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Show upward, causing inflation. The taxpayer would be given a credit (up to a certain maximum) in baby or defense bonds, savings stamps, or special postal savings certificates equivalent to the increase in-crease in taxes resulting from reductions re-ductions of exemptions under the income tax law. Some government officials estimate esti-mate that as many as five million mil-lion citizens may be brought into the income tax structure under such a plan. If the plan goes through it will probably be labeled a "compulsory savings plan," or some equivalent designation, in the knowledge that the word "savings" "sav-ings" has a good connotation which is readily acceptable to the people. I by JameS Preston xhe influence of Dr. John May-8rd May-8rd Keynes, the British econo-piost econo-piost who visited Washington re-" re-" ntiv is seen by Washington observers ob-servers in reports that administration adminis-tration officials are considering a Li plan to give a man money but It let him spend it that is, not for some years to come. The proposal under discussion is tax plan that is not a tax plan, L the money that is collected now . taxes would be repaid later on. ' Briefly, the idea is to keep money received as the result of age increases from forcing prices One school of thought in Washington Wash-ington has held consistenly over a period of months that rising living liv-ing costs justify labor's demands for wage increases. Figures just developed, however, raise an interesting inter-esting question regarding this argument. ar-gument. Living costs, it is revealed, increased in-creased 3.5 per cent between last October and the end of June. Factory Fac-tory wages, on the other hand, increased in-creased 22 per cent from October, 1940, through May of this year. At a time when business men serving the government in Washington Wash-ington are generally agreed that "business as usual" is no longer possible and at a time when one industry after another is curtailing curtail-ing normal production in the interests in-terests of defense, Washington observers ob-servers wonder when politicians will come to a similar recognition in connection with "pet projects" of one kind or another. In this connection, the proposed St. Lawrence seaway and power project has been criticized roundly by representatives both of labor and of industry. One industrial spokesman summed it up as follows: fol-lows: "The first order of the day is naturally the production of arms, equipment and supplies necessary ne-cessary for the army, the navy, and civilian defense to protect America. Anything that hampers or impedes this prime objective should be rejected promptly or deferred de-ferred for consideration at a later date. The seaway project should be definitely rejected because it will result in a tremendous diversion diver-sion of labor, funds and materials to a non-essential project." Commenting upon the fact that the house of representatives, while considering means to raise some three and one half billions in reve- nue, takes time out to consider an appropriation bill to spend over seven billions for the army, navy, and maritime commission, one congressman con-gressman was heard to say: "That's catching up like the frog in the well that slipped back two hops to every hop forward." |