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Show (Mhiixo'im a'tt ?'.- . 7i . i in I 1 it. . ili Washington. D. C. NEW TAX BATTLE Biggest flght on Capitol Hill wher It comes to writing new taxes is go ing to be over the sales tax. Wall Street forces already have laid pipe lines tc certain congressmen for sales tax instead of heavier cor-I cor-I poration taxes, and it Is going to be a knock-down-drag-out battle. The man in the thick of this flght is now relatively obscure, but the public will hear a lot about him shortly. He is Randolph Paul, better bet-ter known to Ford, Standard Oil, and big firms who hire the nation's best tax experts, than to the rest of the country. Paul has written a number of books on federal income taxes and gave up a $250,000 law practice to work for virtually nothing noth-ing for the government Despite his background, however, big business will get no comfort from Randolph Paul when it comes to the sales tax. He is opposed to this levy primarily because it induces in-duces inflation. ' "If you add four cents on the sales price of any commodity," Paul argues, ar-gues, "and a few more pennies on the price of a whole row of other commodities, labor has an excuse to ask for an increase in wages. Prices have gone up, and labor claims it is entitled to the increase. Then once the increase is granted, industry has an excuse for increasing increas-ing prices, and the whole thing is started all over again. It can be the most vicious circle in our economic life." Anti-Sales Tax. Instead of a sales tax, Paul favors fa-vors a series of very stiff taxes all along the line. Most drastic of his proposals is to tax lowest bracket incomes. Paul points out that if you take 72 per cent from the big business executive ex-ecutive making $50,000 a year he merely increases salaries to his associates, as-sociates, spends more money on institutional in-stitutional advertising, and decreases de-creases his net income. This in the end also leads to inflation. Paul is in favor of taxing the higher brackets very heavily, but warns that the $1,200,000,000 additional attainable at-tainable from this source is peanuts compared with what the country has to raise to meet the war bill. The real spending power of the nation is in the lower bracket incomes in-comes and Paul contends these will have to bear the big part of the war budget Other Paul proposals are: (1) Heavy corporation taxes; (2) stiff excess profits taxes; (3) plugging all loopholes in the tax laws; (4) an excise tax en certain cer-tain specific luxuries which would not increase the cost of living. His recommendations are sure to be adopted in toto by Secretary Morgenthau and the White House. Whether congress will adopt them will be decided only after one of the toughest tax battles in history especially over the sales tax. HOW TO SEE HENDERSON Leon Henderson is guarded by so many secretaries and functionaries that even members of congress have a hard time getting to him. Officials of Alaska, bothered by a serious price problem in the Territory, Terri-tory, tried for days to get an audience audi-ence with the price czar. Finally, a little gray-haired lady found the answer. Mrs. John McCormack, wife of Alaska's selective service head, attended at-tended a woman's club function in Washington, at which Henderson submitted to questioning. Mrs. McCormack put the Alaskan price problem to Henderson on the floor of the club meeting, and he promptly invited her to call at his office next day for a detailed explanation. ex-planation. "The people around the office," said Henderson, "will try to keep you out but pay no attention to them. You just march straight into my office." Mrs. McCormack followed instructions. in-structions. She saw Henderson, and came away with a promise of action. CAPITAL CHAFF C Attorney General Francis Biddle is personally reviewing the recommendations recom-mendations of all Alien Enemy Hearing boards, which pass on charges against alien residents in the U. S. C The Bluefleld, W. Va., Chamber of Commerce has taken an unusual unusu-al step for a chamber of commerce. Advocating the curtailment of nonessential non-essential federal spending, the chamber listed a number of pet local lo-cal projects it was willing to forego for the duration of the war. ft U Earle Davidson, hustling young publisher of the Greenville (Mich.) Daily News, has won praise from treasury officials for his highly successful suc-cessful work in boosting defense bond sales. Chairman of the Defense De-fense Savings committee of his area, Davidson addresses rallies every day and is chalking up a remarkable remark-able record. At one meeting de-tense de-tense bond subsciiptions totaled $26,000. ft Returning from Rio by Pan American Amer-ican clipper. Undersecretary of State Sumner Welles relaxed tn his first bridge game in seven years. i |