PAYING FOR THE WAR.

North Otago Times, Volume CVI, Issue 13981, 17 November 1917, Page 4

PAYING FOR THE WAR.

American senators are agitating to convince* Ilie'PrJoßidont of tllo jus.tipe'bfmakiiig war profits tyyfor tlie;wfli:..', It is claimed; with strong. emplfasis,' tliat bpsidea all tlip, iUsons'why oSCei war profits should be' heavily faxed, there/is'tlicrfiiudflraehtttl pl'opositiQii that no mm

Jihiont'-lia* a 1 njicl "bi^mlli qiifiircsi ' :miilti-irtjllioua|r^ the ?wnr' the n'atimial: income : of the,. United acontribution -of .45J3- per head oii a revenue- o 1>'£210,000,000, init.in tho natioaiiil' contribution per.; head amounted to 82s per -head on a revenue of £200,000,000 The States bas,eiiormous reserves of taxation upon which to draw, ,as 'these figures dourly prove, ami the Senate has' liot, hesitated' to hialco hold move Lo.tlo so. The. American income tux is to be increased,tov such ut pitch that- the multi-mil-lionaires, who formerly paid a tax of £17,000 a year on anjncomc of £100,000,' are in; fiii ure to pay £67,000, the nearest approach Id the conscription of wealth in the would'b history. The multi-mil-lionaire is in great danger of being taxed, out of'existence. )■ His .war: tax alone for one year 'is a 1 year's income at 5 per cent, on a million pounds. When the Seriate" comes to. deal with the lesser lights in the'world of riches, it is more, tender to them thftii is the British Government. Thus the new income tax in England on an income of £12,000 is £4129, hut in Atrnerica it will be only £1650. In'.New Zealand it is 7s 6d in the pound. On an. income of £16,000 one of 'the' principal stages in the scale, the rich man in America will pay £2BIO, while the Briton with the 1 same income this year is paying £5450. It is when America.touches the super-rich that she comeWhe nearest to conscription of wealth. Her £IOO,OOO a year man will pay £67,000 to the State; Great Britain's £IOO,OOO a year man is paying this year £41,529. The number of the British ridi who pay nearly half their income to the State is less than a hundred. Before the war they numbered, all told, 74. In 'the whplo of the United Kingdom there aw about a thousand persons whose income exceeds £20,000 a year. The actual number of persons in Great Britain owning more thnn a pillion is between three and four hundred. Each of these is paying £16,000 to £84,000 a year in income tax but there arc very few at the latter : figure. That war-made riches should be conscripted for war purposes has. been repeated so often as to bo considered almost nxiomatie, but after three years of war, in no country lias the fiill hundred per cent, war profits been taken by the. State for war purposes.