Newspaper Page Text
/
I
A
THE ATLANTA SEMI-WEEKLY JOURNAL, ATLANTA, GA„ TUESDAY, JUNE 24, 1913.
THE SEMI-WEEKLY JOURNAL
ATLANTA, OA., 5 NORTH FORSYTH ST.
Entered at the Atlanta Postoffice as Mail Matter of
the Second Class.
JAMES R. GRAY,
President and Editor.
SUBSCRIPTION PRICE
Twelve months 75o
Six months 4 0c
Three months 26c
The Semi-Weekly Journal is published on Tuesday
and Friday, and is mailed by the shortest routes ft>r
early delivery.
It contains news from all over the world, brought
by special leased wires into our office. It has a staff
of distinguished contributors, with strong department*
of special value to the home and the farm.
Agents war ted at every postoffice. Liberal com
mission allowed. Outfit free. Write R. R- BRAD
LEY, Circulation Manager.
The only trailing representatives we have are
J. A. Bryan. R. F. Bolton. C. C. Coyle, L. H. Kim
brough and C. T. Yates. We will be responsible only
\ for money paid to the above named traveling repre
sentatives. .
NOTICE TO SUBSCRIBERS.
The label used for addressing your paper
shows the time your subscription expires. By
renewing at least two weeks before the date on
this label, you insure regular service.
In ordering paper changed, be sure to mention
your old, as well as your new address. If on a
route please give the route number.
We cannot enter subscriptions to begin with
back numbers. Remittances should be sent by
postal order or registered mail.
Address all orders and notices for this de
partment to THE SEMI-WEEKLY JOURNAL.
Atlanta, Ga.
Gossip is the mother-in-law of lies.
Still, there isn’t any disagreement between Wilson
and the public.
Relieving the Income Tax
Of an Absurd Provision.
There are cheering indications that the income
tax bill will be so amended by the Senate as to ex
clude that ill considered clause which would require
a tenant or lessee to deduct and withhold from his
rent payments a sum sufficient to cover the amount
of ^ncome tax supposed to be due by the property
owner. The Journal’s Washington correspondent
quotes Senator Hoke Smith as saying: “I fully
sympathize with the opposition which has developed
in Georgia the plan of collecting income tax at its
source. One needs only*to think upon It casually to
realize how unreasonable such a plan would be. I
feel sure the Senate will strike it from the bill
passed by the House.”
It is evident that this bunglesome clause of the
measure has bestirred protest the country over and
that good citizens, who heartily favor the principlo
of the income tax but who realize the confusion and
the evils which this provision would engender, have
appealed to their representatives at Washington. In
deed, it would seem that organized protest wer»
scarcely necessary to convince any Senator who care
fully reads the clause in question of the need of
cancelling it. As Senator Smith says, “The subject
had attracted my attention even before I heard from
any Georgians with reference to it.” At the same
time, the Atlanta Real Estate Board has done well
to cltll timely notice to this matter and other com
mercial and civic organizations throughout the State
and the country should voice their opposition, so
that there may be no chance whatsoever of this fool
ish and mischievous proposition becoming a part of
the law. ‘
The method for collecting income tax as pre
scribed in the House bill would expose landlords to
heaVv losses from irresponsible tenants who, after
withholding from their rent payments the income
tax as required, might disappear before the time for
official returns arrived. It is evident, furthermore,
that it would be unfair and inexpedient for the Gov
ernment to require private persons to collect a fed
eral tax, especially a tax so involved as this one;
yet, under the clause mentioned they are made per
sonally liable for the amount of tax reckoned to be
due on another’s income. This phase of the subject
was cogently discussed in a recent communication
•to The Journal by Mr. Reuben R. Arnold who said
in part:
Under the provisions of this tax, a negro ten
ant in a one-room house, paying $2 a month rent,
would have to pass on the question of how much
the income tax ij on that sum and deduct it, and
the government ivould have to establish relations
toith this negro tenant and collect the tax out of
him. A negro tenant on a farm could get into a
dispute with his\ landlord as to the value of the
crops raised and as to the amount that should
be withheld for the income tax and render the
collection of the legal rent very difficult.
