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Show HIGHER TAXES "IF PROHIBITION IS PUTTHROUBH Members of House Ways and Means Committee Figuring on Raising a Billion on Booze. QUESTION RESTS WITH THE PEOPLE If a Bone-dry Country Is lresired and Congress Enacts En-acts the Law, Money Must Come Somehow. By Universal Service. WASHINGTON, July 21. A billion dollars dol-lars stands between congress and national na-tional prohibition for the period of the war. It is the people's money, to be raised by taxation to help pay the enormous enor-mous cost of the war. The billion can easily be raised by taxes on whisky, wines and beer. Otherwise, members of congress who will vote for prohibition are frank enough to state that they don't know where this billion will come from unless consumption taxes are imposed upon some of the necessities of life. Congress will face the question of a billioi. tor booze when the regular sessions ses-sions are resumed next month and the members of the ways and means committee, commit-tee, now framing the new war revenue bill, are ready to report. They must find a way to raise $8,000,000,000 by taxation taxa-tion this year. By hitting the rich individuals indi-viduals and rich corporations to the limit, by imposing heavy taxation on everything that could possibly be called a luxury, and by doubling or trebling the taxation on spirits, wine, beer and tobacco, it is just possible that congress will be able to frame a law that will realize the required re-quired amount, with the consumption taxes that are so unpopular with the American peaple. Whole People Must Pay. Take away the billion dollars in prospect pros-pect by the enactment of national prohibition, prohi-bition, putting the whole country on a bone-dry basis, and members of the ways and means commit) ee, who have been struggling wi th the matter for some weeks, say there is no way to find the moiy except under some scheme of gen-, gen-, taxation that will fall upon all the . ijieople. In other words, if the people want a bone-dry country for the period of the war, all the people will have to pay 1 for it. and pay at the rale of about $10 apiece for every man, woman and child fc, in the land. j "X Experience in dry Washington has ' Lyght the capital hat almost any amount can be raised by tuxes on spirits and the lighter alcoholic beverages. The price of a drink, including the taxation, cannot be made too high for the man who wants a drink. Consumption Taxes. If congress decides that the nation shall be bone dry for the period of the war, then consumption taxes surely will go into the revenue bill. They may hi thinly disguised as luxury taxes, applying to shoes that cost more than $5 a pair, or woman's suits that cost more tha n $LT, and things like that. The people will soon realize that these so-called luxury taxes are si ra tght consumption taxes, and the man who never took a drink in his life, and who can' L buy a pair of shoes for less than $5, will find himself paying part of the hillion that the drinkers of alcoholic beverages would have contributed to the treasury if the sale of strong waters had been continued. Excess Profits 80 Per Cent. Income and excess profits taxes are exported ex-ported to go as liish as SO per cent. That If the limit that has been reached in any allied country at. war with Germany, but tiie United .Stales has gone into ihc war "pen such a huge scale that she must tax to tho limit after a year of war, in order to meet tho enormous expenditures being made for the peace and happiness of the world. A flat rate nf 12 iter cent on all In-t'omcs, In-t'omcs, with exemptions of $1000 for unmarried, un-married, and $2n00 for ma mod persons, is expected to raise an enormous revenue, and undoubtedly, this r;ite will have to be applied If tite country goes on a prohibition prohibi-tion basis. Kvpry cent of revenue will be sorely missed by the men who are framing the new bill, and even t lie work or fight rule, which is expected to put baseball eut of commission for the period of the war will deny t he country thousands of dollars in revenue and make the (ask of raising money harder for congress. If the rule is held to apply to other forms of amusement, it. will cut down a good source of revenue, because amusement amuse-ment taxes are to be made higher and have proved good revenue producers. Price-fixing is another hardship to the tax layers. If a general program is entered en-tered u pon there will be no excess profits prof-its on which to lay heavy taxes. There are many members of congress who favor the scheme of allowing a man to take large profits in war and then take a club and take them all away from him. This is virtually the system in England, and it is believed that the new bill, when reported, will follow along the general line of the English system of war taxation. |