will appear every Saturday In The Daily Worker, THE WORKERS AND TAXATION HE greatest task of capitalism is that of increasing its rate of prof- it. It pursues this task with greater persistency and greater expense of effort than any other aim. Profit is unpaid labor, Therefore, the increase of the rate of profit re- duces itself to the problem of reduc- ing the paid portion of labor in favor of the unpaid. Capitalism is doing everything pos- sible to increase tle productivity of labor, that is, to increase the total amount of labor given by the work- men per work day. This fact brings about a mechanical reduction of the Tate of wages, even tho the wages remain the same.. What really hap- pens is that the portion of paid labor remains stationary while the total amount of labor increases, thus in- creasing the portion of un’ aid labor. If possible capitalism also forces upon the workers the absolute reduction of the wages. But the decrease of wages ‘can also take an indirect form wh‘ch apparent- ly has nothing to do with conditions of employment. Such an indirect _ form of wage reduction is taxation. shee capitalist state is an agency of capitalism. Ordinarily capital- ism must’ support and maintain its thru contributions made from unpaid labor which is extracted from the workers in the form of prof- it. But its main agency, the state (government), capitalism makes the workers support and maintain thru _. taxation. . Thru t method the cap- © italists getoback Part of the wages ~ ‘they originally paid ttn ‘the workers: to ‘support their ifstitution, capital- _ ism. This we find, for instance, that thru a system of tariff, capitalism collects indirect taxes form the work- ers and achieves thereby, first, a sup port of its agency, the state, thru the workers, and second, a subsidy flowing into their pockets in the form of artificially maintained high prices for their’ own products. In other words, the: tariff is.a-form of taxa-|. tion “whi¢h artificially, extracts part of the money paid .to the worker jin} wages, and makes 4t flow back ‘into the pockets of the capitalists in the form: of Ligh profits. . This example Shows clearly that taxation is merely Another form of wage reduction, an) ‘addition ‘to the generally accepted method of exploitation, extracting un-}~ paid labor. This quality is characteristic of all form of taxation. It is for the reason that taxing the workers is a-means of increasing the profits of the cap- italists and their politicians | insist that the main burden of taxation be borné by the exploited, that is, the workers. In all countries, the art of ‘financing the state is in the last anal- ysis the art of extracting the highest - percentage of contributions to the up- “keep of the government from. the ‘The tendency therefore is “the workers, decrease the taxes of the exploiters, the rich. HE war with its extraordinary ex- penses made it necessary to let the capitalist pay a portion, even tho ‘an infinitesimal one, of the financial burden of the state. But ‘t was clear- ly understood that this. taxing the capitalists, was merely a war meas- ure. Since the passing of the war period there is going on an energetic _struggle for the discontinuation ' of ‘this practice. “Reduce the tax on the ae is the slogan. ; efforts of the secretary. of the ot United States, the millionaire r, Andrew Mellon, are characteristic in that respect. ‘tax. That such reduction could not be carried, on without at the same time reducing taxation on incomes of $2,000 or thereabouts was clear. But the reduction propagated ‘for Jower incomes was practically only’a nom- inal one, while the reduction on’ sur- tax of higher incomes’ was up ‘to 40 per cent. The reduction on high incomes. was propagated on the basis that a high tax stimulates the. investment by many. of tax free securities. But this argument is sheer nonsense. First, there is only a limited amount of such securities. And even these are al- ready placed in the hands of invest- ors. High taxes and big iticomes taxes on incomés below $5,000 is rejected by Mr. Mellon on the ground that the payment+of taxes by people who. derive their total income from wages or salaries’ gives» them some sense of ownership in the govern- ment. This'is a nice little joke on Mr. Mellon. The big capitalists do not need to get their sense of owner- ship thru taxation. _ Their sense of ownership is derived from the fact that their lawyers and attornies are}. at the same time the congressmen, the senators, the secretaries of state, and the presidents, ready.and willing at any time to take their orders from these capitalists. Since the owner- ship of government by the big cap- 6,000 57.50 45.00 7,000 87.50 75.00 8,000 127.50 105.00 9,000 167.50 135.00 10,000 207.50 175.00 13,000 407.50 325.00 15,000 557.50 445.00 20,000 = 1,017.50 835.00 25,000 1,607.50 1,350.00 30,000 2,317.50 1,945.00 35,000 3,127.50 2,595.00 40,000 4,037.50 3,295.00 50,000 6,137.50 4,845.00, 60,000 8,677.50 6,545.00, i 75,000 13,187.50 9,295.00 . 90,000 18,537.50 10,745.00 | 100,000 22,617.50 14,385.00 | 125,000 33,367.50 19,995.00 it DEMANDING ADMISSION could neither reduce nor increase the ‘| total amount of such tax free se- curities, Second, the rate’of exploita- tion of present.day capitalism is such a high one that the rate of income of tax free securities looks ridiculous to the industrial capitalist in compar- ison to the one he can extract from his industrial investments in spite of high taxes. : Incidentally, big capital is| constant: ly hollering about, its patriotism, Mr. Mellon whinning about the lack of patriotism of the rich patriots shown in their endeavor to escape taxation by investing in tax free securities, throws welcome “a s on this: Hite: otism, HE Mellon plan submitted ‘to the congress at the present legislative period provides for a radical reduc- tion of taxes on high incomes, ‘The The Negro Worker at the Door of the Trade Unions. italists is so well established, - Mr. Mellon considers it advisable not to increase this sense of ownership by making big capital pay for its prop- erty, the government, - The masses, whose sole sources of income are-their wages and salaries, have no sense of ownership toward the government, not because of any lack of taxes for them to pay but be- cause the government appears to them merely in the~form of police- men, of judges or of jailers, always acting against them, never with them or for them. Mr. Mellon proposes the following reduction: . Pres't Law Prop’d Law Income Total ‘Tax Total Tax $ 2,000 — —_ 3,000 7.50 5.00 4,000 22.50 15.00 5,000 87.50 26.00 * 150,000 44,117.50 25, 995.00 In incomes over $150,000 the per- centage of reduction is to be the same . as that on incomes of $150,000. As against this proposal by our secretary of the treasury which, by radieal reduction of the surtax on high incomes, is shifting the = j of taxation to the mass of peop whose sole source of income is the’r wages or salaries, we, the Commu- nists, propose a progressive scale of income tax. Incomes up to $5,000 are to be compietely free of taxation; over $5,000 the percentage of income tax is to be gradually increased per thousand until the am unt of income taxed is $50,000. The rate of tax on incomes of $50,000 is to be 50% of the total income which equals $25,- 000. (Continued on page 6) On ‘incomes over $50,000 the. amount of tax will be 50% of the $50,-