Ogden Standard-Examiner | 1921-02-27 | Page 20 | Effort to Put Heavy Tax on Automobiles as Luxuries is Termed Injustice by Makers

II EFFORT TO PUT HEAVY TAX ON I AUTOMOBILES AS LUXURIES IS I TERMED INJUSTICE BY MAKERS IRI "The convening of congress has( '! brought out a larger crop of demands III for navv taxes n car8 anfl truCkS In than usual." saya Alvan Macauley, oi if I ihr Packard Motor Car Company, lei ' Secretary Houston's plan to raise the present exercise tax on trucks from Hlll wcr c0,u to s nor rent nnr on rars H from per rent to Hi per cut. Is HlSi typical of this agitation ami shows HeII "o' il Js Intrenched behind of-! Hjjjfl final sanction. Hlfil "The need of raising large sums by LLHlbl taxation is obvious, and politicians arc HlII naturally canvassing every possible aaHIS) source. Secretary Houston, coming Hfiui fiom a state in which no automobiles nil aro manufactured, and comparatively j ISI lr"' nre owned, naturally will see llll great advantages in a tax on motor! Illl cars- lie is said personally to prefer llnl ,ne horse-drawn carriage --Hlil "I cannot believe that any policy so j Hill lol 11(1 unjust a burden, will be adopted, aafljjll The chief justification cited for II la the belief that the automobile is R HHl luxury, and that a tax on It will not : Hisi 1,0 folt y tne maJri,v "' ' '"' "'" IIIIIHhI Jt surprising that any argument N la necessary with regard to truck' IHI transportation. Record kepi by thoj Q government itself on postal expresi ul lines running from Maryland Into H Washington, over distances up to B4B ggglffl miles, show that this service resulted IM in selling farm products to ConSura- .aHH ere at something like 43 per cent less iiiiiBm than the normul market prices. Oth- aaHlS! er figures show that truck hauling, Bn can effect a saving over tranuporta- iiHJp Hon bv rail in manv mat tnce up to, EHI distances of 200 miles. The advan-j IB tages of truck transportation for) ly shorter distances, espi ilallv in t Ik seeeeHtlri :ongested centers. haw been proved; iiiiifllii m actua' service by hundreds of, rat thousands of truck owners. I. "The advantages which the paSeen-j illllHwl Ker car g'vos aro equally obvious Rl- iJiiiHIrill though not quit' so readily shown I n i Hni figures. A recent questionnaire .,,1(19 out by the National Automobile Cham-I H?N bet of Oommerce showed that 90 per cent of all passengers cars are used more or less for business purposes. The utmost that can be charged against the passenger car as a luxury is thai n gives pleasure after it has done its day's work "Yet, the car has hardly begun to Function The real growth of the ln-1 ln-1 dustry has been In the Inst five years, I In the period during which tho car ceased to be a luxury and became an ! economic factor of the highest 1m-j 1m-j portance. The possibilities of its ser- j vie' ar- hardly beginning to be understood, un-derstood, and if lis development is not hampered, another five years j will, beyond any question, see it Inextricably In-extricably woven Into the whole fabric fab-ric of our national life ami giving benefits so great that even today a statement of them would probably seem fantastic. "it is this great development, this tremendous addition to the comfort and baDPlneSS of life, that would be in-cked. if not completely stopped, by any such oppressive taxation as is proposed. The glory of tho motor car at present is that it is ceasing to be a rich man's perquisite and hecom-Inc hecom-Inc the common companion of men anil women in nil stations of life. Heavy taxation would check this dis- Hnctly democratic and American tendency, ten-dency, and would do more than any-thiiiK any-thiiiK else could possibly do to restrict re-strict the benefits that the less prosperous pros-perous people of the country now have a right to receive from tho automobile automo-bile " oo