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related to it, is the levying of what is termed a 'Turn Over Tax.' There does not seem to be any good reason why this course should not be followed with very great benefit to the people, for the Excess Profits Tax as well as the Surtax have had a pernicious influence upon prices. The consumer pays the tax in any event and so long as it is assessed as an Excess Profit or Income Tax, back at the very source of production, liberal allowance will be made to cover this item of expense and similar allowances all along down the line until the finished product finally reaches the consumer. By that time the tax is pyramided so that it becomes a burden."

Following Feudal Customs

John Moody, in one of his recent reviews, calls attention to the feudal character of our present taxing operations. The old feudal king called only upon his lords for revenue; they in turn portioned out the taxes among their retainers, and these promptly passed them on to their vassals. He continues:

"Just so, our Government has adopted the feudal idea of collecting taxes from the captains of industry, and virtually compelling these captains to pass the burden down from one class of business concerns to another, until it finally reaches the whole public in the shape of higher costs of living. The surtaxes and excess profit taxes fall so heavily upon the leaders of industry and finance that there is nothing for them to do but to add the bulk of these taxes to their costs of production or operation, and thus pass them on. The great majority of people pay practically no taxes to Uncle Sam directly; but they do pay them just the same, either in higher prices of whatever they buy, or else in lower salaries or wages than they would otherwise receive.

A System without Defense

"The pernicious feature of the system is that the excessively heavy taxes fall just exactly where they will do the most harm. In many cases it pays a business man better to squander money in almost useless advertising or to invest it in foreign lands than to put it into an American industry where the bulk of the net income will go to the Government as excess profits

taxes. The popular idea that the wealthy men of the land are parasitic spendthrifts is diametrically opposed to the truth. On the contrary, they are the very men who do the saving out of earnings, who provide the nation's industries with working capital, who advance the funds that pay wages before the products of labor are realized upon, and who lay and execute the plans that make our industries operate and co-operate.'

The Tax on Sales plan proposes to rid us not only of this feudal system of collecting taxes, but, in a considerable measure, of the inequalities and iniquities of our present systems both of taxing and collecting, making the burden more equal and greatly reducing the cost of collection.

Tax Working Well in France

First results of the collection of the new turn-over tax recently put into operation in France amply justify expectations as to the revenue yield from this source, says a statement issued by the French Commission in the United States. Business men here, who are discussing a proposed turn-over tax, or a tax on gross sales as it is more familiarly known, are interested in the experience of France with such a levy.

"Although only a few weeks have elapsed since the tax came into force," said the statement from the French Commission, "the yield is coming in at the rate of 3,600,000,000 francs per annum.

"Financial experience shows that a new tax on its first introduction rarely realizes more than 75 per cent of its normal yield, as it invariably takes time for a tax to become firmly established and properly applied. If this rule obtains in the case of the tax on turn-over, it is reasonably safe to assume that this tax, even after allowing for no material increase in the volume of business, will produce 400,000,000 francs a month, or close on 5,000,000,000 francs per annum.

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To apply this to our own conditions and requirements, doubtless it would be quite fair to read dollars for francs in the foregoing, as printed in the New York Tribune, for the plan tentatively suggested some time ago and printed in THE VALVE WORLD at that time, was based on a tax of one per cent and worked out, at the then volume

JANUARY, 1921

THE VALVE WORLD

of business, to a total of something more than five billions of dollars annually.

15

words in good usage which have accepted meanings just as far from the original. For instance, 'architect' once meant 'master builder'; 'magazine' meant storehouse, and still retains that meaning in some cases; 'electricity' is derived from a word meaning 'amber'; and so on.

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If you, who chance to be reading these lines, are interested in this Tax on Sales proposition and believe that it ought to be given at least a fair trial, would express your views freely among your fellows, or when you have an opportunity of addressing a body of them, and in addition would write directly to your representative in Congress in order to impress him with the fact that there is a gathering body of public opinion in this direction and that it is a matter he cannot afford to ignore, much would be done to further the adoption of the plan. In this you would be simply following an example already set by numerous bodies of men, notably in the somewhat recent action of the twentythird annual convention of the American Mining Congress, which demands of Congress immediate

The President's Cup, presented to the Crane International Bowling League by R. T. Crane, Jr., and won for 1920 by H. H. Freiberg, J. P. Denzel, W. J. Rose, E. J. Muchlig, and C. H. Gillam, of the Buffalo team.

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If Mr. Vessey in

tends to purify the language in this respect, he has a large job ahead of him. "The purist in language might also find fault with the term 'sanitary engineer.' 'Sanitary' is an adjective, and when applied to engineer' should mean an engineer in a sanitary condition; or, let us say, one who has just taken a bath.

"Of course, Mr. Vessey may reply that a 'civil engineer' is not always civil; but this term has been honored by an acceptance almost as long as that of 'plumber.'

"The principal fallacy in the argument for 'sanitary

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repeal of the war profits and excess profits engineer,' and in many other arguments

taxes.

Takes Issue with Mr. Vessey

The following letter comes to the editor from G. H. Godley, architect, Cincinnati:

"Will you permit an admirer of your 'Old Fogy' to reply to Robert Vessey's 'Argument for "Sanitary Engineer""?

"Mr. Vessey says the name 'plumber' is inappropriate, because it originally meant a worker in lead.

"This is true; but there are many other

of the same sort, is the idea that an unpleasant condition can be remedied by giving it a new name.

