CONGRESSMAN COOPER DISCUSSES THE EXCESS PROFITS TAXES
Congressman Cooper Discusses The Excess Profits Taxes From the Congressional Record MR. COOPER of Wisconsin. Mr. Speaker, the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Eordney) said a few minutes ago that we...
...Men making hundreds of millions of money out of the war do not, if avarice is their god, want peace to come...
...But, in reply, somebody mentions the fact that England levies a tax of SO per cent on war profits, and that the London Economist reports that manufacturing interests in general in England have never been in a more prosperous condition...
...And now, Mr...
...We propose in any event to allow them their peace profits—that is, the amount of their average annual profits during the three years just prior to the war...
...Then an attempt to escape the force of that statement is made by saying that England did not levy that tax until the third year of the war...
...Speaker, if we allow them to keep M per cent of these enormously Increased profits and then give them also the $5,000 of absolute exemption and a certain percentage of profits, based on the amount of their capital stock, as this bill proposes to do, do you think that they will be crippled...
...And is, that not a complete answer...
...And I answer that suggestion by saying that the great munition makers of this country have been getting these vast profits for three years...
...They prospered before the war on much less an amount of profits than we would allow them if we took 50 or 61 per cent of these war profits...
...During the three years of the war billions of dollars' worth of arms and other munitions have gone from this country across the sea...
...And during these three years the makers of these munitions of wax have been reaping these great profits...
...Eordney) said a few minutes ago that we must make future generations pay for this war— at least pay a very considerable portion of the cost The statement is being made repeatedly- It is also said that if we tax these corporations more than 85 per cent, or approximately that, on their enormous war profits, there will be danger of crippling them...
...We seek to tax only their excess profits growing out of the war —the great profits which make them directly, powerfully interested in having the war continue...
...For them and their profits this is also the third year of the war...
Vol. 9 • September 1917 • No. 9
