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Show Reply to Editorial at Is felt that an answer to an atfiorl&l appearing in the Iron County Becord of August 18, 1960, as ia aider, and that certainly, uatdrr our system ot democracy cwryone has the right to be ard that the right of fair trial stea sot be denied anyone and that beiore being conaemned, an individual, a business or an industry in-dustry has the right to be heard. It Mild seem that the editorial scfeml to may have been writ-tea writ-tea 1st haste. That either all the fjcts In the case were unknown ar ignored by the author and nd tkat some ot the implications .appearing in the editorial are (entirely unwarranted and with-ut with-ut the basis of fact for foundation. founda-tion. Prrhaps any means which will awaken us to the dangers of run-away inflation and taxation are Justified, but to us who are engaged In the petroleum industry, indus-try, it seems Just a little unfair to single out our industry as being be-ing responsible for all those ills that beset us. The men and women wo-men who make up the petroleum .industry are your friends and neighbors good citizens all I helping to build better communities communi-ties wherever they live. The pet-Iroleum pet-Iroleum industry, itself a good citizen in our state of Utah, an-ually an-ually pays millions of dollars in direct taxes, money which goes to build better roads and better schools for the benefit of all. The petroleum industry, good citizen cit-izen that is is, spends a large portion of any profit it is able to make In bringing you better products in greater quantities products and services which we the public take for granted. Many factors are involved in the process which determines what a product or service will sell for ar.d, one of the very main 'factors Is the factor of costs involved in-volved in producing that pro-1 pro-1 duct or service. It is doubtful if ' there are many who believe that because a ten cent quart of milk now costs twenty-four cents, ' the milk-maid is making too ; great a profit There are few who would even accuse her of such, nor are there many who believe that because a ten cent loaf of bread now costs thirty-four cents, that the baker is making too great a profit Whey then, Mr. Editor, accuse the man who sells a gallon of petroleum at such and such a price of making too great a profit with seeming disregard dis-regard for any of the factors which make such a price necessary. nec-essary. This Is not saying that two wrongs will make one right, or that the price of a gallon of petroleum is not high, but that in these days of relativity it is not relatively high. As a matter of fact, excluding taxes, a gallon of gasoline, because of the Increased In-creased energy it produces through Improvement of the product pro-duct costs less today than It did twenty years ago, "and no other product can make that statement" state-ment" As already stated many factors are involved in making up the price of a product or service, and one of the factors which is becoming be-coming increasingly important is the factor of taxation, which is fast becoming a threat to the entire economy of our country. This factor of taxation Is particularly parti-cularly acute in the price of gasoline, gas-oline, but because it Is so common com-mon and so wide spread, few people realize that each time they buy a gallon of gasoline In the state of Utah they pay ten cents in taxes, and that but for this tax the gallon gasoline which they complain costs them 32.5 cents per gallon, would have cost them 22.5 cents per gallon, and that of this 22.5 cents per gallon, hidden taxes make up j to probably 5 cr.i per gallon, j Those people who are charged iwith the responsibility of finding find-ing public money to sp'end, because be-cause gasoline taxes have been cheap, easy und simple taxes to collect, have piled more and more taxes on a gallon of gasoline, both at federal and state levels until now petroleum Is probably the most over-taxed commodity In our entire economy, and Is carrying car-rying far more than Its fair share of the tax burden. The end is not yet, and unless a halt U called at all levels of goven'.-nt to any further Increases In taxation on petroleum, and Instread of Increases, In-creases, efforts be made to find ways to decrease this burden, the end result will be an actual decrease In total revenue from this source to the taxing units. It Is simply a case of "killing the goose which laid the golden egg." There are many who believe be-lieve we have already reached this point as evidenced by the compact and foreign cars. This answer to your editorial is not meant in any way as personal per-sonal criticism, or criticism of the editorial policy of your paper, but rather to express another side of an Issue which It is hoped will not become an issue at all. These are times which will require the best in each of us. There are many things which need correction. correc-tion. Let us not, therefore, spend our time and our energy in pointing point-ing the finger of guilt at one segment of our economy, which is no more and maybe less guilty than some other segment Under our system of free competitive enterprise it is impossible that a few companies, a few businesses business-es or a few businessnen long take advantage of, or wrong the public. Instead of breeding disrespect dis-respect and distrust In each other, of pitting one segment of our economy against some other segment, seg-ment, or government against business, bus-iness, or business RKKinai kov-eminent, kov-eminent, let us spend our. time and our energy in finding ways to produce more and better for less; to stop waste and Inefficiency Ineffi-ciency whereever It occurs In business or government, and 'n making each of us realize that our future depends not upon what government or someone gives or does for us, but what we can uu fur uurselvtrs mid lor each other. The future of our country depends upon how soon and how well we can learn this truism. Signed Floyd Eyman |