Show 0 national topics interpreted by william bruckart VatI national press building wahington D C washington president roosevelt has very neatly called the bluff bin IT of ills his critics that he be la 19 hot potato wasting billions from for congress tle the treasury and doing nothing to replace it with much less ballyhoo than ordinarily precedes the presentation of tax legislation to congress the president sent a message to the capitol calling tor for new tax levies approximating a billion dollars in yield and in so doing dropped into tile the laps of the house and senate senata critics one of the hottest potatoes they have ever been called upon to handle if one were to characterize the play in tile the language of baseball since spring Is here I 1 believe one could say that congress either must play bill ball or let the runners score it was the greatest tax bill ever submitted in pence peace time whether the proposals the president has made are economically economic aUy sound or whether the levies he be thinks advisable adi adl isable sable will do the job be expects of them of course remains to be seen tint but the fact cannot be dodged that mr roosevelt has figuratively settled down around the ears of those who have constantly challenged the waste inherent in its his vast reform and recovery program with a straight from abe shoulder demand upon congress 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 fretting and mumbling among representatives and senators it la Is only natural that they do not wish to go into a campaign for reelection election re when villien there Is the cert certainty allty that here there and everywhere they will be confronted with heckling as to their vote for new taxes assuming they will vote terrifically heavy levies as the president has so suggested and as present indications seem to assure they have no heart tor for a tax increase at this time but to repeat they are faced with a situation in which they niti must st either vote for new and heavier taxes or else they will be forced to swallow many long winded speeches in condemnation of the presidents course 0 0 1 whatever the merits of the roosevelt proposals may bes bethere be there Is iao no course open for his force hands opponents except to of appon opponents enis support uin ina in the general move to pay as you go unless they support these new tax levies all of the howling bowling and the shouting and tumult about a reduction in the treasury deficit becomes just so much belly wash opponents may diner differ with the president as to the details of his tax plan but the situation he has created for them compels that they stand with him to do otherwise would be not only inconsistent but rather dumb frank kent the able news commentator one phase of this situation the other day by sayings it makes no difference differ enco that the situation which coiD compels the imposition of new and heavy taxes Is largely mr air Roosevel ts fault and it makes no difference that the move Is forced by the exigencies of his campaign for reelection and is designed to spike the most dama damaging eIng charge against him that he be the debt mo mountain high aill IY ayt expenditures menaced the national solvency all that and more may be perfectly true but for the republicans and his non cal critics who haie hae been assailing mr air roosevelt for months because of his failure to balance the budget to either cither obstruct or hold bold back no now w that I 1 alie ie president urges congress to provide by y taxation the money to pay for the v vast st gifts it has voted would be beyond t the ie limit in political insincerity and lypo hypocrisy po crisy in other words there nearly Is no alternative for opponents ot of the presidents po policies ll cles they must show their sincerity by going through with him lo in the la ing or of new taxes I 1 do not mean by that statement eliat it Is necessary for them to accept without argument the exact levies which he has proposed it if they were not in accord with the taxes lie he proposes they would not be serving their constituencies unless they so stated but it if they object to the levies he has offer offered ed let them bring forward substitute proposals that will produce a revenue yield in a like amount they cannot afford to criticize and then refuse to offer constructive propositions in turn on the other hand it seems to be the consensus consensus among washington observers that mr air roose blames velt ought not to be high court allowed to get away with one declaration which he made in submitting ills his tax proposals to congress he said that the necessity for these new taxes arose from the supreme court decision invalidating the processing taxes upon which the agricultural adjustment administration and its subsidies to agriculture was predicated of course that may be true at the moment but as one frequently hears bears pointed out in washington conversation the president used the bounties to farmers and tile the AAA itself as one of his keystone policies the tact fact that it was as ancon surely cannot be said bald to be the fault of the Suii reisa coart and yet V that was the implication in ID tile lie presidents message likewise the president hinted that a part of the taxes was due to congius dional action in passing the bonus which lie he vetoed and congress made operative over that veto again I 1 hear it questioned that congress Is actually to blame it Is being said with groat great frequency that had mr air roosevelt made the hie fight against payment of the bonus tills this year that lie did a year ago it Is almost that congress would have passed it over his veto rt it Is being said in this connection that if sir roosevelt really had desired to kill the cash payment of the bonus his stalwart leaders in the house and senate could hardly have afforded to refuse ills his request to vote tote against it il instead of that situation the record shows that such recognized spokes i men as senator robinson of arkansas the democratic leader in the senate 1 senator harrison of mississippi senator cymes byrnes of south carolina ond and senator radcliffe of INI maryland aryland a personal friend I 1 all voted to pass the bonus over the presidents veto I 1 may not be thoroughly acquainted with the maneuvers of politicians but I 1 cannot believe these men would have turned their backs on the president in th thea bonus fight unless they entertained aj a feeling that he did not seriously obi ob i 1 eject 1 so it simmers down that the men who a year ago and two years ngoi ago voted the president taxpayers Taxpayer st almost limitless pow the coat mand or and limitless funds to deal with an emergency are now compelled it if they intend ever to be statesmen to stick by vote the taxes and take it on the chin it if that is to be the reaction from the voters after all it Is mere ly 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 themselves congress Is asked to levy an unprecedented type of tax tar on i tributes trl trI buted corporation profits sew new processing taxes to replace those outlawed by the supreme court being designed to be constitutional are pro posed and a tax tas which the president described as a windfall tax to re cover a considerable part of the old process processing ln taxes returned to w was as suggested ne he asked also that levies be laid on dividends which are now exempt from normal tax on individual incomes the windfall tax Is designed to offset the action of the supreme court which ordered the return of the proc i essing taxes as having been illegally collected rn in other words the administration Is attempting to get by one method what the supreme court said it could not get in the manner it employed the tax on undistributed profits of corporations Is the center of all kinds of controversy already opponents of this levy maintain that it if the government forces corporations to pay taxes on reserve funds they have laid aside for the proverbial rainy day such as we have experienced for the last six years none of them can stand the gaft gaff ot of another depression mr Rilo roosevelt contended that his tax proposal in this direction which would take away approximately one third of such reserves was designed only to prevent the piling up of cash by corporations instead of i distribution of those funds fonds to stockholders there will be much hauling and filling many abar charges es and counter c charges barges muc much it maneuvering and manipulation as congress mulls aulls over tile the new tax hill bill it will pass some kind of new taxes and citizens will begin early next year to take out of their pockets money to pay oft off the deficits of the reform and recovery program some 75 years ago the government organized mall service to inland points without railroad fa star sar route cili ties calling this mait mail service new ew service the star route this service has been continuously in operation in scores of communities and it Is continuing to operate exactly on the same basis as it did three quarters of a century ago so this Is a plea pica in behalf of those who carry the mall on the star routes and for better servi service ce for star route patrons there Is a bill in congress now which proposes to provide better service tor for those carriers and ana for patrons of those routes when one recalls that the boasted phrase of the post office department part ment athe the malls must go through had its origin with the star route carriers it seems that the time Is ton ions since gone by to consider justice for these faithful servants it seems further 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 hullabaloo that senator black alabama democrat Is making about lobbying those who desire to see justice done for the star route service those who belleve believe that the entire postal service should be considered and not just a part of it it do their utmost to have congress act ou on this legislation 0 stern union |