OCR Text |
Show U -11 j n p. Penny Wise I JlOl'yU'Uj By GEORGE S.BENSON J3'. (W 1 Fresiaent of Harding College i I JJfe(UL Searcy.Arkansas JfS care of disabled veterans all will be in the 20 billion. We can do itrjf employment is high. We can do it with present tax rates cut-in cut-in half, but not unless there is work. ' Many Jobs PEOPLE who work Necessary will pay the biggest share of post - war taxes; there is no other way. Last year two-thirds of our national income consisted of wages and salaries. If all who pay taxes on incomes of $25,000 or more were seated in one stadium, all our millionaires and some other rich people would be there. But the whole assembly could not pay half of 20 billion dollars a year too few of them. ! VICTORY in war cannot be 'bought with money alone. There is fighting to do which cannot be ;thought about in terms of money. 'Wars always take a priceless toll iof life, limb, health, sanity and : human happiness. And, along with all this, war calls for a vast i amount of work. Money is only medium of exchange, a relatively relative-ly accurate measure of the work j performed. The United States, now in the middle of the biggest struggle of 11 history, is spending money at !the rate of 100 billion dollars a year. With the highest tax rates ever applied in this country, our ifovernment is raising money at the rate of 40 billion dollars a year, borrowing the difference. We will be in debt for 60 of the war when it ends, if things i go along as they probably will. These men can't pay the entire expense of government but there is one thing they can do: They can, if permitted, keep factories running and jobs available for the rest of us, who, in the long-run, will have to work off that debt. Don't forget that wages and dividends divi-dends both are paid from earnings earn-ings on investments, so employers employ-ers must be permitted to earn profits. Nothing makes jobs but starting start-ing new businesses or enlarging old ones; both require investments. invest-ments. But job holders will pay the national debt. One fact is clear therefore the "expert" who advocates taxes on corporations so big that they drive away investments invest-ments and destroy jobs is "penny wise and pound foolish." Such a taxing policy injures workers more than others. Twenty BIG obligations usual-: usual-: Billion ly are made faster than they are paid, and no-uody no-uody is expecting Uncle Sam to , liquidate the war debt on armistice armi-stice day. Fortunately for everybody every-body it can be retired at a rate 1 that is slower than fighting speed. Experts in various political camps agree that costs of running our government after the war will approximate ap-proximate 20 billion dollars a year. It's a safe figure. Now 20 billion dollars is a big sum to work off in a year, but America can do it. We are raising rais-ing 40 billion a year now with everybody working; surely we can raise 20 billion after the war. Payments on debt, interest, and |