Show Red Ink and Red Blood flood Secretary Snyder Wants More Corporation 1 Taxes n Ry By Frederick C. C Othman I WASHINGTON The The red ink on the charts of honest John Snyder looked like lile blood to the corporation lawyers jamming the house caucus room Their blood Four billion dollars' dollars worth of it Do not smile at this even if youre you're not a corporation Honest John intends to squeeze your in individual individual individual in- in turnips a little later What he wants now is for the lame ducks ducts to pass his excess- excess profits tax before they go home the end of next month So to get this started the venerable Rep Bob Doughton D. D N N. C. C chairman of the house ways and means committee called formal hearings Secretary Secretary Secretary Secre Secre- tary of treasury was the first witness I Test Testifying f an S Suit III t Honest John showed up in his navy blue or testifying suit with him he brought a page 19 spaced single-spaced statement to read react aloud 27 pages of financial tables and a large easel with an assortment of charts Some of these were orange and pin pink an and blue but mostly they were redas redas red reci as the stuff which flows in the veins of big bit businessmen and honest John posed before before- these bloody diagrams I while the attorneys cringed There was a big argument simultaneously over the use of ofa a l table by the press or by the treasury's experts who seemed to need a place to rest their theil brief cases The press won ha having hang ng forgotten his gavel rapped the desk with his aged knuckles and honest John began to read Four Billion More v y ylie He lie didn't mention excess- excess profits taxes He left out that horrid word excess Said he didn't like it All he wanted from the corporations he continued was an extra a year Almost casually he remarked ed that the government would spend about this year and you should have seen the financial correspondents scribble They said this was the first official est estimate mate of its kind Snyder plow plowed on not realizing realizing realizing real real- izing hed he'd created a fiscal sen sen- His general idea seemed to be that big business was earning earning earning earn earn- ing more money than ever before before before be be- fore in its history and wouldn't be hurt much if it gave about 75 of its extra profits to him He needs the money Everybody i including n c 1 u din g the Republicans seemed to agree to that Even so they were taking the conservative view In proof of this was the box of old-fashioned old kitchen matches in front of each committeeman to light his cheroots The latter apparently were of the kind that politicians ordinarily hand to each other the aroma was that of an overheated overheated overheated over over- heated rubber factory By the time honest John was halfway through his statement his voice began to crack there was a pitcher of ice water six feet from him but none of his torturers offered him a drink His facts were getting exceedingly exceedingly exceedingly exceed exceed- complicated too and perhaps perhaps per per- haps wed we'd better skip em They all added up to his contention that hes he's got to have ha the money Asked sl Questions The gentlemen began asking questions No he ne had no idea how much the Korean war had cost to date No he had no in interest interest interest in- in terest in regulating the salaries of corporation executives because because because be be- cause that's In m somebody else's department No he hadn't heard of the scheme to forget the corporation corporation corporation cor cor- tax and replace it with witha a federal sales tax x on every every- body Well Vell said Rep John D. D Dingell D. D Mich who brought it up Im going going- to watch out for the poor devil with th the nine kids Ill I'll hang before congress passes a sales tax Nobody gave him an argument ment All hands had other things to worry about and for the next several weeks the suffering suffering- will begin daily at 10 am a.m. Copyright 1950 by United Feature Syndicate Inc |