Show Prevailing Opinions Opi s S Comm Comment t of the A American e Press Press- a I Year for tor Everybody The mild form torm of infectious In Insanity Insanity In- In sanity known as ILl the Townsend plan professes to have discovered no less Ius than 39 congressmen ready to vote for tor Santa Claus Glaus But what is really surprising about the affair is not the Townsend Townsend Townsend Town- Town send plan Itself after alter Epic Technocracy Tech Tech- Social Credit and wee pee-wee golLone Is prepared for anything g but the fact tact that serious persons are actually finding themselves compelled to discuss it in serious terms On Saturday Dr Stuart E. E Rice gave the best beat of It so O far advanced when he be pointed out that a scheme to provide provide pro pro- vide vido 2400 a year Incomes to 10 pensioners meant reducing the remaining Inhabitants tants tanta of the country to an average average average aver aver- age income of a head This is the unavoidable result of at applyIng apply apply- ing log simple arithmetic to the total national In income ome which is II only another word for the total of goods and services now avail avan- able Even if It Dr Townsends Townsend's simple shuffling about of the money counters were capable of ot materially materially mate mate- increasing the production of actual goods and services in instead instead in- in stead of destroying it outright as 81 asIt asit it would infallibly do the prospect prospect prospect pros pros- would still aWl seem leem a thin one onel for tor the mass of at the electorate The hard thing to understand is I. why a politician should be regarded regard regard- ed oa as courageous for refusing to indorse a a. plan for tor reducing the mass nass of the populace to this sub sub- sub starvation level why a proposal proposal proposal pro pro- to tax 90 per cent of ot the populace into the most grinding misery and nakedness should be bere re regarded even In tho the silly amy seas season nas n- n as a matter for serious debate or why Dr Rice should hould be driven to describe it as not only cruelly mischievous which it is for those thole who put hope in it IU but filled with the possibilities of ot wreck wreck- age The Townsend plan att attests Ute the curiously insane atmospheres of the moment but unless the tue American people have learned to like lIk paying stupendous taxes a trait one never noticed in them before there can be surely no possibility of ot our congressmen actually voting it New it-New New York H Herald It If Worked in Jericho Thirty days in jail is not as bad badas badas badas as a bullet in the back and take more than contempt of court sentences for a few reluctant wItnesses witnesses witnesses wit wIt- nesses to make curre current t racket In Investigations Investigations investigations In- In a success A cafeteria owner who refused to answer questions in the Dewey probe has hu been given 30 days day in jail and while his attitude is de deplorable de- de It also Is b not hard to understand New York City has yet to show a man who does give testimony will be safe from reprisals from fromI I the racketeers racketeer Thus despite all the hullabaloo by officials and the press a group of ot strong strong arm arm men found it easy enough the other morning to pre pre- pre pre- vent b bidding at the New York Fruit Auction company and to beat up one man who did dare to bid So far there have been no ar arrests ar- ar rests ruu In the beating nor were there any police poUce available to ta oust the thugs fr from m the auction The Incident at the New York Fruit Auction is not going to help get the truth More than occasional Investigations proclamations procla procla- and headlines are needed to restore confidence in law enforcement enforcement en en- agencies There is Ia too much basis bub for the fear that after the investigations are over the thugs will be back doing business at tho the old stand their old political alliances Intact and their old contacts with police department and district attorneys attorney's office in working order It is Ia true that trumpet blasts leveled the walls of Jericho but that was wu a long time ago New New NewYork York Post Well Meaning Bad Manners An official of Scotland Yard divined divined no doubt one of the secondary secondary secondary sec sec- con considerations sId era ti 0 n s that prompted Colonel Lindbergh to pack his family off oft to England We said the intuitive intuitive intuitive tive spokesman arent meddle meddle- some Britons may gape at the flying celebrity but it Is not our habit to accost notables for autographs autographs auto auto- graphs or handshakes In other words the tho British re respect respect re- re sp ct the right of ot privacy Personal Per Per- liberty with them means the right to live your life liCe unmolested Here in the best and most democratic democratic demo demo- cratic spirit In tho the world we mob our notabilities are cruelly exactIng exacting exacting exact exact- ing of ot our favorites and swarm upon and dle our dents In the manifestation of our good will wUl and democratic spirit we make the presidency the toughest job in tho the world It Is all aU me well meaning bad man man- ners none The pleaded for forthe forthe forthe the right to live normal lives and to bring their young li son son n up in a normal way That right was WM de denied denied do- do nied them here They will find it itIn itin itin in England San Francisco Chronicle Furtive Taxation Before a gathering of Republican U- U can editors in Ohio recently Colonel Colo Cob nd nel Frank Knox touched on a atheme atheme atheme theme which we are always glad to see explored by any presidential candidate of any party the party the theme of invisible taxation Tho The federal governments government's deficit billions of the depression will wUl have to be paid back ColOnel Knox said most of at It collected In the tax pen pennies les nickels dimes and dollars hidden away in the food we cat eat the clothes we wear the fuel that brings us warmth the homes that give us shelter shelter shelter-In In ever everything we buy We do not concede that the deficits necessarily h have ve to be paid off ott with hidden taxes but like Uke Colonel Knox we fear tear that Is the way they will be paid About two-thirds two of the revenue reve-nue the federal federal fed led eral government now raises rains is ob obtained obtained ob- ob tamed from taxes that are Invisible Invisible invisIble ible and have no relation whatever whatever whatever what what- ever to the ability of the taxpayers ers era to share the burden San burden San Francisco ranc 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