It ohght to be borne in mind that the major
ity of tenants are not lihely to have an income
of Vi,000 per annum, which is the minimum in
come taxable under this^act. Such tenants have
no interest in making a return, and yet such
tenant, who is not liable to the tax, who is not
interested in the tax, is compelled by the govern
ment to practically keep books and remain the
custodian of a fund, simply because of the fact
that the govern'lent is afraid to trust the land
lord to make a proper return. Is it not entrust
ing just as much to the tenant by requiring the
• tenant to hold the moneyf
Look what a burden this law puts on the ten
ant. How does the tenant know that the land
lord’s net income in over $I f ,000? How can a
tenant figure upon either the gross or the net in
come of the landlord without making extensive
inquiries? If thc-tenant on a venture holds out
the gross percentage of the tax from his rents,
this, of course, may not represent the net income
of the landlord because his income may be re
duced by various expenses against these rents of
which the tenant knoivs little or nothing, tit
would necessitate in practically every case of tax
a proceeding by the landlord against the govern
ment to recover back the difference between the
lax on his gross and his net income.
In truth, the proposal to collect the income tax
at the source of its origin is so inherently absurd
and unbusinesslike that it would never stand the
test of practical usage. If retained in the bill it
would serve only to breed endless confusion and to
bring the worthy purposes of the entire measure into
disrepute. It is gratifying to hear Senator Smith’s
prediction that this foolish clause will be stricken
out.
Your old-time opposition paper is printing every
now and then rumors of disagreements between
Wilson and the others of his administration.
A Praiseworthy Plan tor
The South’s Development.
There are certain vital interests in which all the
Southern States, particularly those of the Southeast,
have a common cause and which, therefore, they
can best promote through organized rather than di
vided effort. Such, for instance, is the widely mani
fest need of bringing the South’s natural resources
more vividly to the notice of the nation at large to
the end that they may attract new capital and new
settlers for the great, fertile areas of uncultivated
land. -Thi^ is a matter of keen concern to Georgia,
to Florida and Alabama, the Carolinas and Tennes
see and to every other member of the Southern sis
terhood. While each State may accomplish much in
this field by working independently of its neighbors
it can accomplish a vast deal more by working with
them co-operatively; their combined energies will at
tract more attention and bring more abundant results
than scattered efforts could ever produce.
With this end In view there is now being per
fected what is known as the Southern Settlement and
Development organization. This enterprise had its
beginning at Baltimore some two years ago when the
governors of sixteen Southern States, together with
representatives of trade boards and transportation
companies, assembled in that city to discuss plans
for exploiting the South’s resources and especially
for bringing into this section a larger ’number of de
sirable settlers. These public leaders realized that
the trend of American immigration which once flow
ed into Canada and the Northeast was turnipg South
ward and that with due* encouragement and direc
tion it could be made a source of far-reaching devel
opment for the South. The suggestion that a well
organized, systematic movement to this end be un
dertaken met with instant and widespread favor.
The result is that the Legislature of Maryland has
appropriated thirty thousand dollars to be used for
this purpose. The commercial interests of Florida
have subscribed forty thousand dollars and pledges
themselves to Increase that amount to a hundred
thousand. In other Southern States, chambers of
commerce and kindred agencies have enlisted in this
cause so that within the immediate future, it seems
the movement will be well under way and will be
producing practical results.
This assistance will be rendered through four
channels: one of publicity, one of colonization, an
other of agriculture and another of industry. Steady,
intelligent publicity is as valuable to a State or a
section as to an individual business enterprise; this
central organization will have unsual facilities for
keeping the South’s advantages prominently before
the country. It will be in continuous touch with the
movements of home seekers and will stand ready to
aid any State in securing desirable settlers for un
tilled lands. Its staff of experts will co-operate with
the farmers and the educational agencies of a State
in the development of agricultural interests; and
likewise it will be equipped to render valuable serv
ice In promoting industrial growth.
