Ogden Standard-Examiner | 1922-12-02 | Page 1 | Progressives Attack Mellon

" . . " y 1 Vt I t H FAVORS RICH I TAXPAYER.GOV. I BLAINE ASSERTS I Wisconsin Urges Removal of Secrecy Ban Upon Income Returns BLAMED FOR FRAUDS Speaker Asks if U. S. Is Powerless Against Wealthy WASHINGTON, Dec. 2 Discrim-j Discrim-j ination In favor of the rich taxpayer and profiteer was Imputed to Secretary Secre-tary Meilon of the treasury department depart-ment by Governor John .1 Blaine, i ' Wisconsin, In an address here today at a national conference of progrcs- Tn advocating removal of the scc-recj scc-recj ban upon Income tax returns. Governor Bialno attacked Secretai Mellon for his recent statements In correspondence with Representative Frear, Republican -of Wisconsin, thi-r. the government could not reach corporations' cor-porations' undistributed surpluses which are tho basis for stock dividends divi-dends "Now what Mr. Mellon meant when j he said that the government cannot i i ollc' t taxes, due from lncomo and j surtax on excess profits was that w h j j ' the profiteers and millionaires do tt I escape the Income and surtaxes is t make false returns," said Governor1 Blaine, 'sometimes through Innocence, Inno-cence, but often through deceit and fraud, or by legal devices and tricl.n I of the trade, legally cheat the gov- j Declaring that secrecy of Income tax Information was responsible for many frauds upon the government and that publicity would largely euro tho situation. Governor Blaine continual con-tinual "But suppose Mr. Mellon would scourge tho profiteer and the million- P aire with the same vigor that ho does I. the lesser criminals. Suppose h would really try to collect the taxe assessed on the rich. Is It true that tho government Is powerless to enforce en-force the law against the rich, or 1m It just a lack of desire on th- part of Mr. Mellon to place all taxes on aa .quality before the law?"