Show Bruc Bru karts charts washington digest all labor display displacing I 1 ng machinery would be taxed under new bill Wyo wyoming senator presents congress with the alie latest Cure ure alp all for aiding americas americans unemployed fly y WILLIAM service national press washington D C washington I 1 rim om writing this dispatch as usual on my typewriter if I 1 wrote it with pen or pencil many hours of time would be required moreover with my penmanship there certainly would be ahead for or the leno type operator in the print shop so the typewriter from my viewpoint Is a great labor saver as well as a great time saver it Is both of those things despite my method of typing I 1 hunt em cm and hit lem cm I 1 am grateful to whomever invented ven led the typewriter it has contributed tri buted much to our economic life it never complains or goes on strike especially a sit down st strike ikc unless some part Is broken As tar far as I 1 know there has never been a union of typewriters headed by a paid whose tenure of homce depended largely upon how much trouble he could cause yet it Is conceivable that I 1 may have to pay a tax because I 1 own this weather beaten creaky old machine that has served mo me well there was a bill introduced in the senate some days ago that places a tax on tho the use of machinery that displaces labor imbor 01 I 1 am displacing labor by using my own typewriter ot of course the he use of the typewriter illustration was thoroughly exaggerated I 1 entertain no fears that such a tax ever will be laid Z 1 1 A 2 W 4 BE BEN N JOSEPH C yet I 1 insist that such an end Is conceivable under the bill sponsored by senator OMah oncy wyoming democrat I 1 say it is conceivable because for a quarter of a century I 1 have observed how sometimes the most innocent use of government power spawns and grows and becomes an octopus with tentacles that reach far beyond any one ones Is wildest fancy of the day the original law was passed the bill contemplates no such extension of 0 the tax to me in my capacity as a correspondent it Is designed to deal with and lay iny a tax on machines that for instance may do the work of a thousand men and require only one attendant object of OMa honeys bill Is to reduce unemployment the objective of senator oma honeys bill Is to reduce unemployment it proposes to levy a tax where machines of the type just mentioned are used it would be fair with business according to the senators explanation in debate by allowing a tax credit a tax reduction where an employer used the maximum of hand labor at although I 1 do not know how such industries dus tries as the automobile manufacturers rs tor for example could build the cars we have today with hand labor the cost would be out of sight and I 1 among thousands of others would be ba unable to own a motor car senator made one statement while discussing his bill that seems to have lull full merit lie he sold it seems clear to me that the only way to reduce unemployment Is to stimulate private industry for our experience has demonstrated that government cannot provide the jobs that are needed to restore prosperity but he argued that his hia proposal would provide that seimu gatlon because of the system of rewards that gave tax reduction to employers who used the largest possible number of workers alding aiding unemployment william bruckart today discusses a bill introduced into the senate by sen joseph C of wyoming in which the senator proposes a tax on all machinery that displaces labor according to bruckart there is very little likelihood of the bill passing but ho he writes about it because ho he feels it is typical of a trend in present day law mak ing the famous census income question is also reviewed on the other hand senator nor ras of nebraska kind had an idea that the bill would act as a stop sign on general progress ile ho thought that there would be little reason for any one to invent now nev things the nebraskan thought the nation ought to hesitate longver haps forever unless there la is real compulsion under conditions that we cannot resist before wo we erect a stop atop sign of that kind there can be no doubt that the general human reaction to the bill would bo be even more severs severe than pictured by senator norris P people eo are likely to fe feel e that there Is no further need tor for any ono one to seek 4 5 k progress and 4 attempt t t 0 m P t p projects 0 ejects that would mean better things at low lower er SENA SENATOR TOlt NORRIS prices that lower price thing long has represented a great clamor in this country my own opinion Is that the OMah oncy bill Is about as lillyas sil lyas any that have come in into to the legislative mill in my experience per peri lence ence classi classification fi cation of machinery would be superhuman task As I 1 said at the outset in referring to the use of a typewriter that was a bald exaggeration but let me ask who is there that can say it is outside of the realm of possibility when a law Is enacted that permits a group of individuals in washington to determine what is and what is not laborsaving labor saving machinery cryb that in itself is a superhuman task laborsaving labor saving machinery may be an absolute necessity in one place and a luxury in another but in either case the general public gets the benefit the theory advanced in the loney bill Is part and parcel of the category of alleged new and pro progressive gres sive ideas about which we have so often heard recently the things that are gurgled over and mea mode do the subject of great propaganda and that has flopped As I 1 see it and according to the judgment me nt of many persons with jhc whom m I 1 have talked here Is an example of government run wild the only answer I 1 have been able to find Is that somebody with a screwy brain sold senator a bill of goods those fellows and washington Is overflowing with that type ot of crackpot these days day shave have a capacity tor for making things appear beautiful even though the proposal Is ridiculous and there Is no chanco chance whatsoever of congress ever enacting it into law I 1 have devoted space to the subject because of the implications that are given by introduction ot of such legislation it indicates a of national thinking and it shows unmistakably a tendency on the part of a great nany people to throw overboard the very essentials ot of the system that has made the united states the greatest nation in the world and the best place in which to live income question in census Is example of new trend there was another evidence of this tendency disclosed in the forms to be used by the census takers much stink has been raised around here by such as senator tobey of new hampshire who fought vigorously against allowing the census bureau to ask every one what his income is and where it comes from of course those questions were forced onto the census bureau by harry hopkins former professional reliever relle vcr turned secretary of commerce mr hopkins would glory in such details as the situation of every individual tn in the united states but why he thought people would tell the truth about their income Is quite beyond my understanding it would make more liars than prohibition did I 1 believe there has been a compromise reached on tho the income questions tor for the celiaus so that individuals can write their incomes on a plain piece ot of paper and mall mail it to washington without any signa turc lure that Is better it still represents too much government in my opinion also it illustrates how government can expand and creep and soon become boss the real danger then as i see it I 1 that politicians will go out in the forthcoming campaign and employ their best brand of demagoguery to sell more of this trash braih lf it they think that such campaigning will get votes the difficulty it must be admitted is that voters voter will hear the glowing description of proposed political panaceas cur cure calls alls and quack remedies without having the real possibilities told to them using the OMah oncy bill again as aa on an example the senators explanation of it made a picture of a prosperous and happy america |