The seriousness and trustworthiness of the organ
ization is shown by the fact that its president is
Mr. S. Davies Warfield, one of the foremost leaders
in the cause of Southern development. Mr. William
H. Manss, vice-president and general manager of the
organization, has abundant and brilliantly success
ful experience in such enterprises. He organized
and directed the development department of the Bur
lington and Quincy railroad and was also prominent
ly identified with th e civic industrial bureau of the
Chicago Association of Commerce. On his recent
visit to Atlanta, Mr. Manss enlisted the hearty in
terest of business men. It is believed that Georgia
will join with enthusiasm in this far-reaching and
well considered plan for the South’s development.
Love in a cottage is another name for a labor
union.
The Growth of Georgia’s
Schools and Colleges.
A Preventive Against Lobbying
A close student of affairs in Georgia remarked the
other day that of all the State’s resources, its prepar
atory schools and colleges are developing most rap-
i<}ly. That is a remarkable statement in face of the
extraordinary progress now astir in the commercial,
industrial and agricultural interests hut it is a true
one; and who shall say that the sweep and energy
of this material advancement are not due largely,
perhaps chiefly, to a great educational awakening?
Certain it is that within the past few years, and
particularly within the scholastic year just ended,
the schools and colleges of Georgia, whether those
that are maintained by the State, the church or by
private enterprise, have come to play a wonderfully
larger and more productive part in the life of this
commonwealth and have won a higher place in the
thought of the South and the nation. This is due in
part to the broader standards and richer ideals
which the schools have adopted. There has been, for
instance, a continual advance in curricula both on
the part of preparatory schools and colleges, notably
women’s colleges, so that th^se institutions now com
pare favorably with the best of their kind in the
north and the east. Furthermore, there has been a
constructive tendency to ally the schools directly
with the common Interests of the people and to make
them not merely institutions of learning but also
fruitful agencies of service.
Thus it has come to pass that Georgians who in
years gone by would send their sons and daughters
are now keeping them at home, realizing that here
to preparatory schools or colleges in distant States
are to be found unexcelled advantages and as wide a
variety of choice as any section could offer. More
than that, people In other parts of the country are
looking Georgiaward for educational opportunities
and it is not an infrequent thing to find students
from ten or twenty different States in one of these
institutions. The significance of these facts to our
common life and interests cannot be overgauged;
for, enduring progress and true prosperity are, after
all, the fruitage of true education.
The growth of our schools and colleges/ has
brought them new responsibilities, to meet which
they must have more generous financial aid. Espe
cially is this true of State institutions. The church
schools have recently. increased their endowments
and enlarged their facilities; the schools conducted
independently of church or State, though contribut
ing to the interests of both, have done likewise. But
Our State institutions have been less fortunate in
respect to financial aid. They have reached the
point where they must receive more adequate sup
port at the hands of the Legislature, if they are to
meet the ever increasing demands upon them.
Now that the existence of a tariff lobby has been
demonstrated and its symptoms rather thoroughly
diagnosed, Congress will do well to provide a pre
ventive against the recurrence of such ills. This
particular lobby has been checked and its power for
evil virtually destroyed, but when the light of pub
licity is withdrawn, the old forces of special privi-
lVge will steal forth again to work as insidiously as
ever, unless they are held to a strict account of their
movements.
The Senate investigation, which was instituted
as a result of President Wilson’s plain speech, has
accomplished much good. For one thing, it has
served to define the presence and the methods of a
lobby which was generally supposed to he in opera
tion but concerning which there was comparatively
little clear-cut information. It has long been a
custom to say that special interests sought unduly
and unfairly to influence legislation at Washington
but few who made such statements could explain
precisely what they meant or could lay a finger on
specific acts and particular individuals. As a result,
the vagueness of such charges robbed them of their
sting and effectiveness. That, however, is no longer
true, at least in respect to the lobby that has sought
to defeat free sugar. The Senate committee has de
veloped evidence which shows in detail how money
was spent, how publicity was bought, how members of
Congress were browbeaten or cajoled in an effort to
hold up legislafion intended for the country’s com
mon welfare. And It seems likely that before the
committee’s work is finished much more evidence of
interest and value will be brought to light.
