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Show I WEEKLY NEWS ANALYSIS . Coal Operators Hint at Price Hike; Britain Faces Flew Economic Crisis; Federal Tax Reduction Poses Puzzle (EDITOR'S NOTE: When opinions are expressed In these columns, they are those of Western Newspaper Union's news analysts and not necessarily of this newspaper.) I Accused 1 J 1 'xT j a r Jrf '.;ti ..J TRUMAN: Costly Figure ' Republicans, sniping at President Presi-dent Truman, declared that he, as a private citizen, "is one oi the best, it not the best paid man in the world today." Figures lending themselves to many artifices, the gentleman issuing is-suing that statement, Rep. Roy O. Woodruff of Michigan figured it out this way: A PRIVATE CITIZEN to match the standard of living now enjoyed by the President would need an income in-come of three to three and a half million dollars a year. Mr. Truman has take-home pay of $110,000 a year out of his salary, $50,000 of which is tax-free. He has 42 facilities for travel, including 35 automobiles, airplanes, his own yacht, the Williamsburg, a private Pullman car and "vacation "vaca-tion retreats" in Key West, Fla., and Maryland. He has an estimated staff of 665 persons at an annual cost of $1,-491,540. $1,-491,540. He has a travel allowance of $33,000 to $40,000. Then Representative Woodruff listed the costs of the yacht, the President's personal plane, his private railroad car, a destroyer escort for the yacht, secret service and White House guards, White House salary costs for' a staff of 225. THEN said Representative Woodruff: Wood-ruff: "By comparison, President Roosevelt in 1945 had a staff of 53 costing only $256,431 and President Presi-dent Hoover's staff totaled 37 at a salary bill of $127,200. Present White House salary costs, he said, amount to $998,254 annually. That was an impressive list of conveniences and privileges and special help, certainly; rivaling in many instances the best that an Indian Potentate could boast. Yet, democracy comes high, and there was little likelihood that a resume of what the presidency costs the people would raise the blood pressure of many American tax. payers. ELECTIONS: Certainty & Doubt A graphic contrast between choices by electorates in Communist Commu-nist and other countries was provided pro-vided in the Russian and Belgian elections. In Russia, there was no choice. Premier Stalin was the Number 1 candidate of the Soviets, and he had no opposition. As head of the Communist ticket, he was shooting for as nearly 100 per cent of the vote as possible with no "No" votes to come. Stalin and associates campaigned on a pledge of following a policy of peace. The Russians elected a new parlianjent of 1,302 members. IN BELGIUM the situation was quite different. The issue was: Should King Leopold III be returned to the throne? Fifty-seven per cent of the voters said he should, a fact which must have been comforting to Leopold, inasmuch as he had vowed to abdicate unless he received re-ceived 55 per cent of the vote. However, the victory at the polls didn't mean Leopold was back on the throne. Parliament would have the last word, as the election was only advisory being designed to show parliament how the people felt about Leopold. The election was tumultuous, with rioting and fighting fight-ing marking the balloting. LEOPOLD had drawn the ill will of millions of Belgians because of his capitulation to the Germans in World War II, although his supporters support-ers pointed out there was little else he could have done. The crux of the election was some 151,000 invalidated ballots. If these were counted, the result would give Leopold only 54 per cent of the votes and he would have to act on his pledge of abdication if he failed to receive the 55 per cent he had mentioned. Fights Tax COAL: The 'Payoff The "payoff' in the recent coal strike settlement was coming more quickly than was usually the case in the settling of these disputes. The cost to the consumer of John L.-Lewis' L.-Lewis' power over the operators and his union was to be felt very soon. ANNOUNCEMENT came in' the form of a statement by spokesman for the soft coal industry that there is now in preparation a 10 to 40 cents a ton increase on the price of coal. When the United Mine Workers long strike against the industry was settled recently, operators forecast a rise in prices. However, discussion of the price hike indicated there would be no blanket increase. Rather, the boost would vary according to the financial finan-cial situation and contract commitments com-mitments of individual firms. One official was quoted as saying: say-ing: "If it (the increase) only amounts to 10 cents a ton, the retailer should be able to absorb it. But if it goes any higher, it will affect the price of coal to the consumer." It seems logical that the retailer could assume an added cost of 10 cents a ton but the question was: Would he? Except for competition, which would hardly be forthcoming in the way of a price fight, the retailer re-tailer could pass on any coal price hike to the consumer. BRITAIN: Another Crisis Great Britain truly had fallen on evil times. Barely escaping one financial crisis after another, the word was that the nation was facing another financial-economic crisis in 1950 just as she did in 1949 and 1948. THE DAY had passed when Americans Amer-icans could say to such news: "So what what has that got to do with us?" For the fact was that because of U.S.