| Show NATIONAL NA AFFAIRS Reviewed by CARTER FIELD Present sliding sibling scale on corporation income taxes to be abandoned in favor o of 0 ofa fa f I a fixed rate rato No Ao big boost in spending to 10 come Irons from national defense Two Tico- price system blows up with witha a n bang Dumping policy causes irritation I WASHINGTON Despite Despite all the propaganda for Incentive tax reduction re reo both both for expansions which would make work and for profit sharing with employees no no action of the sort will be taken Instead corporation income taxes will be iii fixed at 18 per cent Instead of thep the p I present range from 11 to 19 10 per percent 7 1 cent Congress leaders leaden would like n to wipe out the last trace of the y punitive tax lax on undistributed earnings earn eam- ings lags but any such move may not J succeed because of stalwart White WhiteHouse House opposition to elimination of President Roosevelt's pet tax the the- ory cry But another step In that direck direction b 6 t k tion seems Inevitable I w i Congress Is set on on substituting a straight 18 per cent for the present sliding scale because the national legislators are convinced that the r present system bears more heavily r on small business men and manu manu- manufacturers that that the big corporations j b are taking advantage of the lowest r rate by paying out their earnings having adequate te surpluses to make mako this possible whereas little fellows are forced to Insure their future by building up surpluses which makes them pay 19 per cent as against 16 1615 per cent for the big onesi ones i r The treasury department Is not r. r adverse to the straight str 18 per pcr cent cent cent- if U it could go for it without Irritating Irrl Irrl- tating the White House It believes if r- r a the straight 18 per cent would bring in more money money always always Secretary s chief interest Roosevelt will fight light again for more I drastic capital gains taxes but will willbe be defeated Incidentally the tho tax bill will be slow In passage as no 10 t ra 1 subcommittees were left leU on the job jy and a start will have to be made mode ii iL j I from scratch CC t 1 Army and Navy Are Not Noto I ft Spending a Billion a Year k t No big boost In spending will tt c come from national defense I how how- however howy y ever much the White House may if approve that picture for public con Actually the army and navy are now spending at the rate 5 of ot a billion a year A A. A boost of f about between them s' s plus their existing balances is alli all i r they can spend experts say no matter mat ter how much more may be authorized author author- or appropriated r The real fear of the deficit worries worriers wor wor- ries centers on the agriculture flood control and health programs No one can foretell just how wild gyp congress will go on these throe three i Secretary of Agriculture Henry A A. A Wallace wants processing taxes to take care of ot the increased agricultural f r. r j tural benefits but congress will dispose dis I v. v Jf t pose otherwise The Tho money must ate come from taxes taxes-or taxes taxes or Increased debt It Flood control threatens to take t I the place of the old rivers and harbors har bar bon ban pork barrel bills of unsavory f memory Ever Every creek in the count country country coun coun- t try has baa become a flood menace a I f should Tennessee get all the bacon is a popular question t Federal aid for health services it is nebulous but very menacing to Sf i t I the treasury's red ink supply V Jf k h- Tuo Price Tiro-Price Price System Blows Up With Wit Resounding Bang 4 f The subsidized export plan for relief of the farm problem better known as the two price system has haa blown up with a resounding ii bang One shipment of wheat to England and it passes Into history I as another flop Bop on the well littered Uttered J 4 road to agricultural prosperity by governmental control What happened was precisely what hat was predicted would happen It is also what was predicted would h happen when the solution of the farm problem problem back back In the days of Calvin was wu wa the McNary McNary- t Haugen plan 1 a In those days das the McNary McNary-Haug- McNary Ilaug en plan was regarded by most conservatives con as crackpot But it had hada a good many features which now 4 X commend it to folks who were called conservative 10 years ago For Instance In stance the much talked about equalization equal equal- a y fee tee That was the Ingredient ent eat In the plan which would have prevented the farmers from wn going wild hog on overproduction Or at 1 r rt least it was so argued t w It was the two-price two system of its J j. j s da day but it had br brakes The equalization equal j fee tee was the brake Theoretically v cally dally It would not cost the government govern j ment anything The loss Iou on wheat exported at a lower Jower price than was Na f charged inside the United States for example would be assessed against tal the wheat farmers pro rata So the themore themore more produced and hence the more the loss Iou on exports the smaller the actual price the farmers would get for their wheat r But it was predicted d then and apparently with good reason In view of recent developments that the other other oth oth- er nations of the world would not stand tand for this subsidizing of exi exI ex ex- l I- I 1 J- J Jf i f ports It would be called dumping dump tag ing it was predicted and other nations would not perm perms permit their importers im lm porters porter to buy an any product so 0 sub Dumping humping Policy Causes Irritation in Foreign Lands Land Critics of