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Show t Pace 2 THE AMERICAN STATESMAN The American Statesmen THE UTAH STATESMAN J. BRACKEN LEE, Editor and Publisher Business Manager Anthony G. Hatsis : Friday, December 4, 1952 TVA Actually Socialism i THE AMERICAN WAY ' 4 Board of Directors: Samuel S. Arentz, Charles H. Foote, Hubbard S. G. Hatsis. Russell, Anthony (Continued from Page 1 CoL IQ Entered as 2nd Class matter at the Post Office at Salt Lake City, Utah, has been selling electrical power in that region at rates lower than under the act of March 3, 1879 the average power rates anywhere Subscription Rate $5.00 per year else in the nation. The socialist Published weekly by The American Statesman planners have used this fact to State Exchange Bldg., 345 So. State prove that only the government can provide cheap, abundant elecSalt Lake City 11, Utah trical power for the people. Any article in this paper may be reprinted without special permission, unless otherwise stated on article. Bookkeeping VoL 13; No. 47 Friday, December 4, 1959 Bracken Lee Answers Sen. Proxmire J. (D-Wisc- .) (Continued from Page 1 Col. 2) Is a tax fair that destroys a persons constitutional right to hold property unless taken fay Axe process of law? Is it necessary to tax these same people 7 billion dollars per year for a disgraceful farm program that inriches a few at the expense of the many. Is a tax fair that kills the Is It a necessary function of the Initiative of the people? Federal Government to tax the workers 6 billion dollars per year Is a tax fair that is used as a in order to maintain expensive whip to keep the people in constant bureaus whose duty is to give back fear of their government? to the states some of the money When properly analysed there is that came from the people? no tax known to man that is more Is it a necessary function of the unfair, more unjust, more tax these isame more destructive to the government .to for the support of freedom of the people and more working people over all the world to governments damning to the future of a nation the tune of 4 billion dollars per than the present income tax plan year?now operating in our country. YOU MIGHT ALSO EXPLAIN I suggest, Senator Proxmire, you WHY THE WORKERS OF THIS begin to think about the welfare of the people of this nation who NATION SHOULD BE REQUIRED are paying your salary and think TO PAY THE SALARIES OF a little bit less about the hoard SOME 75 PEOPLE WHOM YOU of bureaucrats who now rule the HAD ON THE FEDERAL, PAYcountry because of the very tax ROLL WHILE RUNNING FOR OFyou call fair. FICE DURING THE LAST CAMYou say in the same letter PAIGN? con-temptab- le, - , There Is simply no way to meet the necessary public expenditures other than taxation, and taxation must fall upon the individual citizen, either directly or indirectly. I agree with the latter part of this statement that all taxation must inevitably fall upon the individual, which of course is usually the worker. This seems to be a very good reason why you should do something to relieve this terrible burden of taxation which is now carried by the working people of this nation. I also agree that we must have taxes for the necessary, operation of the government, but what is the necessary operation of the government? Is it necessary for the government to operate 3,000 businesses in competition with the taxpayers? These businesses operated by the government cost the taxpayer 10 billion dollars per year. Editor Dan Smoot was born in Missouri. Took his BA and MA at SMU In Dallas, Texas. He joined the faculty at Harvard as Teaching Fellow in English. In 1942; he took leave of absence and joined the FBL For three and a half years, he worked on incommunist vestigations i n the indu s t r i a 1 midwest Mr. Smoot For two years following that, he was on FBI hcadquar t e r s To answer some of these questions permit me to say that if the Congress of the United States would stop only the programs herein mentioned there would be no need for the personal income tax. But TVA accomplishments are a bookkeeping, rather than a production miracle. A privately-owne-d power company has to charge enough for its power to pay all costs of operation, plus local, state, and federal taxes, plus interest on its capital investment; plus whatever is reinvested for expansion and improvement TVA doesnt have to bear all these burdens. TVA gets what it needs from American taxpayers some of whom are the private power companies that TVA is underselling. Loots Treasury A private business must pay in- terest on its capital investment. When a private power company is formed to build a plant and produce power, it borrows, lets say, $50,000,000. It has to pay that back wtth interest No comparable burden is placed on a government agency. TVA gets what it needs from the treasury of the United States. If it shows any paper entry for interest on indebtedness, the bookkeeping is always juggled in such a way that this legitimate cost is never passed on to the people who actually use the power from the TVA facilities. $50,-000,0- 00 Tennessee Valley Authority has permanently submerged almost a million acres under TVA man-mad- e lakes or emergency reservoirs. In other words, every 500 years the Tennessee River might have flooded two-thiras much land in the TenBy George F. Ransom nessee Valley as the TVA has perset in aside its manently flooded or Crabapple, did you ever hear of flood control program. a United States Senator who does And the land which TVA has thus not know the meaning of the.words Hidden Cost destroyed was among the most fer- he uses?" A great deal of the operating tile in the world. . Yep. cost of TVA, moreover, is borne Tenin Before floods the of other TVA, government, agencies by Who is he? .and therefore never shows up on nessee Valley did a million and a It aint fair for me to name TVA balance sheets. For example, half