But if this investigation is to yield due and per
manent results, it Bhould be followed by the enact
ment of well considered laws tj remedy and to pre
vent the evils revealed. It may be that Congress
will not find opportunity to consider such legisla
tion at the present session, in which tariff and cur
rency reform are of paramount importance. But at
the earliest practicable time, the question of lobbying
should be dealt with.
It has been suggested that all persons who come
to Washington for the purpose of influencing legis
lation be required to register in a book open to pub
lic scrutiny. Such a law has been adopted by many
States, among them Georgia. Certain it is that full
and constant publicity will go far toward ridding
the capitol of the paid agents of special interests,
men who if they work successfully must work In the
dark. How true this is, the pell-mell exodus of lob
byists following President Wilson’s recent statement
on the subject strikingly proves.
Concerning Calves.
Revenue From the Parcel Post
Girls shouldn’t marry until they are old enough
to say “yes.”
Indications are that this Is the busy season for
roof gardens.
The Democracy of Death
BY DR. FRANK CRANE.
(Copyright, 1913, by Frank Crane.)
X
■ <*
Nowhere does convention lay its paralyzing hand
upon poor mortals so hardly as at the funeral.
A man can live as independently as he pleases, wear
a soft shirt, eat with his knife and
refuse to go to receptions, and
altogether imagine that he is an
^ndeividual, but when he dies, cus
tom with iron hand and velvet
glove invades his house and takes
charge.
The great high priestess of
funerals is Mrs. Grundy. The
sensitive, torn hearts of the
lamily shrink from any sort of
conflict, and so they submit to
the Absurd, expensive, and vul
gar things that make of the fu
neral a horror.
The widow is anxious that all
respect be shown. Hence the
submits to the extortions of the
funeral director and consents to jthe purchase of a cas
ket that costs six times what it is worth and ten times
what she can afford.
Why should people who never ride in carriages in
their lifetimes be made to pay for carriages for all the
relatives and friends out of the insurance money that
belongs to the widow and children?
A decent respect for the dead and for the opinion of
our neighbors demands that there he some ceremony,
as solemn, as reverential as can be made. But above
all things their rites should be purged of display, ex
travagance, and show. They should be simple, heart
ful, and genuine.
It is not the money spent that matters so much. In
our grief we care nothing for that, and only wish we
could squander millions if by so doing we could show
the depth of our sorrow. But that is precisely the point
of error; for the expenditure of money does not ex
press grief, it expresses pride; it is a disposition to
make a show which is entirely out of place.
The grief of bereavement is essentially private and
shrinking. A funeral should be an affair of the ut
most privacy and simplicity. That, of all places, is no
place to parade.
And what a spectacle is the modern graveyard, with
its distinctions of rich and poor more sharply 'marked
than among the living. By all means let a man live In
a palace if he chooses, but why should he wish to pro
ject the class lines of wealth into that region where
riches and poverty are no more? At least the realm of
death is a democracy. At least in ‘‘God’s Acre” men
ought to be willing to lie still in bare manhood, all
together in their investiture of day, equal at last,
prince and pauper, there where there is no more
‘‘Tl\e boast of a heraldry, the pomp of power.”
If we can have no real democracy while we are
alive, at least permit us to have the democracy of
death.
Quips and Quiddities
The suggestion recently made by a Chicago banker
that the killing of calves be prohibited by law as a
means toward increasing the country’s depleted beef
supply is more ingenious than useful. There are
some problems which laws can never solve and one
of these is the exact age and liberties of a calf. If
it be profitable to rear calves to fat maturity, the
farmer will do so without compulsion or suggestion;
if unprofitable, no statute could force him to do so.
The result would simply be a decline in the bovine
birth rate and the meat market would be more un
satisfactory than ever.
There can be no doubt, however, as to the im
perative need of producing more cattle in the United
States. Within the past six years, the country’s
beef supply has decreased more than thirty per cent.
Prices to the consumer continue to rise but the west
ern producers say that their profits from the industry
are so meager as to h e discouraging. As a matter
of fact, the great cattle ranges of the West are grow
ing fewer; land which was once devoted to that pur
pose is now being converted into farms.