the present department of agriculture Insisted there would be loud protests this year If U the two-price two system were put Into effect ef ef- They were right Along comes Britain highly Indignant about one shipload of wheat What did we mean just after she had gone the limit In straining h ht her r empire trade concession plan In order to agree to a reciprocal trade treaty with the tho United States by dumping wheat at a subsidized price thus irritating Canada and Australia French Guiana made a surprise move threatened move threatened to bar any grain Imports from the United States it If this dumping policy were to be continued So there wont won't be any more Again Secretary of State Cordell Hull nuU hulland and Secretary of Agriculture Henry A A. Wallace have clashed and again Hull nuU has won In fact Hull null has not lost a battle since March 4 1933 when Roosevelt became President President dent Of course anything calculated to help American export of our farm surpluses must be fitted In with the Hull null doctrine of trade agreements or else the trade agreement policy polley will be wrecked The difficulty would be bo great enough if 11 it were just a question of tariffs But that is only part of It There are quotas to be considered also Obviously no foreign government government government govern govern- ment Is going to permit this country to dump a surplus of wheat at a subsidized price AFTER it has reached on an agreement with this country as to just lust what what would and what would not be done In accepting accepting accept accept- ing American exports exports driven driven a bargain so 80 to speak that they would take so much of ot our products if it we would take so much of theirs Morgan Sorrows That ThaI Better Job Is Not Done at TVA TV TJI A A. AIts AIt's AIts Its It's a pity phy that the government Is not doing a better Job lob at TVA former former former for for- mer chairman Arthur E E. E Morgan remarked to a group right after his last Jast appearance before the congressional congressional congressional committee which is 11 supposed to be investigating the Tennessee Valley Authority The point is he said the trend trendall trendall trendall all over the world in virtually every every ev ev- ery cry country is toward government operation of the electric industry That being obviously so it makes no difference whether one likes the i Idea dea of at government ownership or not It makes no difference whether e er r private ownership Is la actually better bet ter for tor the Interests of at all the people or not Regardless of the answers to any of al these questions this government government government gov gov- should prepare for the possibility pos pos pos- s that it will have to operate the electric business of the entire country It is like fire Insurance A man who insures his house against fire tire does not necessarily hope that it will burn In fact most of the t time ime he ha may still be anxious that i it t should not burn But he sees aces the obvious danger and takes precautions precautions dons accordingly Thus I think that even people who think that government ownership owner ship of the rho electric Industry is s intrinsically in tn bad should be anxious that the government make this TVA experiment against the possibility that having some day to run all t the he electric business of the tho country country- the government will have learned how to do it it and thus not make a fiasco If 11 it should have to take tak over the big job No manufacturer of motor cars f for or instance would start turning out outa a car of a new design by the thousand thou sand until there had first been experimentation ex to get out the bugs to make sure suro that it t would work smoothly Similarly if it the government govern ment meat will only do the sort of job for f or which I had hoped at TVA it will not be so sn likely to have a ghastly ghast ghast- ly Iy tragedy U If some day Inthe In Inthe inthe the near tre it finds itself operating ing lug the entire electric Industry of the country Fears Sacrifice o of oj f Flood Control to Power Creation Dr Morgan Morean is obviously proud of the engineering of TVA But he is very much afraid that tragic consequences consequences consequences conse conse- ma may follow yielding to the temptation to sacrifice flood control safety to the tho production of power lie He still believes belle that he did absolutely absolutely the right thing in the Miami conservancy district In Ohio when he put engraved plaques on on certain dams stating that the reservoirs they were holding back must never be used for the generation of electric elec current To do so so he caused to tobe tobe tobe be engraved on the plaques might endanger the people the dams were supposed to protect from floods Dr Morgan Morean has been accused many times of being too friendly to the utilities but actually he be believes In government ownership and operation operation opera opera- tion of the electric business It if the people in any given community favor favor fa vor ft It Moreover he believes that even with the utmost fairness to utilities multiple e purpose dam dams dam those designed for example for flood con navigation and power power can can afford cheaper electricity than can cana c cl n na a privately owned competing utility Also he believes strongly in navigation nav nave on the Tennessee river a point which has been of little Inter Inter- est elt to tae TVA investIgating committee com com- A great many who believe strongly In flood and even eveD evenIn evenin In public power do pot not notO O 0 B Bell Bela U Syndicate Service |
