| Show 0 0 national topics interpreted by william bruckart national press building Wan hington D C washington president roosevelt has very neatly called the bluff of his critics that he Is 1 hot potato wasting billions from for congress the 1 treas iry try and do ing nothing to re place it with much less ballyhoo than ordinarily precedes the presentation of tax legislation to congress the dent sent a message to the capitol calling for new tax levies ing lug a billion dollars in yield and in so doing dropped into the laps of the house and senate critics one of the hottest potatoes they have ever been called upon to hindle handle it if one were to characterize the play in the lan ian guage of baseball since spring Is here I 1 believe one could say that congress either must play ball or let the run ners tiers score it was the greatest tax bill ever a ib milled in peace time whether the proposals the president has made are economically sound or whether the lev ley lea les he be thinks advisable will do the job he be expects of them of course remains to be seen but the fact cannot be dodged thit that mr roosevelt has figura lively settled down around the ears of those who have constantly challenged the waste inherent in his vast reform and recovery program with a straight from the shoulder demand upon con gress that it vote new taxes it Is a most interesting situation politically in nearly a score of years of washington reportorial experience I 1 cannot recall having seen so much squirming and wriggling as well as fret ting and mumbling among represent atiles and senators it Is 1 only natural that they do not wish to go into a cam laign for reelection re election when there Is the certainty that here there and every where they will be confronted with heckling as to their vote for new taxes assuming they will vote terrifically heavy levies as the president has sug and as present indications seem to assure they have no heart for a tax increase at this time cut but to repeat they are faced with a situation in which they must either vote for new and heavier taxes or else they will be forced to swallow many long winded speeches in condemnation of the presidents chirse 0 0 whatever the merits of the boose velt proposals may be there Is no course open for his force hands opponents except to of opponents support him in the general move to pay as you go unless they support these new tax levies all of the howling and the shouting and tumult about a re luc lue tion in the treasury treis trea siry iry deficit becomes just so mich m ich belly wish wash opponents mav may differ with the pres ident as to the details of his tax plin plan but the situation he his created for them compels that they stan stanl with him to do otherwise would be not only inconsistent but rather dumb frank prank kent the able news common sum marled one phase of this situation the B other day by saying it mat 1 es no difference that the a 8 tuition which compels the imposition of new and heavy taxes Is largely mr I 1 on oo sevelt s fault and it mil mat es no difference that the move Is f reed by the exigencies of his campaign campi ign for re election and Is designed to hpike the most damaging dan nging charge against him thit that he has piled the debt inn mountain moin antala tain high ani by terrific expenditures men ace the national solvency all tint that and more may be perfectly true but for tl ti e rep ihli cans and his non pollyl cil cal critics who hive have been assailing as mr air roosevelt for months because of his failure to balance the bud budget budet et to either obstruct or hold buk back now that the prebi lent urges con congress ress to provide by taxation the money to ply pay for the vist vast gifts it has voted would be beyond the limit in political insincerity and by in otter ott er words there nearly Is no alternative for opponents of the ires res ident s polle ea they must qt h w their sincerity by going through with him in the laying of new taxes I 1 do n t mean by that statement that it Is nee essary for them to accept acce t with it ar aument the exact levies which he has prop sed if they were not in ace rd with ith the taxes be pr poses they enild wo ild not be serving the r constituencies un less they so stated bit bi t if they object to the lev ley es he has offered let them bring forward substitute pr that will pro luce a revenue yield in a like amount iley cannot afford to criticize and then refuse to offer constructive propositions in turn on the other hand it seems to be the consensus among wasi wast n ers that mr roose noose blames velt ought not to be high court allowed to get away with one declaration which he made in submitting his tax proposals to cong congress I 1 Tess he ile said that the necessity for these new taxes arose from the S preme court decision invalidating the processing taxes upon which the agricultural ada estment ad ministration and its sut sidles to agri culture was predicated of course that may be true at the moment but as one frequently hears bears pointed out in washington conversation the prest dent used the bounties to farmers and the AAA itself as one of his keystone policies the fact that it was ancon surely