-British economic-financial ties stemming from the early Franklin Frank-lin D. Roosevelt era, whatever happened hap-pened toV Britain economically or financially could be expected to happen hap-pen to the U.S. The reason was that in any such crisis there was no' one but the U.S. to whom the British could turn for help. The problem, as British leaders viewed it, was that although Britain's Brit-ain's production is about as high as it can go in the near future, it does not yield enough exportable goods to meet pressing British problems. ONE OF THESE is the need to increase sales to the United States to earn more dollars and solve Britain's Brit-ain's current inability to pay for the goods she must get from the United States. Another is conflicting pressure on Britain to ship goods to other creditors credi-tors as a means of paying on' huge debts acquired in wartime and since. Possible solutions included negotiations nego-tiations with creditors to ease pressure on old debts and as was inevitable and expected provisions of further loans from the United States. 7VX CUTS: A Problem Cynical observers of congressional congression-al tax-cut maneuvering might be forgiven a "so what?" reaction to announcement that while Democrats Demo-crats had thrown out President Truman's limitations on excise-tax excise-tax slashes, they promised to dig up other revenue to balance the losses. TO THE AVERAGE taxpayer that must seem to be a senseless business. What was the point in abolishing one type of taxes and levying another? Excise taxes affected af-fected almost every one in the nation, na-tion, and the substitute for a slash there tightening up of tax loopholes loop-holes and "such other taxes as may be deemed feasible" would most likely -affect a majority of taxpayers. taxpay-ers. That "other such taxes as may be deemed feasible," was the clincher that cut off any relief taxpayers tax-payers might obtain through a slash in the excise levies. President Truman has threatened to veto the excise tax cut if the loss of this revenue is not balanced by other sources. With developments develop-ments as they were, it appeared certain that there would be no excise ex-cise tax reductions before July 1. Dorothy Kenyon, named by U.S. Sen. Joseph McCarthy (R., Wis.) as first on his list of alleged "fellow-travelers," or Communists, in the state department, de-partment, was listed as a $12,-000-a-year- member of the economic eco-nomic and social council of the U.S. commission to the United Nations. ACHESON: Rapped Again Tall, debonair Dean Acheson, U.S. secretary of state, was under fire again. He was charged, among other accusations, with trying to "shift the blame" in defending the ' alleged loyalty-suspect cases Senator Sen-ator McCarthy (R., Wis.) has been airing on capitol hill. SINCE ACHESON made his now-famous now-famous remark that "I will not turn my back on Alger Hiss," following fol-lowing the latter's conviction of perjury in question with treason charges, Acheson has been more or less on the pan as accusers of the state department deliver their verbal verb-al blasts. This time, McCarthy charged three key state department aides as having shown Communist sympathies symp-athies and demanded investigation of a navy civilian scientist whom he described as working on "topmost "top-most defense secrets." The charge that the state department depart-ment harbors men and .women of Communist leanings or sympathies is not a new one. It has been cropping crop-ping up for the past several years, and on each occasion the department depart-ment indignantly rushes forth with a denial. THAT'S NOT SURPRISING for certainly neither Senator McCarthy nor anyone else expected the state department would admit such a condition existed, even if it did exist. To Ho so would admit either a lack of proper security efforts on the part of the department, or a willingness to wink at any employee's employ-ee's loyalty if that employee happened hap-pened to "stand in right" with the proper officials. ATT LEE: Doing Okay To the surprise of most observers, observ-ers, England's so-called "shaky" Labor government had survived two major tests of strength in parliament. par-liament. FOLLOWING the election, in which Prime Minister Attlee's Labor party won a bare majority of parilament seats, it was predicted predict-ed that the victory margin was so slight that the government might crumple that a new election was practically inevitable. In the recent test action on a Conservative motion to beat down the cabinet's housing program Attlee made a considerably stronger strong-er showing than on a previous issue. THE LABOR VICTORY was made possible by support from the Liberal faction, a development at odds with popular speculation as to where the Liberals would go in parliamentary tests. Many top political po-litical observers had predicted that the Liberals would stand with the Conservatives against Attlee's broad program of nationalization-of-industry-and-resources, but closer clos-er observers of the British political scene had pooh-poohed the idea that the Liberals would ever be found standing with the Conservatives. Conserva-tives. And, apparently, these prog-nosticators prog-nosticators were correct. While it had appeared that the Labor forces were to trim down their nationalization program because be-cause of the close election result, these new victories might reshape the pattern of intent. For example, following triumph on the housing issue. Health Minister Bevan, whose ministry administers the housing program, declared . . . "the government's program will be persisted in." Fred N. Acker, Cleveland, Ohio, attorney, is testing the validity of present federal Income In-come tax schedules which he declares are "confiscatory." Acker admitted he has not filed any return or paid any direct taxes for several years, and "invited the government charge." CURVES: In or Out? The matter of whether milady's curves were to be played down or accentuated in this spring's fashions fash-ions was a subject of no little controversy con-troversy among designers. One school of thought wanted curves concealed The other would have them displayed to the best advantage. ad-vantage. The subject was important to the American male who, in the end, would be most concerned because be-cause he would pay for most of it. |