"In this city (Cincinnati) the downtown streets are very narrow. Several years ago, certain citizens thought that these streets would be improved by calling them avenues; and they put through an ordinance renaming them 'Fourth Avenue,' 'Fifth Avenue,' and so on. But the streets remained streets, as narrow and crowded as ever, and the new names died a natural death.

"As Mr. Vessey himself says, 'the changing of the name must be accompanied by more constructive business methods, else very little will have been accomplished.

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Crane Exhibit at the Annual Roller Chair Pageant, Atlantic City. The parade extended the entire length of the Ten Mile Board Walk. The Exhibit of the Crane Chair was a Plumbing Display, with decorations of flowers, leaves and native greens. Manager Misener, of the Atlantic City Exhibit Rooms of Crane Co., stands to the reader's right.

Why not have the constructive business methods first, and let the name take care of itself?"

A Biennial Absurdity

Once more the time comes to call attention to one of the absurd anomalies of the constitutioncontinuance in office of a congress after its successor has been elected. The congress which met on December 6 is not the one elected on November 2, but that elected in November, 1918. The congress just elected will not take office till March 4 and will not meet till called by President Harding.

For this reason the session which began in December is called by the Searchlight "the don't care a damn session." The name is appropriate. Many senators and representatives will have a hand in legislation who have been defeated for re-election and whose fear of consequences is gone. They will have their last chance to get something out of the government and their disposition

ill be to make the most of it. They may

be expected to push jobs and to grab pork, and to obstruct useful legislation in order to force its supporters to help their schemes. There will be endless talk and little work, and appropriations are likely to be wasteful. It may be better that a filibuster hold up some appropriation bills for the new congress to pass, for by that means many hundreds of millions were saved in 1919. congress which met in December, 1918, was about to die, like this one, and it did little that was worth while and much that would better not have been done.

The

The next amendment to the constitution should correct this state of affairs. No congress should legislate after its successor has been elected, but the one elected in November should meet in the following January, when the new president and vice-president might well be inaugurated. Then it could begin work fresh from the people, and could finish the session before the dog days.Portland Oregonian.

In making up pipe threads, use the proper lubricant.

Use the Mocking Bird Whistle for fire alarms. Its tone is different from the ordinary kind.

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HR

year finds me automatically veering over toward the making of a few resolutions, not especially because of a deep-seated feeling that I ought to make them or need to make them, but simply because I formed the habit of making them in a younger day, almost as readily as I formed the habit of breaking them. Now with the coming of the new year

it seems as though it were necessary to get at least one resolution solemnly proposed and adopted before I can take the rational point of view that today is not essentially different from yesterday and that there, therefore, is no good reason why today, any more than yesterday, should be marked by a sort of mental and moral stocktaking. But despite this frankly admitted common sense view, there stands Old Habit, demanding a resolution, for, it slyly whispers to me, How are we going to keep up the delightful pastime of breaking resolutions if you discontinue the habit of making them? How indeed. So, let us get the new year resolution out of the way that we may proceed to things of greater moment: I hereby, and herewith most solemnly resolve that during the year 1921 I shall make no resolutions whatsoever; that I shall refrain from "swearing off" anything; that I shall give up nothing that pleases me and does not harm either myself or any one else; that I shall, in short, keep on just about as I have been traveling, finding something worth while in most everything, getting a smile or a laugh out of whatever comes my way, and worrying not at all over a past that I cannot change or a future about which I know nothing. Having thus paid due homage to Habit, let us proceed to a consideration of things which, for the moment, invite speculation, intrigue fancy or suggest meditation.

I

Government Ownership Growing "Groggy"

LIKE to watch a spirited and fair fight about as much as any one, especially when one of the contestants, in my judgment, deserves a severe mauling or even a knock-out. But when the fight goes beyond the point of proper punishment, when the victor continues to pummel the vanquished after the real finishing wallop has been given, I find myself getting a bit tender. I want to slip into the ring and drag the victim out somewhere-not for any particular concern about him personally, but so that he will not pass entirely beyond the area of consciousness in which the realization that he has been thoroughly licked stands well to the fore. This is about the way I have been feeling over Government ownership and operation or either one of them-of late. It (let us lump it as IT) has been doing little for some months now but standing up to be knocked down. It went into the ring some three years ago, in this country, trained to the minute and vanquishing all before it without striking a blow by the simple expedient of assuming a reputation for invincibility. But when the emergency that gave it prominence, and the opportunity of its young life, passed, and we began to question its reputation and stand up to it and spar with it ener

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getically, the tables were turned. It was knocked down by its old enemy Individualism. It was pounded against and over the ropes by its side-partner Graft. First one commission of investigation and then another swung right and left hooks to the jaw or played a tattoo on the solar plexus. Now we see the old champ ion lying in the ring, discredited, disgraced. dewned by graft and dishonesty and dirty politics as much as by the blows of old time. antagonists. I am just sorry enough for Government Ownership to befriend it a little, not that I want it to live or even to recover, but that I would not have it perish before I have the satisfaction of feeling that it knows it has been licked, and that there is no possible prospect of it ever "coming back."

Invitation to the Melting Pot

Y the way, what could be more encouraging than this taken from the Northman, the

BY

leading Norwegian paper of the Pacific Northwest, but printed entirely in English. This paper says, "To all who Come to America": "You have brought to America your talents, your industry, your strength, your ambition, and your love of liberty. You come seeking prosperity and happiness, and you come with your hands tied because you do not know America's language. Preserve your native tongue, but learn the American language so as to be able to take your place among Americans and perform your full duty as Americans." This wise counsel is addressed to Scandinavian people who have made their

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