Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
THE
flUJIC TFADE
VOL. LXXIII. No. 2
Published Every Saturday by Edward Lyman Bill, Inc., at 373 4th Ave., New York.
July 9, 1921
A I/THOUGH the majority of the members of the music industries of the country apparently now have a
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fair appreciation of the importance of the Federal tax situation in Congress, it is equally apparent
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that, despite the persistent efforts of the Music Industries Chamber of Commerce, the various trade
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^ associations, the trade papers and individuals, there are still many in the trade who seem to think
that it is all simply a case of crying "wolf."
In fact, it is nothing of the sort—or, rather, the cry is perfectly genuine. The wolf is on the threshold
and in a particularly active and predatory mood. To ignore the sharp teeth and hungry stomach of that
animal is to lay ourselves open to whatever is coming to us, and that will be no little.
Referendum No. 36 of the Chamber of Commerce of the United States is now in progress. It is
intended to discover the sentiment of the country's business men as to changes in the method of raising Federal
revenue. • The financial committees of Congress will without doubt base their final action largely upon what is
disclosed by this referendum; not entirely, or certainly, but largely.
Farmer organizations, theoretical socialists and many well-intentioned but superficial thinkers vaguely
believe that the excess profits tax, the corporation income tax and other taxes which bear nominally on "big
business" ought to be continued and even increased, rather than that any substitute should be considered.
Such persons can, and always do, raise the cry that the taxes should be "paid by the rich." Yet all
taxes are actually paid by the ultimate consumer, and the incidence of them, the exact manner in which they fall,
never in the least alters the ultimate effect.
The whole question of a general sales tax is a question of simplicity and convenience. The purchaser
then pays directly and knows what he is paying, the merchant is relieved and the manufacturer unshackled.
A fair general sales tax hurts no one, destroys the ridiculous and inefficient methods of tax collecting
which cause the honest business man constant uneasiness, immense trouble and eternal uncertainty, and
eliminates a huge, clumsy and expensive machinery for detecting fraud and correcting error.
These are facts. The man in the trade who reads these words will say perhaps that he already knows
them. But do his customers know them? Do the other members of the Business Men's Associations in his
community know them? Does the public in general know them?
The answer is in the negative. The general public is grossly ignorant and proportionately apathetic
about the whole matter. Congress, depend on it, will seek the line of least resistance. If the farmer organiza-
tions, some labor unions and a group of taxation theorists can make enough noise the sales tax will be
abandoned and the corporation and excess profits taxes probably increased.
That is a point to make to one's business friends who are indifferent to the course of events.
And as for us: Are we remembering that the excise tax is still threatened? Are we forgetting that
along with increased corporation income and excess profits taxes we are likely to face a'"luxury tax" of
unheard of dimensions? Are we forgetting that? If not, what are we doing about it?
Many of the readers of this page will have an opportunity to participate in referendum No. 36 of the
United States Chamber of Commerce. They can make use of that opportunity. And, what is more, they can
preach to their business friends the gospel of the sales tax so that those friends in turn may see the light.
Business men who are sick of being held up constantly as greedy capitalists, when they are having the
warmest of times just barely getting along, need not expect reason and sanity from the politicians. But they
may rightly expect those politicians to respond to a loud organized protest, if that protest carries with it some
practical alternative scheme, clean, light in its incidence and capable of providing the needed revenue.
Our own Chamber of Commerce is doing its best. But it needs the fullest support. A line to the
General Manager will show any music industries man where he can help the best at this critical moment.