[SOME OTTAWA GLIMPSES Special Correspondence by H. ¥. Gadsby. ~The New War Taxes -» . 37.~~As time 'goes by Sir Thomas White's s hy The' an- 1 all is not gold that glit- + In other words, it is only a beck imitation of Lloyd George, not being animated by the same spirit 3 the democracy, but rath- ; ons desire on the part h man's government to deal ly with its friends. That is to may, they take a little away. lest t. people demand much mo heir discipline of wealth and y such as it is, is more in sorrow than in anger, and is only temporary at that. "Make "em be % the "All right," erent answers in sub- ""but' you'll understand that is for the period of the : ' ore is mo danger that 6 'altruistic outbursts will be car- 0 into the piping times of » . ~ Of course there is no doubt | Thomas talked matidrs over oughly with the interests he sprang his bud- 'got a mighty definite idea of h the traffic would bear and Ong it would bear it. One great outstanding fact is that high protection was not interfered with by the Conservative Govern- ment. High protection as high as it is now, has come to stay as long as they stay. That it was not made higher is due fo the fact that the ®oose that lays the golden eggs has all it can do new. To press it fur- ther would 'be to kill the amiable fowl. A Co ytive Government : bir never be guilty of foul play like Sir Thomas' Rint that there will be a system of rural credits after the war gupplemented by Government assistance for those who want to get on the land, is founded on no par- ticular love toward the farmer,whose wheat lies rotting on the ground in the north-west provinces because the' Government denies him the American market, but on the en- ghtened selfishness which rieh men always display toward themselves. If high protection is not to suffer, or if in Sir Thomas' own words, "Can: ada's economic strength is not to be impaired," then there must- be pro- duction for high protection to bleed and to ensure production, nothing must be done that will scare the pro- . ducers away. In short, this is an- other case of considertng the golden Boose which will be wofked to the limit, but not permanently disabled. Some of the shrewder critics are 'wondering why Sir Thomas did not raise his extra twenty-five million ins terest charges by means of a stiff in- come. tax, appropriately graded for all earned and unearned incomes over five thousand dollars a year, an adaptation of the English idea. it is Sir Thomas' fine gift to make beautifully .cledr what he wants to make clear and to leave beautifully clouded what he would rather not | mention, as for instance the fact that we have horrowed one hundred and fifty million dollarg from England 'since the war There. was his juggling = CUBES c ® the real debt Is more like a billion. However, as Mr. Kipling would say, that is another story. © The point he did make, talking rapidly the while so that the quickness of the hand]: should deceive the eye, was that the accumulations of wealth in Canada were. not such as to warrant a dras- tic income tax. = What he meant no doubt was that the accumulations" of wealth were not generally distribut- ed, and that the few hands that held them objected to loosening up. Ir the British. North America Act can be amended fo give the Government another year's life it follows that it can be amended to permit the Gov- ernment to fmpose a federal income | tax, ! Antler eriticism is that . unless {the ernment"s new born desire {for thrift lends them to dse the local | assessment 8 as the basis of their {business t#x it will mean the crea- | tion of an expemsive army of office- holders for the collection and assess- {ment of the new taxes. Still this {is a minor consideration. The great question is, Will the new taxes do the work properly and: efficiently? Does the Finance Minister's et get at éach rich man, corporat or part- nership in the éxact and: just gropor- tions in which he should be got at? The first answer is that the profit- eers, the man who made money out cf the Empire's danger, particularly the shell-makers, get off lightly, while the . legitimate businesses of long standing 'are hard hit. It stands to reason that a war profiteer ¢an more easily 'afford to pay twenty-five per cent. of his enormously. swollen gains above seven per cent. than a legiti- mate business can of its 'normal gains above seven per cent. or 'ten per cent., ag the case may be. In other words, no distinction is made between the sheep and the goats. The man who 'is satisfied with fair pro- fits on a ro business is put on exactly the sme footing as the get- rich-quick - shark who has leeched the Empire's life-blood and tried to distract attention from his hoggish- ness by contributions to the Patriotic Fund. The Financ Minister should have it in his heart to make the re- wards for moderation greater than the rewards fop ruthless greed. Be- sides--and here is a disturbing thought--how is the Gévernment go- ing to get at the beneficiaries of the old' Shell Comite and the