The Louisville Post well says in this connection
that the raising of cattle should be encouraged by
every possible means, “by packers, by consumers and
by remedial legislation. There are things the Gov
ernment can do -that nobody else can do in connec
tion with the cattle business. It alone can eradicate
the tick which in the South has been so costly.” It
may be added that the Government can- prevent those
monopolistic practices by which a few special inter
ests have arbitrarily dictated prices both to the pro
ducer and the consumer.
There is good reason to believe that the South is
The late John H. Twachtman, the well known land
scape painter, was essentially an "artists’ artist,” in
that his style appealed more to his colleagues of the
art world than to the lay public. Any one familiar
with the man and his work would say that the follow
ing Incident which is related of him might easily be
true.
A man who had bought one of the artist’s paintings
wished his opinion on the hanging of the picture and
invited him to dine. Mr. Twachtman expressed hts
approval of the background, of the height at which the
canvas was hung, pronounced the light favorable—in
deed, he said, there was only one particular in which
he would suggest any change.
"And what is that?” inquired his host solicitously.
“Why,” said the artist, “I should hang it the other
side up. I always have.”—Everybody’s Magazine.
School Teacher—Now, Master Thompson, tell me
the denomination into which the money of the United
Kingdom is divided.
Master Thompson—Don’t know.
’ School Teacher—Don’t you know how the money
your father brings home every Saturday night is di
vided?
Master Thompson—’Tain’t divided; mother takes it
all.
I * * *
A colored man with a bad cut in his head came to a
doctor. The doctor fixed him up, and, as the man
was about to depart, the physician said:
“That’s a pretty bad cut in your head, Henry. Why
don’t you profit by this lesson and keep out of bad
company in the future?”
“Well I should like to, doctor,” replied Henry, sad
ly, “but I ain’t got no money to git’ er diforce, you
see.”—Lippincott’s.
Thomas Nelson Page
awakening to its possibilities as a beef producing
center. To thiB section, the country will look more
and more for its future beef supply.
The official announcement that the sale of parcel
post stamps yielded more than seven million dollars
between January the first and March the thirty-first
furnishes interesting evidence of the value and the
possibilities of the new service to the postoffice de
partment as well i ..to the public. The period men
tioned was largely one of experiment, so that its
record of sales will naturally be surpassed in suc
ceeding months. The significant fact is that from
the very outset tr.e parcel post has enlisted a big
volume of patronage and an attendant increase in
the Government’s revenue.
Students of postal affairs have long held one of
the surest means toward reducing the enormous de
ficit that has overhung the department would be to
increase the department’s business, or rather to use
to wider advantage the facilities that were at hand.
It was pointed out in this connection that railway
mail cars frequently ran with only a fraction of the
load they could carry; the Government paid for car
space which it did not utilize. In like manner, the
rural free delivery routes, it was shown, were con-,
ducted at a heavy loss simply because their patron
age was small; carts and carriers made long trips
with a mere handful of mail matter, where if they
went well laden, they would be more than self-sus
taining.
Hence, it was argued that one of the great virtues
of a parcel post from the Government’s standpoint
would be its increase in the sale of stamps, its in
ducement to new customers for the department, its
larger utilization of postal equipment. That is just
what is happening. True, the inauguration of the
new system has entailed added expenses but these,
we must believe, are more than counterbalanced by
the added revenues. Certain it is that the depart
ment is now getting mor e results from the machinery
which it formerly maintained for ordinary mail
alone. Power that once was permitted to go to
waste is now being turned to productive account.
That is good business; and, If accompanied by other
practical measures, as we now have good reason to
hope it will be, the United States postoffice will be
come a really efficient Institution, asset to the Gov
ernment as well as a service to the people.
(Savannah Press.) .
