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Show ' but' was simply a tax imposed on tho occupation of refining petroleum or sugar, whether done by & person, Arm or corporation, "If tho tax suggested by the president," presi-dent," continued Mr. Newlands, "Is to be regarded as an occupation tax. may not the question be raised that tho rule of uniformity Js broken by applying this occupation to corporations corpora-tions alone and not to natural persons? per-sons? "If, however, it be held that tho suggested sug-gested tax is. as the president asserts, a tax upon the privilege of doing business bus-iness a$ an artificial entity.' that Is to say, a tax upon the right to do business as a corporation, may It not be contended that tho corporate franchise fran-chise Is the creation of the state sov-erignty; sov-erignty; that tho power to tax is the power to destroy, and that the nation has no power, for this reason, to tax the privilege granted by tho state?" Since the excise tax on the refiners of sugar and oils, measured hy their gross receipts above a certain amount, has been approved by the supreme court, Mr. Newlands suggested that it could be easily enlarged so as to Include In-clude all manufacturers of goods protected pro-tected by the tariff and that It could be made as little vexatious as possible by relieving the small manufacturers from Its operations. CORPORATION TAX LAW SUGGESTS QUESTIONS NEWLANDS WANTS INFORMATION ON TAFT'S PLAN. Cannot a Graduated Income Tax Be Adopted or the Excise Tax Be Increased. Washington, Juno 24. While agreeing agree-ing that President Taft's corporation tax is an easy and effective way of securing se-curing needed revenue for the government., govern-ment., if a graduated income tax can not be adopted, Senator Newlands of Nevada, in addressing the senate today, to-day, raised the question as to whether It would not be wise, in enacting the proposed excise law, to follow the exact ex-act verbiage of the tax imposed by the war revenue act and under consideration considera-tion in the Spreckels case. He also asked whether equally beneficial results re-sults in the shape of revenue, and equally beneficial results in securing publicity of and supervision over corporate cor-porate concerns could not bo secured by it. Mr. Newlands asserted that while the tax which the president recommends recom-mends is, as he declared, "an excise tax on the privilege of doing business as an artificial entity, and of freedom from point partnership liability by those who own stock," the tax sustained sus-tained by the supreme court in the Spreckels case was not of this nature |
