The arguments about this often-forgotten U.S. Treasury Secretary continue a century later. The policies and writings of 1920s U.S. Treasury Secretary Andrew Mellon touch on much of what Americans debate today: Taxes, economic growth, and inflation. Keep tax rates as low as possible, he advised. Low taxes benefit those with modest as well as high incomes. They produce strong growth, Mellon wrote. He was the American father of supply-side philosophy, says economist Arthur Laffer. Supply-siders believe high taxes hurt everyone, especially the poor; that tax rates are dynamic and have a dramatic effect on all of society. High taxes don’t produce the desired result: a booming economy with lots of money pouring into government coffers. “The history of taxation shows that taxes which are inherently excessive are not paid,” Mellon wrote. “The high rates inevitably put pressure upon the taxpayer to withdraw his capital from productive business and invest it …