Recommendation for Additional Taxes.

My dear Mr. Chairman:

Secretary Morgenthau has recommended that three and onehalf billion of additional taxes should be levied during the coming year to defray in part the extraordinary defense expenditures.

This total represents the minimum of our revenue requirements. I hope that you and the other members of your Committee will act favorably on his goal.

You will recall that in my Budget Message this year, I suggested a financial policy aimed at collecting progressive taxes out of a higher level of national income. I urged that additional tax measures should be based on the principle of ability to pay. This still is my view.

I am confident that your Committee will recommend legislation specifically aimed at making the Federal revenue system evasion-proof and so devised that every individual and every corporation will bear its fair share of the tax burden. The income tax can not fix the tax liability of individuals and corporations with equity as long as the tax base is defined to exclude substantial and significant elements of income.

I hope your Committee, with the help of the Treasury, will formulate a tax bill which will convince the country that a national defense program intended to protect our democracy is not going to make the rich richer and the poor poorer.

I am sure that you and I are agreed that defense is a national task to which every American must contribute in accordance with his talents and treasure and that the people of the United States are gladly willing to make whatever sacrifices may be necessary to strengthen the common defense.

Very sincerely yours,

Honorable R. L. Doughton,

Chairman, Ways and Means Committee,

House of Representatives,

Washington, D. C.