Show Other Points of View Jr STOCK DIVIDENDS AND WAR V PROFITS Several Seral S 'S eral more corporations announce stock dividends fA AJ tobacco company compan will divide 75 5 per cent A widely known mercantile company will divide 20 SQ per cent A Arne file company will divide per cent a b tank k car company compan per cr cent 4 These announcements come on a single le day They are Preceded by a a. long list including textile mills and steel companies motor concerns fuel gas and what not with rales vates of division dl ranging from 20 O to OO per cent I Such dividends are arc now well understood since since- the supreme courts court's decision classifying them hem as distributions not not- of income subject to Income tax ta but of capital They are divisions among stockholders of or titles to surplus earnIngs earnings earn earn- ings InS's which havo not been distributed in cash but have ha been retained fn fa the business a as 33 added capital They reflect therefore the recent or or war accumulation tion lion of ot surplus earnings or profits above e what have havo been divided d In cash which In ever every case calle of or a n stoc stoe dividend are arc shown to bo be uncommonly large and in irony iy cases so 80 enormous as to equal and to exceed by two and three times Umes the tho actual capital Invented by stockholders Th The excess profits tax was avowedly d designed to Teach eaCh these these inordinate Inordinate profits growing out of f war conditions conditions conditions condi condi- and appropriate them In large part for or the tho public treasury treasury- U asur But how far tar has bas this been tl the case Every due e-dr e df r. r these stock divi dividends is evidence either of the rankest a kind of war profiteering Or of ot of ot this r t of or both And is hi still dead to the tho fact tact tn l h d not 1 brains enough to devise a simple and C. C oh n excess profits excess profits in the tho first place h has it een n to acquire enough t to tG do something toW bow r r tardily by byway way of ot correction New flew York World f |