Show 10 ab national topics interpreted by william Bruci bruckart art D C national press BuIl building dinc washington washington his name will mean little to anyone except the rather wide circle of Sw artys ys friends and busi story ness MSS associates who admire his courage and thrift since there are arc hundreds of thousands like him in this country I 1 will identify him by his nickname I 1 have known mown him some ten or eleven years as a friend and a neighbor a fel low who could be properly called the salt of the earth Sw artys story is most interesting because it illustrates a condition he was the son of a country doctor t in his early twenties he became a traveling salesman his personality person aliby and his ability carried above the ranks of the average or der taker he saved his money he and his wife inherited a lew few thousand dollars each from their respective fathers went into business for himself here in washington the business prospered to the extent that had built up a backlog of savings as a reserve and had bought his own home a modest place they are a happy little family and in that as well they are like hundreds ol of thousands of others in this country there came the depression of seven years ago sales by Sw artys little plant declined he kept his ten employees on the rolls however as long as he could the drain became too much and he had to reduce the payroll indeed he had to draw on the backlog after nearly five years things began to pick up he started again to restore the reserve so that there could be something on which to draw again if business was slack but almost simultaneously found a lot of new taxes coming in the front door one of them was the ridiculous levy that said in effect that he could not build up that backlog again because if he did he would have to share the excess with the federal government there had been some other taxes before that one but it was the most disastrous in its effect there were other taxes after the surplus earnings tax too until lately he told me that he was paying nine different taxes each month and each year he has to pay an income tax on the salary that he allows himself for managing the business and besides all of these he has the strictly local taxes of the district of columbia among these of course is a tax on the little home that he owns a business privilege vilese tax which assesses him a certain percentage of his total receipts a license tax tor for the privilege of doing business a tax on his motor cars which he uses in his business a tax on the gasoline which powers the cars and a few other odds and ends I 1 made no mention in the above paragraph that he like you and I 1 pays several hundred taxes that are not called taxes he smokes cigarettes for example and the federal tax is six cents a pack many states have a state tax in addition he bought his wife a piece of jewelry for christmas and there were three different federal taxes hidden in the price he paid I 1 could go on and on with a revelation of the taxes but I 1 mention them only incident matter tally the taxes eftaxes of taxes that I 1 am concerned with in this story of his affairs affa irs are the taxes directly on his business they are important tor for the reason that he told me the other night that if it were not for all of these taxes he could re employ several men whom he had to discharge when the business was at its lowest he can not hire them now however because the margin of profit available to him is small he has to accomplish as much with six men as he used to with eight or nine or ten in order to make a div living ing out of the business tor for himself and his family recounted the details of his own business to me about the time that the great westinghouse corporation of pittsburgh made public its tax story in substance and in in brief westinghouse pointed out that its tax obligations had increased from around two million dollars eight years ago to something so over sixteen million dollars in federal payments in the last year in the years 1935 1936 and 1937 the taxes paid by westinghouse were held to have been sufficient to have maintained about additional workers on the payroll I 1 know that someone will aiu retort that a great corporation like westinghouse in ought to pay big taxes there can be no doubting the truth h of that assertion but there is a much graver condition shown by exposition of the tax affairs of the big business of westinghouse and Sw artys ts little business the only difference between the problems of the two is that being a little fellow is not slapped and cuffed and called crooked by the demagogues Sw artys government is doing to him however exactly what is being done to westinghouse by the same authority thus I 1 believe it is fair to conclude that these two cases illustrate beyond possible refutation how government has become sophea vy how its machinery has grown to a point almost beyond comprehension these two cases among tens and tens of thousands show what the ship of state is costing indeed 1 I feel more and more that if we have a ship of state it is leaking so badly that half of the taxes collected flow into the ocean of ineffectiveness and economic waste the condition obtains from the smallest unit of township administration to the doors of cong congress and the white house in washington we are into a new session ot of congress this week the regular annual session the extra congress session that met Is back november 15 amid a great deal of ballyhoo as to what it would accomplish com has gone into history it left a record of which no one can be proud but gone by and the new session is starting with a fine field waiting for cultivation except that members of the house and some 30 odd senators face primaries and elections that fact alone provides the answer to many things you ww will see unfolded in the next four or five or six months the boys will play politics aplenty but before we go into that let us examine the little game of politics which president roosevelt has initiated I 1 think it cannot be gain said that the president has tossed a very hot potato into the lap of congress some time ago it will be recalled the president said with emphasis that the budget must be balanced this year that spending of government money must not exceed the income as it has done now consistently for seven years there was much applause of that pronouncement no at the capitol it seems however they are laughing out of the other side of their mouth now because suddenly the politicians discovered that if the budget were brought into balance great gobs of political pap patronage and projects would have to be eliminated there was a reaction to the presidents statement mr roosevelt very promptly said in effect well boys if we cut down spending we have to start somewhere how about cutting off a couple of hundred millions from the federal contribution trib ution for road building and a howl went up to the skies quit building roads never so the president tried again lately he has sent 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 the responsibility when the budget shows up out of balance I 1 suppose there could be a slow ing down in road building but members of the house tell me there are hundreds of other places where spending could be reduced without harming a permanent national policy there will be much ha hauling and filling but if congress r really eally wants to curb spending let it give a few minutes look at the things discovered by senator harry byrd the virginia democrat and his investigating vesti gating committee that committee brought forth informs information t ion I 1 am informed as to how half a billion dollars of new deal ex experiments per could be eliminated and our united states would never miss a single one of them 1 I 1 do not no t mean the patronage boys on the payrolls of course they would miss their soft jobs to get back to the hot potato however the president has told congress in effect to sort out the things it t would kill and pass the legislation that would eliminate the spending and bring a b balanced budget by so doing he has dodged all ol of the backwash from local politicians of his own machi machine ne and has made the representatives and senators the goats in front of their own people I 1 must not tail fail to report to you about the plight of the citizens of blight R over n greenbelt model community t that h t greenbelt erected by the distinguished r re e moulder of men prof rexford guy tugwell where cheap rents were to prevail and economic royalists dare not tread for professor tugwell built apartments for families provided no family had more than two babies the government is going to get its money back in years but a great blight has fallen over greenbelt Green helt the tenants did not read the fine print of their leases too late they learned that the fine print prohibited them from having dogs or any kind of pets I 1 understand there has been a bit of bootlegging of pets but anyway there is i s a prohibition against such things thines now however a great movement is under wa way Y in greenbelt petitions are I 1 in n circulation demanding that landlord uncle sam change the lease one never knows where such things will lead 6 0 western ne New union |