Knowledge that Transforms

The policy of post-war taxation which is adopted by the federal government probably will have a more direct and vital influence on the general well-being of the country than any other governmental domestic policy. The war is over but not yet paid for, and it will be many years before the huge national debt of some twenty-four billions of dollars is liquidated. It is, therefore, of prime importance to every citizen to consider without prejudice what is the most equitable and least oppressive method of raising the enormous funds necessary to meet the greatly increased operating expenses of government, interest on the public debt, and the sinking fund to redeem it.

From the beginning of federal regulation of combination there has been an insistent demand on the part of the farmers for the exemption of their organizations. The political history of the past thirty years is full of party promises to the farmers, but the laws on the statute books reveal a rather niggardly performance of the promises made.

A tax on commodities is wholly or partly shifted upon consumers according as the taxed goods are produced under conditions of constant or increasing cost, respectively, and according as the demand for these goods-if they are produced under conditions of increasing cost-is absolutely inelastic, or is more or less elastic. If the conditions of production of a taxed commodity are those of constant cost, and if the industry is a competitive one, all of those in the business (with their land and capital) would leave and go into some other line or lines of production rather than bear any special tax.' If the demand for a taxed article is absolutely elastic, all the consumers will refuse to buy rather than pay an appreciably higher price. Usually both demand and supply are somewhat elastic. Some of the persons engaged in producing the taxed article are unwilling to continue so doing unless they can shift substantially the entire tax; but others may be willing to continue producing though they can shift but a part or none. Likewise, some buyers will not purchase a taxed good, or will purchase appreciably less of it, if the tax is shifted to them in any noticeable degree; but others will purchase though they have to pay some or all of the tax in the form of a higher price. A tax on commodities, therefore, or on a given commodity, while it is usually borne chiefly by consumers, may frequently be borne in part by producers of the goods or good taxed. The case of taxes on sales of land or capital goods or on mortgages or loans is analogous. But while taxes on commodities fall upon consumers as such, regardless of the various sources of their incomes, and so rest on interest, wages, and rent,2 we may find that