Why not lessen the evils of present taxation?;

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VOL. IV NEW YORK, AUGUST 15, 1921 No. 8
Why Not Lessen the Evils of Present Taxation?
By ELIJAH W. SELLS
TA X E S we have eternally with us.
They are the price we pay for civil­ization,
organization, government. They
began under the regime of Moses, starting
with a ten per cent. income tax called
"tithes." Taxation in some form has
never left the earth since that time.
While much has been written and said
upon the subject of taxation and possible
revision, it is still far from settled and there
is apparently room for discussion.
Public accountants are peculiarly fitted
to pass judgment on the subject of taxa­tion.
They touch every phase and prob­lem
of business in some way and are also
familiar with the affairs of government,
federal, state and municipal. They per­ceive,
at close range, the effect of taxation
on business and the great disturbance
which it causes. Better than any other
class do they know the superior excellence,
economy and efficiency of the management
of business as compared with that of gov­ernment
and the far-reaching meritorious
effect of business upon all interests.
The practice of my own firm has taken
us during the past year into the affairs of
several thousand concerns, and much of
our work has involved tax problems from
so many angles that it has forced on us
conclusions as to present methods and
needs. This is typical of all practicing
public accountants.
To run the government of a nation, state
or city requires money, and the bulk of that
money can come only through taxation.
The greater the amount of funds required
the greater the amount that must be fur­nished
by the people. This we accept as
self-evident, natural, inevitable. But we
have a right to demand, and a duty to
make our demand vigorous and insistent,
that the basis of that taxation be wisely
considered, fair and equitable, aimed at
no one class, the tax widely distributed, and
arranged so that it fulfils its purpose with
the minimum disturbance of business and
the welfare of the individual.
The present federal income tax with its
surtax for individuals and its excess profits
tax for corporations, is flagrantly unfair,
inequitable and fulfils its purpose with
the maximum disturbance of business and
the welfare of the individual. During the
war loyal citizens faced it cheerfully, ac­cepting
its discrimination and injustice as
a minor matter in the dark shadows of a
world tragedy. They took it as but an­other
of the necessary evils of war. But
they are now rightly and insistently regis­tering
their protest against its continu­ance,
with its bad features unchanged, as