new Twi- perial Munitions Board -- since. all along it has taken the ground that it had no specific' knowledge of their operatiohsrihele business being 'a confidential™one with the British Government, whose money it was they were absorbing. If they don't know these people how are they go- ing to 'tax them? . The very fact of their "coughing up" will dispose of the Government's hollow sophistry that it knows nothing about them and washes its hands of them. Thus is 8ir Wilfrid Laurier provided with a new argument for an inquiry into the Shell Committee which the Gov- ernment so far has refused. The new taxes place a premium on watered stock. Some of the biggest corporations in the country are the most heavily watered---so heavily watered that the water drowns out What would be a considerable divi-| dend over Seven per cent. on a le-| gitimate capitalization. Thus it] happens that of all the railways in| Canada perhaps only the C. P. R. will | contribute--its share is said to be two million dollars a year--to- this! new source of revenue. Although | the C. P. R. has made a practice for | years of burying its treasure in sub- sidiary companies, melons and in- creased capitalization, it is still fat and prosperous and In a position to "come through." Not so the G. T. P. and the CN. R. They have no profits to spare. Sir illiam Mackenzie sat all through Finance Minister White's speech with a brooding air. Perhaps he was | "WHAT BOOTS IF AT ONE GATE TO MAKE AND AT THE OTHER TO LET IN Inn, brooding over the lordly jest of Ba- ron Shaughnessy, who the other day utilized four thousand miles of new copper wire to inquire by long dis- tance telephone of Vancouver wheth- er the C. N. R. train stalled in the snow two weeks age had arrived yet. An Irish trick of Baron Shaugh- Jregey = but yan these Olympians © they joke. Or perhaps he w Br8oding over his chance to-grab another forty millions or so. "At all events when Sir Thomas mentioned railways and spoke of their paying, a cynical smile overspread his coun- tenance," "The ©. N. R. is not in the habit of giving. money. to the Gov- ernment-----its practice is rather to take. ' The chances are not so bright this session for a subsidy or a credit guarantee, and Sir William does not haunt the House of Commons as much as usual, but he is not without hope. The opinion is generally expressed that the ultimate consumer will, as usual, do the paying. The corpora- tions, will find a way of passing the tax sipns. For example the trans- portation companies can -recoup themselves by a horizontal increase in fares and freights. The banks have it _in their power to increase their rates for. loans or deerease their in- Bring Roses fo the Chee Gowan'straCocon terest rate on deposits. surance companies can charge more for lite insurance and 80 on. There will, as Finance Minister White says, be readjustments, which freely trans- lated, means that the big fellows will "pass the buck.™ --H. F. G. CANADIAN PAPER MILLS. Touching New High Records. Toronto, Feb, 28. Canadian pap- er mills, according to trade authori- thes; ave e & Birong de { Exports Now the demand being in part a natural sequei ef the strong market that has developed in paper in the United States. Canada in November, according to the latest statistics available, were valued at $1,753,013, a new high re- cord'ior any month and of the total more than $1,400,000 went to the United States. Chemically prepar- ed pulp has been notably strong re- cently. With exports rising and imporis virtnally cut off, American paper authorities are talking now of a paper famine in the United States. As locg as this condition continues Canadian mills can count on a con- ! tinuance of the present capacity op- { eratioas, Utah Dividend To Be Advanced. New York, Feb. 28.--The forth- coming dividend declaration on Utah | Copper 'Company may total $3 a share, probably in the shape of $1.- | 50 regular and $1.50 ra. It is es- { timated jn official quarters that at | the least' Utah will earn this year | $20,000,000 for the stock, or over | $12 a share, | New Imperial Bank Director. | Toronto, Feb, 28.--At a meeting | of the Board of Directors of the Jm- | perial Bank to-day, J. | president Gordon, Mackay, was elected a director. Mr. Woods Mutt Must Have Thought the General Had a Grudge Against Will ' (SUCCESSFUL) THE FOE." Milton. The life in- ed by the death of thé late J. K. Os. og mand for all lines of their output, | Exports of news print from | W.: Woods, | & Co..| fills the vacancy on the board caus-|' than a cunning one. DEFENCE, { borne Lumber Industry Picks Up. Vancyaver, B.C., Feb. 28.