Life — December 27, 1923 — page 10: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

ASHINGTON, December 22— Secretary Mellon was grossly unfair to Congress in bringing up the matter of tax reduction so early in the season. A subject dealing so ex- clusively with facts requires an amount of concentration and mental agility that a Senator cannot be expected to give in the first weeks of a new session. Per- sonally, I can’t get anywhere in a debate if the gentleman on the other side is constantly interrupting me to point out that $25,000 from $60,000 does not leave $45,000, or that my arguments are based on the figures for 1913 instead of 1923. In approaching the present season I had looked forward to two or three quiet weeks of signal drill and dummy tackling, with perhaps an occasional light scrimmage—the President's mes- sage, Europe and that sort of thing. Yet even before the whistle blew, we were asked to put our minds on taxes! It’s like opening the football season with the Harvard-Yale game. Since Congress adjourned my col- leagues have been resting, saving Europe, and announcing themselves as presidential possibiiities. Now, one can't be idle for so long a period with- out getting entirely out of condition, and I feel that it was only this lack of trajning that led so many of us to agree with Mr. Mellon's idea of tax reduction when he first put it forth. BVIOUSLY, with some three hun- dred million more than we need coming in, the logical course is to leave it in the taxpayers’ pockets. In our defense, I must say that it is the first time in the history of this great nation that Congress has expressed itself so wholeheartedly in favor of the logical course. I offer no ex- cuses; we were simply caught off our guard. At any rate, we are now trying earnestly to re- trieve the error. SOUNDER LIFE - Tax Reductio ad Absurdum Sounder Releases His Plan to the Nation But we must have time. No one, not even the most adroit and expe- rienced legislator, can think, offhand, of satisfactory ways of spending three hundred million dollars. We are, however, making progress. Habitually a quick thinker, I was the first to remember the Bonus, although some of the more unscrupulous among my associates are trying to claim the credit. If we can put this through it probably won't be neces to reduce taxes all. It is, of course, hard to handle the Bonus from a cold start. We shall need two more weeks, preferably three, before we can get our hearts to burn- ing and bleeding effectively for vet- erans who would probably prefer lower taxes to a bonus anyway. BOVE all, we shall need a little time to get into the proper mathe- matical training. Figures are, of the backbone of any debate on taxes, and you simply can’t prove without any practice at all that two and one are four. When we really get into the swing of it, of course, such things course, SERIOUSLY SPRAINED HIS BRAIN IN NATOR LA FOLLETTE AT WORK ON A PLAN FOR REDUCING TAXES BY RAISING THE TRYING TO SHOW HOW TO REDUCE TAXES AND PAY FOR THE BONUS AS WELL. as that become mere child’s play Indeed, I am even now working out some tabulated statistics proving that the three-hundred-million-dollar sur plus can be used to reduce taxes, pay for the Bonus, build some pretty post offices, provide a sinking fund for sunken farmers, and take care of the interest charges on a bond issue to cover the deficit incurred by the projects. It’s really simple when you know how Even if all else fails and the administration is stubbornly insistent on re ducing taxes, I have every confidence in the ability of Congress to keep the situa tion well in hand. A rough in the House and Senate al ready shows 536 separate tax reduction plans, ranging all the way from total abolition of taxes to the Wisconsin scheme of doubling the exi canvass ing rate on all incomes over $650 per annum; and any one of them may be considered to be a distinct improvement on Mr Mellon's plan ‘Sounder. New Year Nuances 'O continue to suspect one’s will is no good or make resolutions an prove it. To go through the farcical formality of starting to save money again or give place at the receiving teller’s window to some genius who can. To reduce living ex penses or continue the pretty fancy that one’s delicate nature and fine temperament make luxu- ries necessities. To send greeting cards or ignore the maudlin sentimentality, until they begin to pour in from one’s friends. can W when fashionable. vocational. one’s Guvras ments remember golf wa Now it’s comicbooks.com