A MODERN INQUISITION

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LVI, 31 December 1924, Page 5

A MODERN INQUISITION

Americans are extracting what humour they can from the disclosures aa to the amount of federal income tax paid by those men who are much in the public eye, but- tho tone of their comments is sardonic and by the great majority the opening of the tax books to "the*• inquisition of the curious is much deplored, says the New York dent of the Times. In New York, where the lists are more freely accessible than almost anywhere else,, enterprising men have gone so far as to take advantage of the opportunities thu@ offered. Bond salesmen have used them to compile lists of “prospects,” sftid business rivals have checked up each other’s returns. There are reports of wives looking up their husband’s returns, of‘young women those of their betrothed. In one instance • plans to resume a partnership terminated 'by bankruptcy were abandoned when, one of the partners discovered that .while he had surrendered -nearly everything to the creditors another partner had retained for himself a substantial income. As was predicted, too, the lista have been used as a basis for attacks on individuals by critics of the capiaiistic system, by the employees of companies, and by numerous others, and already there is talk of legislation which, will be based upon inferences drawn..from these lists. Although the wett-mfonmed know that tax payments are hopelessly misleading as indices of actual incomes, demagogues and the uninformed ■ are drawing inferences Jrom the lists which promise to be & fruitful source of mischief in further class wars. Among reflective people this, opening of- Pandora's box is regarded as certain to do infinitely more harm than good. It is feared, "too, that instead of arousing a. general deimand that the Government should cease from interfering with the private rights of citizens it wiH prove the precursor of other inquisitions, so that presently, as the Chicago Tribune suggests, there will probably be a “law prohibiting the manufacture, sale, distribution, or use of window bhnd3 qf more than 5 per cent, of opaqueness.