Show 0 national topics interpreted by william bruckart washington D C national press W washington a the true purpose of 0 the tb investigation by the senate muni eions committee SP ap light on pears to have come nye inquiry to light it Is seek log ing the honor ol of drafting legislation which will give it 11 a historical standing as the group ol of men who first moved to remove the th incentive of profit as provocative ol of war in presenting its pro proposal dosal to this end however the committee Is regard ed as having started something which it Is unlikely can be finished by the group of individual senators making up that committee when the investigating resolution was adopted by the senate its sponsors made much fuss about conditions in the munitions industry there were many speeches made by senator nye rep N D concerning concern lne the wickedness 0 of munitions manefa manufacturers and in the course of those speeches which were made in a score of different communities muni ties senator nye announced conclusions clu which apparently have not been supported by evidence adduced by the committee investigators further the senator announced plans to disclose alleged corruption among the munitions manufacturers and stated definitely that the purpose of the inquiry was to provide the basis for laws which would control them now after seven months we look back on the committees record and find that it has played a game of hop akiri and jump from one subject to another and I 1 believe the consensus Is that little of real value either cither to the senate or as public information has been developed since there was the minimum of publicity resulting from the inquiry into munitions plants shipbuilding yards and the aircraft industry the committee has taken another tack seizing upon president Roosevel ts phrase that profits must be taken out of war senator nye and his colleagues turned their so called experts loose on the track of those illusive pr profits orits the result Is a piece of proposed legislation that goes beyond anything ever offered before in the way of tax legislation of course it Is entirely likely that nothing at all will come of the nye bill insofar as improvement of our taxation methods Is concerned but its radical and altogether unworkable character Is looked upon as necessitating tating a frank examination of its provisions because the committee started out to investigate the munitions industry and notwithstanding the fact that since it has baa wandered all over the surface of the earth with its inquiry there Is a widespread belief that its tax bill will apply only to the munitions industry during war time such Is not the case it goes far beyond the munitions industry and indeed it affects every corporation and every individual with an income of 1000 or more 0 0 0 probably the flynn nye tax proposal wont get anywhere at all certainly it will not be enacted flynn nye in this session of con tax bill gress nevertheless when a senate committee seriously introduces a bill that would limit income of a corporation to 3 per cent of its peacetime peace time capitalization the government would take the rest by taxation II ft Is regarded by many as time to call a halt it ought to be added here that obviously the country Is faced with the highest taxes it has ever known in consequence of the tremendous spending that has been going on during the last two years and which Is to be continued those taxes are due to come along within another year or two 0 1 I referred above to the 3 per cent limit on incomes of corporations this Is brought about through a tax of CO 50 per cent on the first 6 per cent of earnings of every corporation above the 0 per cent earnings lit it Is proposed in the flynn nye bill to take per cent of the total tucked away in one section of the bill Is language that Is ordinarily referred to as a joker it represents the first attempt by congress rather by the sponsors of this legislation to circumvent exemption of government securities from taxation the federal state municipal county and other gov eru jurisdictions have the power to issue bonds and other securities free from taxation this makes such securities attractive for quite a while there has been agitation to do away with this tax exemption lege lee nobody has found a way however to get legislative bodies to enact the necessary provisions into law so we have something luse like fifty billions of dollars in securities of this type outstanding if this income were taxable of course it would represent a considerable sid erable increase in revenue to the federal government through income levies thus it to Is stated the r lynn flynn nyo nye proposal Is attempting to reach that income without actually violating tho the contract which the issuing government roada made with the buyers of those securities the effort to tax income from these has burn been worked out in a fashion that Is better how hou it illustrated than de would woud work fined assume that a corli t oration had invested a large oin of 0 its surplus or reserves in tax exempt bonds the bill proposes first to limit the amount of income which that corporation may receive and to tax halt half of the remainder ma inder the result Is that income from tax exempt securities would be mingled with other forms of income and the government would dip its hand into the total and take whatever amount the law prescribed another provision of the bill would result in government confiscation in wartime of every dollar of income that any official of any corporation company or partnership received in excess of per year it Is to be remembered here that the above men tinned would not be tax ex empt those drawing draing such salaries still would have to pay the government 2800 in taxes on the income in other words since nearly every one receiving salaries of this size serves in an official capacity with some commercial unit the tax provision actually reaches nearly all of the individual income tax payers certainly the drastic rates affect all persons receiving any income of consequence because there Is a sharp reduction in the personal exemption prescribed and the tax tas rates themselves are boosted higher than a kite for instance a married man with an income of a year would have to pay a minimum of 3 00 to the government immediately war was declared 0 0 0 the lethargy that continues among national republican leaders Is beginning to grow irksome criticize upon minor wheel leaders horses and individual republicans of lesser consequence in national afra affairs irs word Is coming through to washington from various sections of the country indicating considerable dissatisfaction with the management of republican party affairs by the present regime headed by henry P fletcher fietcher national chairman there Is likewise a growing volume of criticism of the work of senator hastings of delaware and representative senta tive bolton of ohio joint chairmen of the republican senatorial con gressional gress lonal committee superficially at least it appears that the republican PO pot t Is about to boll over I 1 dont believe anybody can fore forecast cast at this time what the result la Is going to be it should be said in favor of mr fletcher fietcher and co chairmen hastings find and bolton that they are in a tough spot they are criticized if they do and criticized it if they dont ye yet t the fact remains and I 1 think it la Is r recognized everywhere that none ot of these three has taken a positive position nor has he initiated any constructive effort in behalf of his bartys political future from among republicans who yet remain in congress I 1 have picked up much private discussion indicating fear on their part that the republican party management Is faced with an upheaval equivalent to the roosevelt new deal among the democrats unless the party leaders awaken from their unperturbed sleep the point made most frequently Is that president roosevelt actually has inaugurated his campaign for reelection election re and the republicans public ans are doing absolutely noth ing about it it Is well to recall that postmaster general parley farley Is planning to retire just when nobody knows to devote his attention to hla his other job which Is chairman of the democratic national committee this information can be construed la a only one way now that mr fletcher Is getting ready to take his bis seat again at the helm of the campaign machine some soma of the smarter republicans insist that this should be notice to the guiding lights of their own party to begin coast construction st of political trenches something may come of the republican sectional meetings now being planned it Is just possible that out of these group discussions may be evolved some national program or the makings of a national policy it Is likewise possible that from these thes e group discussions some individual may arise who would be a worthwhile leader for the party against mr roosevelt next year to date according to all of the information I 1 can obtain that leader Is not in sight eight senator arthur van denberg of michigan who was waa reelected to the senate last year in the midst of a democratic landslide has been suggested on the other brand band wise politicians tell me that because senator Vanden bere has been mentioned thus early lie he la Is likely to be out of the running when the convention time comes because to in politics it Is the early bird who catches the curse instead of the worm but to forget the weaknesses of the republicans in leadership does not cause one to forget the palpable failure made by those in charge nt at present so tar far as the public record shows they have taken no advantage whatsoever of vulnerable spots in the new deal armor no administration has been or cin can bo be perfect president roosevelt does not claim that his big new deal Is perfect he has gone so ajr as to admit failures in certain of his hi countless experiments it la Is possible like that the republican organization has made note of these failures but it can be stated as a tact fact that they have hav made very little use of them by wa way of political attack a 0 western bolon anlon |