The president’s nomination of Thomas Nelson Page
as United States ambassador t° Italy is one of the
strongest which could be made. Since the day when
Washington Irving was sent to the court of Spain and
wrote the incomparable Moorish sketches, brightened
by the Alhambra book, no more notable mission has
been given a literary man. The second son of Major
John Page of the Confederate army, the Italian am
bassador was educated in the Virginia colleges, prac
ticed law’in Richmond, and has written and published
stories and essays which have linked his name with
Virginia and the south and the republic of letters.
"Marse Chan” was the first book and then followed
social and historical articles and other books which
would make a liberal shelf in the library of light lit
erature. Although a literary man, he is fond of coun
try life as his writings show, and, like John Randolph,
of Roanoke, is never happier than when horseback rid
ing in his native state.
He is a man of ample means, has built a beautiful
house in Washington, and is a member of the promi
nent clubs in Washington and New York. He will
be the dean of the American diplomatic corps so far as
age and reputation are concerned. He has never been
in public life, and like the president, himself, soon
abandoned law for literature. In spite of the fact that
he carries no official title up to this time, he ranks in
the mipds of all as the first gentleman of Virginia.
What a glorious experience a life in Italy will be
for a man like Thomas Nelson Page! Italy with its
art treasures and its glorious literature, and Rome
with its magnificent traditions, the world has a right
to expect sketches more notable even than tho-e of John
Hay, who dwelt so long as United States minister to
Spain, and who enriched even Spanish literature with
the finished pages of “Old Castilian Days.”
Freaks of Memory
(London Chronicle*)
As to freaks of memory, Mark Twain has told
us of the pilot who knew every bend, creen, current
and shallow in the Mississippi river throughout its
whole mighty length, but could not remember what
he had for breakfast. Probably most metnories are
like that. One man I know has a memory that ap
parently collects only ’figures. He can always remem
ber your age, even if he forgets your name. He will
memorize easily the times of all the trains to a given
place, but he generally forgets the platforms from
which they start. Reel off to him a column of sta
tistics and he will recite them again to you a month
later without a mistake, ^ having in the meantime for
gotten everything else about you. But then he is a
born mathematician. Evidently memory is largely a
question of sympathy. We remember the things we
are really interested in.
THE INCOME TAX
XIV.—The Fight in France.
Bi FREDERIC J. HASKIN.
France is as yet without an income tax law, but’
this is neither due to the lack of a demand or the lack
of effort to secure its passage. Rather it is due to a
hitch between the senate and
the chamber of deputies. The
sentiment in favor of such a tax
began to rise at the time of
the revolution of 1848, grew
more insistent after the crea
tion of the third republic, and
culminated, after a half centu
ry of agitation in 1909, in the
passage of a bill creating such
a tax by the chamber of depu
ties.
It seems inevitable that at nc
distant date France will join
the procession of fifty-odd na
tions which have income tax
laws, and if it falls in behind
the United States it will be the
fifty-fourth nation to have such
a tax atf a part of its fiscal
system. Then more than two-
fifths of the earth’s population will live under income
tax laws and the total collections from such taxes
will go far up past the billion dollar mark.
The French program as adopted by the chamber
of deputies borrows from every source, and it is said
that no nation which ever attempted to enact an in
come tax law went so minutely into the whole matter
as the French have done. The bill as adopted divides
incomes into seven classes or schedules, as follows:
incomes from lands, incomes from houses, incomes
from movable capital, incomes from business profits,
incomes from agricultural profits, incomes from
wages and salaries, and incomes from professional
earnings and all other sources not otherwise provided.
un the first three classes of incomes the rate is
fixed at 4 per cent, with 3 1-2 per cent on incomes
from business profits, and 3 per cent on professional
earnings, agricultural profits, and wages and sala
ries. In the case of the house tax the income is con
sidered to be the rental value of the property, less
one-fourth in the case of dwellings, and less two-
fifths in the case oft factories. These deductions are
made so as to allow for repairs and depreciation. In
the determination of the income from land it is to bp
considered as the rental value of the land, less a re
duction of one-nfth for maintenance. The incomes
from houses and lands are to be determined every
ten years. Where the incomes are small various abate
ments are made.
