The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, September 2, 1918, Page 4

ago, the president sent word to lead- ers of both houses that he would ad- journ congress if they would promise him a revenue bill which would make it possible to divide the year’s war cost with approximate equality be- tween taxes and bonds. I believe the percentage mentioned was 40 per cent. taxes and 60 per cent bonds. And it " is also no secret that the majority of the leaders refused to accede to the president’s suggestion—just why the public would naturally like to know. England, though proverbially con- servative in matters of finance, has taken a position considerably more ad- vanced than that of the president, the British chancellor of the exchequer recently predicting that, in order to finance the war, parliament would have to resort to something beyond taxation—that is to say, to a direct levy on wealth. And certainly, at this time, when so many people are suffering from the lack of good nour- ishing food and so many others are dying, or being wounded in the service of their countries, it should not arouse resentment in the well-to-do man if he finds he is being taxed to the limit of his income, and that a part of his capital is drafted as well. WHAT IS EQUAL SACRIFICE? It is already becoming recognized as a guiding principle 6f war finance, that, when war taxes have been paid, citizens of all classes should find that they have made something like an equal sacrifice for the country’s com- mon enterprise. And, naturally, this does not mean that all should be obliged to contribute equal sums of - money to the government. On the contrary, it means that our contribu- tions should vary widely. They should be as unequal as are the means of the contributors. Indeed, .those who haven’t enough money to live on de- cently should not be taxed at all, or merely to a nominal extent. THEY ARE ALREADY TAXED ENOUGH BY THE RISE IN THE COST OF LIVING, which has increased consid- erably faster than the income of the. wage-earning and salaried classes. It is true that in some few trades wages have gone up faster than prices; but these are the conspicuous exceptions which prove the general rule that the purchasing power of the average citi- zen has decreased during this war, just as it did in Civil war days. : Bearing this in mind, let us assume, for the sake of argument, that I have $1,000,000, bringing me an income of $40,000 a year net, while my friend has a salary of $30 a week, which is less than he can support his family on comfortably at present prices. It would clearly be more of a sacrifice for my friend to pay a war tax of a few dollars than for me to turn in my whole income and a good slice of my own principal, too. For while the few dollars he paid would make him cut down on sheer necessities, my contribution would only cause me and my family a lessened consumption of a few pleasant but nonessential luxuries. In contributing hundreds of thousands of dollars, I would really be sacrificing nothing in comparison to my friend, who would be giving some of the health, comfort and opportunity of his family with every dollar he paid. Either of our sacrifices, however, would be utterly insignificant when compared to that of the man who gives his life. 3 The federal trade commission’s report to the senate, dated June 28, 1918, is an admirable and "yet a gravely discouraging document. For it shows that the profiteers have literally been having the time of their lives at the expense of the United States and the allies. The report closes with a significant quotation from President Wilson’s mes- sage to congress: “The profiteering that can not be got at by the restraints of conscience and love of coun- try can be got at by taxation.” Congress, however, does not yet seem to have made up its mind to get at profiteering by taxation. Or, to be more accurate, the ways and means com- _mittee seems to have made up its mind to get at profiteering to less than 50 per cent of the extent " “that parliament has actually got at it But still I am certain that congress will have -the whole-hearted support of the public if it fol- The dome of the national capitol by night. have passed the politicians of generation aft on the deliberations which will decide wheth those who already are too heavily tax rich pay in proportion to their ability. lows President Wilson’s recommendations, however pitifully a few of our more unregenerate profiteers and’ their newspapers may howl to heaven. Even last year the people were convinced that the stand now taken by Mr. Wilson was right; and they went on record to that effect whenever there was an opportunity, though the profiteers were then much bolder in their efforts to prevent large war taxes than they are now. As you may remember, a year ago last spring a committee was formed in New York City to urge income and excess profits taxes on something like the English scale. We appeared before your committee and asked that war ex- penses should be divided between bonds and taxes on a fifty-fifty basis. Immediately, although our committee was small and in command of compara- tively