LAZARUS AT THE GATES

The tax bill has at last disturbed the Congressional peace "that passeth all understanding". Republicans and Democrats alike have deserted their leaders, and the House has raised the income tax to war-time rates, threatening to vote down the sales tax. The cry is "to" place the burden of taxation where it belongs". If they succeed the opposition will place all the burden of taxation on incomes and ignore completely the proposed sales tax. This safe and reasonable course seems likely to be chosen in spite of the opposition of the Administration.

An income tax has its peculiar disadvantages. Incomes are subject to state as well as federal taxation, which results in the diversion of capital from production to tax-free government securities. But these are minor points in the light of the dangers of the sales tax. The tax directly affects those elements of the public most likely to make violent protest against the increased burden. Protest will hardly take from as a demand for more economical and efficient government, though it is obvious that without governmental reform the solution of the tax problem can not be permanent. But instead of demanding that expensive subsidies to veterans and bureaucratic, extravagance be abolished, the cry will go up prematurely for socialism or for government poor relief. The strictures of the income tax will be felt where the depression has struck only lightly hitherto. In any case the rich do not wave a red flag. There have been casualties among the capitalists, but the dance has gone on. A stiff income tax may prevent the spectacle of a bread line shouldering the bejeweled guests at a charity ball.