Movable capital profits are considered as the in
come from personal property, Including nearly all
government securities. Wherever possible the tax
on this class of incomes is collected at the source,
for instance, on the corporations and associations
that pay interest or dividends. Mortgages pay their
tax by means of a stamp, and securities taxes are
collected through bankers.
• • •
Business profits are regarded as those which arise
from industrial or commercial operations. The as
sessment is made upon the basis of an average of three
years’ income, and taxpayers are invited to make re
turns of such incomes. Those having Incomes in ex
cess of 6,000 francs, or approximately $1,000, are re
quired to make their reports to the comptroller of
taxes. If he is not satisfied with a report he may
ask a modification of it within twenty days. If this
is not forthcoming the comptroller may make an
assessment, which shall stand unless changed by the
courts. The taxpayer cannot be required to show his
books, but if he is caught attempting to dodge the tax
it is doubled. Incomes of this nature up to 1,260
francs are exempt, and there is a sliding scale of
abatements on incomes up to 3,000 francs. Where the
income goes above 12,000 francs there are no exemp
tions allowed.
In the case of wages, salaries and pensions, the tax
is advanced by the individuals, associations or gov
ernments which pay them. Ever - employer is re
quired to hand in a list of employes with the amount
paid them. In case of incomes under 6,000 francs, or
approximately $1,000, two-thirds of the income is ex
empt, and above that amount certain abatements are
made, calculated partly on the basis of the size of the
income, and partly on the basis of the size of the
family.
The last schedule, relating to professional in
comes, is the only one in the whole list where com
pulsory declaration applies to all having such* incomes.
And even nere they cannot be compelled to reveal
any professional secrets in making their returns.
There is a libeijal exemption, and above that there are
the usual abatements uf> to the point where the* tax
ceases to be burdensome.
- In addition to the regular income tax levied on all
incomes whether of natural or of artificial persons,
there is provided what is known as a ‘‘‘complementary
tax” levied only on natural persons who have an in
come of more than 5,000 francs. This bears a close
resemblance tothe English supertax. It is levied on those
who reside in France without havirfg their domicile there,
as well as upon those who are domiciled there. In the
case of the sojourners their income is rated at seven
time., their house rent. There is no tax on the first
6,000 francs, and thereafter each successive 6,000 '
francs income pays an additional 1 per cent until an
income of a 25,000 francs is reached, when the tax be
comes 5 per cent on the income. If any one who ffe
required by law to pjiy this supplementary tax tries
to dodge it, or any part of it by false declarations
the penalty is one-half of the income * concealed. If
he fails to make any returns at • all th© penalty is
three times the amount of the tax.
It will be seen from this account of the French
plan that it borrows what are perhaps the best fea
tures of both^the English and the German laws. Its
schedules follow to a large extent th© ideas incor
porated in the English law, but it differentiates more
markedly between the income that is the sweat of
the brow and the income that is the product of in
vested capital. It establishes a lower exemption than
the English law, and follows the German idea of tax
ing the entire income after it reaches a point where
the taxpayer incurs no hardship in paying it. There
is great care to have the necessity of inquisitorial
proceedings.
After the bill had passed the chamber of deputies
it. went to the senate wnere it was defeated. This
served as a rallying point for the forces opposed to
income tax legislation; several societies in opposition
were formed, meetings were held throughout the re
public, and at least a semblance of public opposition
to the measure was made. Most observers believe,
however, that the income tax legislation has received
only a temporary setback, and that the French senate
will be forced to do with it just what the American
senate was forced to do wjth railroad rate legislation.
Meantime, there are some parts of existing French
laws which represent the growing determination of
the French people to levy taxes upon the basis of
Ability to pay. There is a real estate tax, a business
tax, a door and window tax, and a capitation and per
sonal property tax. The real estate tax is assesssed
on th© basis of the rental value of the property as de
termined by a periodical survey. The business tax is
designed to hit the income of the business, and is
levied on a basis of such outward appearances as the
rent paid, the number of clerks employed, and the like.
The door and window tax is levied on all openings for*'
doors and windows, a man’s ability to pay being
measured by the number of such openings in his house
or factory he may have. This is a rather odious tax
and has been declared to be a tax on light and health.