slender funds, a powerful backfire was start- ed throughout the country by the financial slacker group. We were singled out as the individuals mainly responsible for the anarchistic idea of con-. scripting incomes and profits for war use, and . treated accordingly. TACTICS OF THE PROFITEER The committee was made up of men of undoubted loyalty and high standing; most of them had been fighting for democracy for years before we entered the war. Our loyalty to America needed no in- dorsement. But our proposals were promptly labeled by profiteer-controlled papers as “attempts to make the war unpopular,” as “thinly veiled pro- German propaganda,” etc. Speeches were edi- torially commented on, thouZh never made, in which we were alleged to have favored-a peace which would leave Germany in possession of north- ern. France. as -publicly attacked. ‘ tions movements were initiated. to _force our resig- nations. And, in some instances, officers of these -organizations, who believed themselves to be, and Up the steps in the foreground er generation. Inside are going er taxes are laid on the backs of ed, or whether the burden of paying for the war will be divided equitably by ‘letting the Our -motives were privately as well In various social organiza- no doubt were, moved by friendly feel- ings, came to us secretly and advised us to resign in order to escape ex- pulsion. . Nevertheless, the propositions of our committee, which appeared before your committee as well as before the senate finance committee, reeeived very wide public indorsement. Some 4,000,000 people in different seetions representing all classes, from business men’s clubs to church conventions, la- bor unions and farmers’ associations, at once passed resolutions indorsing -our recommendations. Thousands of letters, many of them containing con- tributions, flooded the ecommittee’s headquarters, and literally hundreds of patriotic newspapers published our briefs and advertisements without charge. Very much the same thing hap- pened in the case of the farmers’ Nonpartisan league. It will be remembered that Mr. Townley and other leaders of that ergani- zation advocated conscription of wealth, from the very moment the war began. Later om, they started an organized movement against the packer and miller profiteers of the North and Cen- tral West. Although the Nonpar- tisan league was absolutely patri- otic, although its members beught Liberty bonds, enlisted in the army and navy far above the average, and offered to sell their grain and stock at a prefit so small that the packers and millers were horrified at the idea of them- selves being obliged to conform to such low rates of return, they were accused of all kinds ef in- iquity. Some of their organizers were mobbed and beaten by masked men. Many leaders were arrested, and in some cases in- dicted for sedition. Their houses were painted yellow, their busi- ness integrity was generally at- tacked and a real doubt was in- jected into the minds of many readers of metropolitan news- papers as to whether the Neon- ° partisan league was better than a nest of anarchists and traitors. But the main body of the public was not deceived by these.tactics. The Nonpartisan league, instead of being decimated by profiteer drum fire, STEADILY GREW IN MEMBERSHIP AND. INFLUENCE; and it is - today the dominant social as well as political force in the agricultural districts where it is organized. And now the report of the federal trade commission on meat packing and flour quite justifies the public in its previously form- ed opinion that the assault on the Nonpartisan league’s loyalty was engineered by people who were trying to stave off uncomfortable expo- sures as to their own. . GIVE THE PROFITEER A CHANCE But to return to Mr. Wilson’s words, “THE . : PROFITEERING THAT CAN NOT BE GOT AT BY THE RESTRAINTS OF CONSCIENCE AND LOVE OF COUNTRY CAN BE GOT AT BY TAXATION.” Why not make an effort to get at it both ways? However, before discussing this proposal more widely, let me say, at this point, that I do not want to be understood as implying that ALL corporations shown in the lists as hav. ing made big war profits are consciously “profi- . teers,” or that all the men who control them are wilfully disloyal, in that they have sanctioned huge earnings at a time when war conditions give the government and the public the right ito buy neces- _ saries at the lowest price consistent with sound ' business.. For I am convinced that many, perhaps most, of the individuals responsible for profiteernig are well intentioned. . There is, I believe, nothing consciously un-American, or “pro-German, about the vast majority of our profiteers, the explanation of their conduct probably lying in the fact that, till now, they have failed to realize the new obli- gations of citizenship raised by the war, and have _proceeded on the old ante-bellum- plan of charg';i_ng : as much as the traffic would bear. ., The average profiteer unquestionably feels ‘the - call: of patriotism; he wants to be & ‘good Ame’r;v (Continued on “page 14) TN g SRR “fh Lot ] % L v % L 4 s il ’A x> - o EaR) S :- 55, - e \“" ek LSl i < fly > n