"Pig In a Poke"

After three weeks of public and private wrangling, the House Ways & Means Committee this week sent its excess-profits tax bill to the floor. The bill was not quite what the Administration wanted. It would raise somewhere between $3 billion and $3.4 billion at current tax receipts, as against the $4 billion asked by Treasury Secretary John Snyder. It called for a levy of 75% on all earnings above 85% of a company's average profits during its three best years between 1946 and 1949. The tax would be retroactive to July 1, 1950. No more than 67% of a corporation's earnings would have to be paid in normal and excess-profits taxes v. 80% during World War II.

Though Republicans still called the measure "a pig in a poke" and "as imperfect as a bill can possibly be," the turn of events in Korea had improved its chances of passing. The House was almost sure to approve. Even the Senate, which has been dead set against an excess-profits tax in this session, might put a tax of some sort through by Christmas.

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