Show 7 0 v national topics interpreted by william br bi nationals Natio nall press Dull ding W Washington ills His name w will mean rather at h e little to ao anyone except th the wide cl circle 0 of SW artyS friends and bust busi story ness associates y who admire his courage and thrift since there ore are hundreds of thousands lile like him in this count country ry I 1 will Ident identify if v him by his nickname I 1 have ave known him some ten or eleven years as a friend and a neighbor a fellow who could be pro properly perly called the salt of the earth Sw Swart artys ya story Is most interesting because it illustrates a condition lie he was the tha son 0 of a country doc tor in his early twenties he became becam salesman ills e a 0 traveling personality and his ability carried abo above ve the ranks of the average or der taker laker lie he saved hi his a money ile he and his wife inherited a lew few thou sand dollars each from their respective fathers went into business for himself here in washington the business prospered to the extent that had built up lt a backlog of savings as a reserve and had bought his own horne home a modest place they are a happy little fa family 1 nilly andin and in that as well they are like ilka hun hundreds of thousands of others inthis in this country there came ibe depression of seven years ago sales by Sw Swart artys ya little litile plant decil declined tied ile he kept his ten employees on the tolls rolls however is as long as ho he could the drain be came too mu much chand and he had to ra reduce the payroll indeed hohag ho had to draw on the he backlog after nearly five years things began to pick up lie he started again to restore the reserve so that there could be something on which to draw again it business was slack but almost sl si found a lot of new taxes coming in the front door one of them was the ridiculous J levy that said in effect that he could riot not build up that backlog again because if 11 he did he would have halve to share the excess with the federal I 1 government there had been some other taxes r before that one hut but it was the most dis disastrous in its effect there we were r e other taxes after the surplus earnings tax too until lately he told me that laiq was paying nine differ ent nt taxes each beach month and each year he ha has to pay an income tax on the la lie ho allows him vav bust imand ww vid besides es all of these he ha has the strictly local taxes of the distri of columbia among these 0 of course Is ii a tax on the little home that lie he owns a business privilege lek tax which assesses him a certain percentage of his total receipts a license tax for the privilege of doing business a tax on his motor cars which he uses in his business a tax on 0 the gasoline which powers powers the cars and a few other odds and ends I 1 made no mention mendo in hi the tha above paragraph that he be like you and I 1 pays se aeral hundred taxes s that are ara not called taxes ue he smokes cigarettes or example and the federal tax is six fix cents a pack many states hive have a state tax in addition he bought his wife a piece of jewelry for or christmas and there were three different federal taxes hidden in the price lie he i paid 0 0 I 1 could go on and on with a revelation of tho the taxes but I 1 mention them only In hidden ciden matter tally the taxes of taxes that t I 1 am m con berned with in this story dory of his affairs are tho the taxes directly on his business they are important tor for the reason that he h e told me the ahe other night thit that li if it were not tor for all of these taxes ho he could re employ several men whom he had to discharge when the business was at its lowest ile he can not hire them now however because ol of profit Is small lie he has to accomplish as much with six sit men as he used to with eight or nine or ten in ord order r to make a living out of the business for himself and his family recounted the details of his own business to me about tho the i time lime that the great westinghouse corporation of pittsburgh made public its tax story jn in substance and in brief westinghouse pointed out that its tax obligations had increased from around two million dollars eight years ago to something over loyer sixteen in million lIllon dollars in federal payments in the last year in the years 1933 1935 1938 1930 and 1937 the taxes paid by westinghouse were hold held to have been suf ficle n ho to have maintained about additional workers on the payroll I 1 know that someone will retort that a great corporation like westinghouse In ought to pay big taxes there can be ba no doubting the truth of that assert assertion lon but there is a much graver cond condition lUon shown by exposition of the tax affairs of the big business of westinghouse and Sw artys little business the only difference between the problems of the two is that being a little fellow Is not slapped clapped and cuffed and called crooked by the demagogues Sw artys government is doing to him howl ever exactly what is being conj don to westinghouse by some same authority thus 11 I 1 believe it Is fair to con 4 y 0 bent dent tried again lately he has sent ant a letter to representative cartwright oklahoma democrat saying that if mr cartwright did not want his committee to act on the road fund curtailment congress and its individual members would have to take tahe the responsibility when the budget shows up out ot of balance I 1 suppose there could be a slow ing down in road building but members ot of the house tell bethere me i there are hundreds of 0 other places where spending could be reduced without harming a permanent national policy there will be much hauling and filling but it if congress really wants to curb spending let it give a few minutes look at the things discovered bySe by Senator harry byrd the virginia democrat and his in committee that committee brought forth information I 1 am informed as to how halt a billion dollars of new deal experiments could bo be eliminated and our united states would never miss a single one of them 1 I do not mean the patronage boys on the tha payrolls qt of course they would miss their soft jobs to get back to the hot potato however the president has told con gross in effect to sort out the things lt it would kill and pass the legislation eliminate the spending band and bring a balanced budget by so doing he ha has dodged all of the backwash from local politicians of his own machine and has made the representatives representative and senators the goats in front of their own people 1 I must not fall to report to you about the plight of the citizens oi of greenbelt t that h a t blight over model community greenbelt erected by the distinguished re r e moulder of men prof rexford guy tugwell where cheap rents were to prevail and economic royalists dare riot not tread for protes sor abr tugwell built apartments tor for families provided no family had more than two babies the govern ment get its money back ack in years but ft 4 great blight has fallen over greenbelt the tenants did not read the fine print of their leases too late they learned that the fins fine print prohibited them from having dogs or any kind of 0 pets I 1 understand there has been a bit of boot legging of pets but anyway there Is a prohibition against such things now however a great movement Is under way in greenbelt petitions are in circulation demanding that landlord uncle sam change the lease one never knows where such things will lead 0 western newspaper union |