NEWS WORTH REMEMBERING
News Worth Remembering THROUGHOUT the tariff debate of this special session, the one measure which the progressive Republicans and progressive Democrats seem to have had any real prospect of...
...On the same day the Senate finance committee held a conference over the proposed amendment placing a two per cent...
...His message, however, places him distinctly in opposition to the income tax until after the Constitution has been amended so as to avoid the objections raised by the supreme court in the case of Pollock vs...
...A sharp debate preceded the passage of the measure, in which Senator Newlands, of Nevada, opposed free trade with the Philippines on the ground that it would cement together two countries which should be separated in government as soon as possible...
...The Aldrich machine, however, ran smoothly, and if the measure was devised by the sugar trust the sugar trust won on the vote...
...This is the program desired by Aldrich...
...In fact, it was said, on apparently good authority, that on this one important measure the Aldrich-Payne-Can-non-Simmons-McLaurin-Foster-Smoot-Penrose allies were to meet defeat at the hands of the Progressives...
...It is reported that the President and the senators present were in absolute harmony regarding the corporation tax...
...News Worth Remembering THROUGHOUT the tariff debate of this special session, the one measure which the progressive Republicans and progressive Democrats seem to have had any real prospect of carrying, over the allied forces of stand-pat Republicans and stand-pat Democrats, has been the income tax amendment to the Payne Bill...
...Philippines in the Sugar Schedule On the 16th the Philippine section of the tariff bill was adopted by a vote of 42 to 28, Senators Root, Borah, Bristow, Clapp, Crawford and La Follette voting with the Democrats against the Finance Committee...
...It might be indispensible to the nation's life in great crises...
...Senator Bristow urged that this restriction of the privilege to the small producer is merely a device for shutting out the product of the large centrifugal mills which might be competitors of the sugar trust...
...Cannon to the Speakership...
...Some phases of the income tax, the President thinks, might be put in effect without a constitutional amendment, but he does not believe that its full benefit can be realized without it...
...While it has been estimated that such a tax would produce about $25,000,000 in revenues annually, the Finance Committee was of the opinion that this estimate was too low and that the tax would produce a sum much nearer $50,000,000...
...It is undoubtedly," says he, "a power the national government ought to have...
...Senators Bailey and Cummins, however, insisted upon a direct vote upon the adoption of an income tax amendment, so no agreement was reached...
...As an incidental benefit growing out of this tax, the President suggests that it would turn the light of publicity upon the books of all corporations and be a long step towards "that supervisory control of corporations which may prevent a further abuse of power...
...He therefore recommended to Congress that by a two-thirds vote of both Houses, an amendment to the constitution be proposed, conferring the power upon the national government to levy an income tax...
...The rumor went forth that Aldrich was frightened...
...The Progressives, however, have announced themselves as undismayed by the President's opposition, and on the 16th gave out a brief statement prepared by Senators Borah and Bristow, to the effect that the friends of the income tax still feel bound to pass the measure if possible...
...And in the meantime he recommended, as an amendment to the Payne bill, a provision imposing a two per cent...
...Many Senators who have voted with the Aldrich forces on schedules have been reckoned as sure to vote for the income tax...
...Senator Bristow offered an amendment permitting the importation of raw and refined sugar into the Philippines at rates lower than the sugar duties of the United States, and abolishing the Aldrich provision that in order to come into this country free, sugar must be produced on plantations turning out less than 500 tons of sugar annually...
...Taft adheres to his belief in the income tax...
...The first instance was when he labored to secure the re-election of Mr...
...The Progressives Not Turned Aside Thus, for the second time the President has been placed in the position of taking sides with the Stand-patters and against the Progressives...
...instead of two...
...tax on earnings of corporations, but no conclusion was reached regarding any of its provisions...
...The President Takes a Hand Just at this moment, however, President Taft injected his personality into the contest in opposition to the income tax...
...But within the last week an agreement seems to have been reached between the Bailey forces and the Cummins forces and prior to the 16th, the forecast seemed to be justified that the entire force of the believers in the income tax would be marshalled upon a direct vote on an amendment which would be supported by both Democrats and Republicans...
...Senator Aldrich wanted to postpone these matters until after the disposal of the tariff schedules...
...excise tax on the net income of such corporations, stating his information to be that such a tax would yield $25,000,000 a year in revenue...
...While they believe that the Supreme Court will sustain the law, if carefully re-enacted, they are entirely willing to assist in proposing the constitutional amendment favored by the President...
...On the 19th, however, when the income tax again came up, Senator Bailey announced that he would consent to a postponement of the income tax question until after the tariff schedules are disposed of...
...Senator Bristow opposed the sugar provisions of the Philippines bill on the ground that they are devised in the interests of the American Sugar Refining Company...
...On the evening of the 20th, President Taft entertained at dinner the Republican members of the Senate Finance Committee and Senator Root...
...On the 18th, immediately after the Senate had adopted by a vate of 44 to 32 the Committee amendment fixing a duty of four dollars a ton on print paper in place of the House duty of two dollars a ton, an effort was made to fix a time for voting on the income and corporation tax propositions...
...He said that the only people benefited by the admission of 300,000 tons of Philippine sugar into this country, free of duty, are those interested in the American Sugar Refining Company, and that the bill is so drawn that while the people of the island may sell a part of their sugar duty free, to the sugar trust in America, it also cuts off their importations from Germany and China of refined sugar, and forces them to buy exclusively cf the sugar trust...
...Taft is a believer in the income tax as a fiscal measure...
...It was said that he had counted noses on the bill and that his roster was some votes short of a majority...
...They could see no reason, however, for exempting from taxation the vast incomes of individuals like Carnegie and Rockefeller, only a part of whose fortunes are in the form of corporation stocks...
...This may lead to an attempt to reduce the rate of the tax to one per cent...
...At times the foes of the measure were jubilant at evidences of friction between Senator Bailey and the Democrats supporting his income tax measure, and Senator Cummins, the proponent of the Republican measure...
...the Farmers Loan & Trust Company, the case in which the change of opinion of one Justice invalidated our last income tax law...
...The supporters of the income tax in Congress had some reason to expect that he would refrain from opposing the income tax amendment, even if he did not actually support it...
Vol. 1 • June 1909 • No. 25