cannot be said to be the fault of the supreme court and yet that was the implication in the prest dents dent a message likewise the president hinted that a part of the taxes was due to congles action in passing the bonu which he vetoed and congress made in ade operative over that veto again I 1 hear bear it questioned that congress Is act bally to blame it Is being said with great frequency that had mr koose roose velt made the fight against payment of the bonus this year that he did a year ago fl 0 it Is almost incon cleavable cle vable that L congress on gress would have passed it over his veto it Is being said in this connection that if air roosevelt really had de sired to kill hill the cash of the bonus his stalwart lei lers in the house and senate could hardly have afforded to refuse his request to vote against it instead of that situation the rec ord shows that such recognized spokes men as senator dobinson Po binson of arkansas Ar kansis the democratic lea ler ter in the senate senator harrison of sena tor byrnes of south carolina and find sen sell ator radcliffe of maryland a personal friend all eted v ted to pass the bonus over the I 1 resident s veto I 1 may not n ot be thoroughly acquainted with the maneuvers of politicians but I 1 cannot believe these men would have turned their backs on the president in the bonus fight unless they entertained entert a ined a feeling that he did not seriously ob eject so it simmers down that the men who a year ago and two years ago voted the president taxpayers ta almost limitless pow the goat erand er and limitless funds to deal with an tin emergency are now compelled it if they intend ever to be statesmen to stick by vote the taxes and take it on the chin if that Is to be the reaction from the voters after all it Is merely the taxpayers who are the goats and as usual the taxpayers have not a great voice in their own defense As to the presidents tax proposals them selves congress Is ailed ed to levy an unprecedented type of tax on undistributed tri buted corporation profits new processing taxes to replace those out awed by the supreme court being de signed to be constitutional are pro posed and a tax which the president described as a windfall tax to re cover a considerable part of the old processing taxes returned to taxpayers was suggested suggested he lie asked also that levies be laid on oil dividends which are now exempt from normal tas tax on andl vidual incomes the windfall tax Is designed to offset the action of the Sup supreme tree court which ordered the return of the proc essing taxes as having been III silly gally collected in other words the admin stratton Is attempting to get by one method wl it the S iprema court slid id aloyed it co id not get in the manner it em the tax on undistributed profits of corp rations Is the center of all kinds of controversy already opponents of this levy maintain that if the govern ment forces corporations to pay taxes on reserve funds they have bald aside for the proverbial rainy day such as we have experienced for the last six years none of them can stand the gilf gift of another depres depression sinn mr air roosevelt poosevelt contended thit that th it his tax proposal in this direction which would tal e away ap all proximately one third of such reserves was designed only to prevent the piling up of cash by corporations instead 0 of distribution of those funds to stock holders there will be much ha hauling alln and it filling miny many charges chares and counter charges much maneuvering and manipulation as congress mulls over the ne tie v tax bill it will pass some kind of new taves taxes and citizens will begin early next year to tal e out of their pockets money to pay off the deficits of the reform an and d recovery program 0 some 75 years ago a 0 the government govern me n t organized mall mail service to inland poll points i ts without railroad fa star route c calling this mail alad service new ew service the star route this service has been continuously in operation in scores of communities and it Is con g to operate exactly on the same basis as it did three quarters of a cen tury 90 ao so tl ti Is Is a plea in behalf of those who carry the mall mail on the star routes and for better service for star route patrons there Is a bill in congress now which pr poses to provide better service for those carriers and for patrons of those routes when one recalls that the boasted phrase of the lost I 1 asi office do apartment part ment the mills in go through had its origin with the star route carriers it seems that the time Is long lone since gone by to consider co justice f r these faithful servants it seems fur ther that if there are real forgotten men in this country they truly are the carriers on the star routes and the patrons of those routes even in the face of all of the hallal aloo that ator black alabama democrat Is mik muk ing ab ut lobbying tl it ose wl 0 desire to see ree justice done for the star roi rot te service those who believe bellev e ti ala at the tire postal service should be consid ered and not just a part of it shoula do their utmost to have congress con giess aci act on this legislation C western newspaper unload |
