THE OAMARU MAIL SATURDAY, APRIL 24, 1920. BRITISH BUDGET OPPONENTS.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XLIV, Issue 14040, 24 April 1920, Page 4

THE OAMARU MAIL SATURDAY, APRIL 24, 1920. BRITISH BUDGET OPPONENTS.

As. we opined the other day, the opposition to the 'lmperial Chancellor's proposal to increase the excess profits tax comes from those who have been in the enjoyment of abnormal gains from manufacturing enterprises - and mercantile operations. The excess profits which it is now proposed to tax more heavily have. not. resulted from legitimate-trading. They have been the product of exploitation. A shortage'of certain essentials gave to manufacturers and merchants an opportunity to charge any measure of profit that they chose or that did not .overstrain their elastic consciences, if it may be assumed that they are subject to any restraining influence of the kind. If they had been content with normal profits —the legitimate gains of. enterprise —there would have been no excess fits to.tax. and the Chancellor of the Exchequer would have been under the necessity of looking in other directions for the "means wherewith to reduce the nation's stupendous war-debt load. That must be obvious to the meanest intellect. Those who are caught in the

... , -__ , .-* - t - v meshes of the tax have no honest cause of .•complaint, for the Chancellor of. the •Exchequer proposes' ;r to^take: ; brily r: 60 per cent, of the illegitimate:'.profits of the explpitere. \_He_mjght have taken more without violating decency. . All the squeaking and squealing of- the exploiters 'should have no than to provide the general public with a. fund'dr. amusement, supplemented _by> a feeling of satisfaction. The. position in which the exploiters' have been placed is riot irremediable. Those wio- denounce the tax —the Associated .Chambere of Commerce, the Council of thfc Federation..of British Industries, theNational "Union (of Manufacturers, and the other organisations of the rings'of exploiters—rhave . the "."remedy in their.own hands.' If they" do like taxai tion of'excess let them obliterate excess profits and get tiaeki to I normal trading and reveH ' v to the standard, of- commercial, morality that prevailed before the golden oppprtunfcr ties begotten a dreadful war lured 'them " inte :'t*e : paths' ,of evil. , The process by'which they can escape vthe tax is quite"eimple, and: it is plainly so honest that not even a Chancellor of ■.the - Exchequer, cheated of his • anticipated> revenue, could offer a word of protest against.its adoptionIt would elicit applause here now' there is an absence of sy'inpathy.i Moreover, it would at* once silence; all fears that the tax mil seriously Handicap, thecountry's trade. Cpntentment with; legitimate profits would enable manufacturers and merchants to. sell at fair prices and increase business. That ought to appeal to shrewd business men whose heads have not been turned by the greed of gain that has found full sway as a. result of an opportunity to' exploit a defenceless and unoffending public. With a return to legitimate business methods we would cease to read of a group of stockbrokers, bankers, lawyers, and others resolving to array themselves in engineers' overalls and dungarees as a protest'against the rapid-rise in the prices of clothes already outrageouslyhigh. Then the tailors would be deprived of any further right to lay the blame upon manufacturers, whom they now accuse of gross profiteering. There is everything, to be gained by abolishing excess profits. The manufacturers and merchants would free themselves of the tax that hits and hurts them so ■that thev feel;"sore and sad, as weliras a little mad;,the .stockbrokers, lawyers, and others: would be relieved of .any need te don dungarees and other raiment out-of: keeping with their genteel stations in lifer everybody would be benefited and made glad where now all are vexed and filled with resentment ; the odious word profiteering, conjured up to furnish a fitting name for an odious thing, would be banished- from 'our everydav vocabulary; and au_ era of general contentment and happiness would be ushered in. The simple proposition, indeed, opens Up such a de-lio-htful vista of captivating possibilities that it ought to be adopted with avidity arid transformed into action with expedition and determination..