--Ame- rican capitalists show confidence-in the future of the British Columbia lumber industry by heavy invest- ments. © The récént transfer by Am- PR i i erican represéntativés ofr a quarter of a million cash involfes the sale of two hundred and fifty million feet of fir and cedar. The purchasers will operate a mill employing two 'hun- dred men beginning March 10th,' Peace River Purchase. Vancouver, Feb. 28,--A syndicate of old country capitalists, of which tricts, Commercial Notes, * A grcup of eastern. business men and aatomobile experts have formed American Motors Corporation, capi- talized at $1,250,000, 'to manufac ture modern priced cars. | The munitions output of the Can- | adian Car and Foundry Company will | from now on be further increased as { Lord Rhonda, Llanwern (D. A. Tho- mas), the Welsh coal baron, is head, | has acquired the Peace River Trad- ing and Land Company, im Northern Alber.a and the Peace River dis | the rasult of the placing in operation | this week of the smokeless powder | plant at Drunmondville, * Que., by { the Aetpa Chemical Company. "This {latter company is controlled by the Aetna Explosives Company which is { handling a large portion of the or- | ders of the Canadian Car. : Ingersoll Chief Dismissed. Ingersoll, Feb. 29.--Chief of Po- | lice. A. W. Gummerson has been dis- | missed for alleged incompetence. | Gummerson came here from Thorold, | Ont, Great men have many friends = and many more enemies. | A bad man is far less dangerous BIG GUNS CARNAGE OF GERMANS ENDED FORT: Berlin Correspondent Says 17- Ich Ones Used. A------ Several Fixed 0 Be Replaced an hy ocd Fang detroit, Feb, 29 Several ts and a beacon will appear a when they are restored fo service at the opening of the 1916 season of navagation, according to nounce- ment sent out by United es Bur eau of Lighthouses, : : Intersity of the light at Beaver Island Station, in Straits of Mack inac, will be increased, the fixed light to 1,700 and flashing light to 14,000 candlepower. Duration of flash will be 1.8 seconds. Monroe, Michigan, light at the west end of Lake Erie is to be made a flashing white light, showing & flash of .3 second every three sec- onds. The light will have 230 candlepower and will be visible 12 miles. It is exhibited 34 feet above water from, a white, square, pyra- midal skeleton steel tower placed ou crib. The characteristic of Port Huron Gas Buoy No. 1, Lake St. Clair, will be changed to a flashing white of AT VERDUN WAS TERRIBLE, THE WOUNDED SAY. The Enemy Could Not Have Chosen a More Inopportune Time for the Offensive Against Verdun. London, Feb. 29.--The London Daily Mail prints the following from its correspondent at Rotterdam: "A man war correspondent says Fort Douaumont was entirely destroyed by the conceptrated fire of 12-inch and 17-inch guhs, which blew the steel and concrete cupolas to f ents. ne fort nearby was blown up by a single heavy high explosive shell which penetrated the magazine. "Before the attack hundreds of | German engineers had been con-|:3 Second duration, showing every structing roads for the conveyance of | three seconds. The light will be 17-inch guns. | 70 candlepower. "French prisoners, dazed, sdid the The Charles Sprice Horizontal terrific fire quickly made Fort Dou- | Striped Wreck gas buoy, south end of aumont untenable." | Lake Huron will Have 20 candle- Wounded soldiers say that the car- | Power flashing white every three sec- nage of Germans has' been simply | OU%S, duration of flash being .3 sec. terrible. At many places the Ger- i. man dead formed huge dams across| Sydney C. MecLouth Wreck Buoy the ravines, impeding the water on| No. 2 to be established at south end its downward course to the Meuse. | of green Bay will be a thi Every now and then one of. these| Spar, anchored in 19 feet of witer, dams gives way and the reddened | east of the wreck, which is four and stream swirls on again; carrying | three-quarter miles, 174 degrees, 30 with it hundreds of corpses. minutes from Oconto South Pierhead The French have plentiful supplies, | light. and if the battle ends for lack of mu- | nitions that lack will be on the Ger- man and not on the French side. A delayed despatch from the cor- réspondent of Reuter's Telegram ¥ As a man grows thinner with age his wife usually grows fatter. Bliss comes with the honeymoon; ter that comes the blister. ¥ / Efficient and Prompt Service in every Department | at THE STANDARD BA OF CANADA HEAD OFFICE - TORONTO ° Cm ert nn SAVINGS BANK at all Branches. KINGSTON BRANCH; - H.E Richardson z | 4H <H 4] a Simi Canadian Government and Municipal Bonds Ma 1 x +Canadian Gov t investment of the very highest order, affording as the maximum of interest yield consistent with security. following are legal for Trustees Investments in ; of Ontario, and are equally suitable for the investment of private funds. They can now be purchased to yield from 5%% to 5%% an do We shall be glad to! furnish 'full particulars upon fequést. Wood, Gundy & Co. Ganadian Pasific Railway Building Toronto New York Ammons {| WE ARE Going INTO BATTL § Toon .S0 FIRE oNULY ON | Command From - BXCEPY IN Case CHARGES, THEN SHOOT - AT WHLL € YOUR OFFER THE ENEMY PARDON ME GENERAL , OUT Max ou 1 BE SO BOLD As Ta ANY OF THOSE PERSONALLY THAT I'M A STRANGER, (N (THESE PARTS AND DON'T xaOw | (wna wer 1 INFORM NS GOT To DO WITH IT? WeLL, How AMT GONNA KOMOW WHICH oF THOSE GERMANS 1S "wit" MLD PROTEST