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Show j Speaking of Tax Reform What is the difference between a luxury and a necessity? neces-sity? . The simplest and most obvious answer is that a luxury lux-ury is something you don't need something you wouldn't would-n't miss very much if you didn't have it. So a woman's handbag is a luxury. And so is her lipstick. That's what the law says that wartime "luxury" tax law that today, 16 years after it should have expired, requires a woman to pay 10 more than tne normal price when she buys a handbag or toiletries. The purpose of this tax was not to raise revenue, but to reduce demand. It was more important to make bullets than handbags, and gunpowder was more essential than face powder at the time. And ludicrously enough, this tax still serves the same purpose in a day when unemployment is one of our major worries and Congress is asked to cut billions in income taxes to forestall a recession! Congressman Syd Herlong, Jr., of Florida, the original sponsor of repeal of these harmful and obnoxious relics of -wartime taxation, now has such a bill in the House Ways and Means Committee. Senator Gordon Allot, of Colorado, has a tax repealer on luggage and handbags in the Senate Judiciary Committee. And it is generally conceded that if the committees would report these measures out, the Congress Con-gress would pass them. Thus, the 91 million women (more or less) who have been fussing for 16 years over the rank injustice of taxing these strictly ferrsinie necessities as luxuries, now have their work cut out for them. It's time to quit fuming and start writing to their Congressmen and Senators. They might even write a thank-you note to Mr. Herlong for the battling he has done in their behalf over the years. And they should, by all means, write to Chairman Wilbur D. Mills of the House Ways and Means Committee and to Chairman James O. Eastlude of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Com-mittee, who are not only chivalrous gentlemen, but dedi-icated dedi-icated to advancement of the nation's economy. And, as all politicians know, the powder-puff is mightier might-ier than the sandbag. |