dollars damage annually. Now-a-day-s, names cause if I does Id have to loss due the for funds and retirement alone, crop pensions TVA employees personnel expens- to TVA flooding of rich bottom call him names. es which any private company lands is well over $27,000,000 a Is there any special word that would have to pass on in order to year. you can refer to? stay in business never show up Yep. Competition. Subsidies as part of the operating cost of the Tennessee Valley Authority. TVA has created a 650-miHow does he misuse that? long in research and public relations free waterway in the Tennessee He thinks that if he shaves his-se- lf activities which if conducted by Valley. It is free to the shippers in competition to them private firms would be carried as who use it, but costs the Ameri- barberhes shops and if his wife washes a business expense under the gen- can taxpayers over $8,000,000 a year hair her shes in competition to eral head of advertising TVA and on maintenance. If people who ship them beauty shops or if he or some scores of other governmental agen- freight on the governments free soldier changes a tire theys in cies have spent million of dollars waterway in the Tennessee were to all them places spreading the TVA idea; but none charged freight 'rates just high competition will what drag your car in to ot this cost is ever included in TVA enough to pay for the cost of opif it you pays them. erating that waterway, the rates change Another maneuver which enables would be considerably higher than Really, this fellow doesnt think TVA to sell electrical power at be- those which railroads charge in the that, does he? low the national average cost and same neighborhood. Maybe he was talking to kill still show a "profit every year is some bill the way them congressers As Congressman James B. Utt the allocation of funds for flood does to stop some good law; but points out, if all the freight carried control and navigation. I he thinks that away, cause on the Tennessee River since the guess he it got printed in a paper what False Economy beginning of TVA had been shipped is called the American Statesman Before TVA was ever started, by rail, and paid for at prevailing and that kinda makes it official cost have would railroad it army engineers had estimated a less thanrates, 30 of what taxpayers like. I has a old dictionaiy what probably annual flood damage in have taxes for naviga- Tm through reading and I guess in out paid the Tennessee Valley of approxifree on the tion waterway which Ill send it to him. mately a million and a half dollars. the has built government In the name of flood control, TVA PITTSFIELD, MAINE, ADVERhas allocated some $200,000,000. The same, of course, can be said TISER: The State of Michigan, The annual interest on this invest- for electrical power produced in the sixth wealthiest in the nation is ment in flood control, even at low Tennessee Valley. If the people who still despite strange news blackgovernment rates, costs the Amer- use that power had to pay rates out rin real financial trouble. ican taxpayers approximately States as well as businesses are high enough to meet the cost of In other words, we are production and distribution, power liable to failure and bankruptcy; paying out each year in interest rates in the Tennessee Valley would free spending and unbalanced alone almost $7,000,000 to prevent be the highest instead of the lowest budgets can hardly lead elsewhere. a million and a half dollars of flood in the nation, for the simple reaThis fact cannot be impressed damage in the Tennessee River son that government, not being con- too much on the mind of the avValley. trolled by the stem law. of profit erage voter who indirectly controls and loss, cannot operate a business as efficiently as private individuals Destroy Land What is The Farm Problem? Before TVA, the army engineers can. The necessity of paying bills Mainly, its government. had estimated that a flood which and showing a profit tends to corThe Farm Problem should bear would cover 666,000 acres of land rect errors which private businesses the slogan Made in Washington. in the Tennessee Valley would oc- make. When a government agency In Congress the cur only once in 50 years. That, makes mistakes, it get more money demagogues have muddled and in effect, was considered the max- from the treasury in order to make, messed up the farm program until imum flood that could occur in the more mistakes; and for political it now constitutes a program of Tennessee Valley. In order to pro- reasons, it must continue to make planned poverty and socialistic tect these 666,000 acres from being the same mistakes in order to justi- stupidity endangering the American flooded once every 500 years, the fy its past errors. way of life. Farm & Ranch. Yarns and Satires ds le The government now collects in other forms of taxes about 37 bil- lions of dollars which would take care of the necessary expenses of the Federal Government, INCLUDING A DEFENSE PROGRAM that would better protect the people than one that is founded upon wasting the earnings of those who are willing to work for an honest living. Think of the wonderful feeling that would come over the American people when they no longer had to fear the income tax collector and could once more have the pleasure of spending a greater share of their own money. Sincerely, staff In Washington, as an Administrative Assistant to J. Edgar Hoover. After nine and a half years with the FBI he resigned to carry on his present type of work. It will be the policy of this paper to quote from the Dan Smoot Report. If you would like to read the full report and subscribe to the weekly Dan Smoot Report rates are $10.00 a year. Write P.O. Box 1305, Dallas, Texas. Single copies of the Dan' Smooi Report are 25 cents each. TVA Story from Dan Smoot Report VoL 5, No. 21 . cost-of-operati- $7,-000,0- 00. . |