| Show opposition put on defensive president outlines campaign b issues debt bugaboo to be laid at rest by EARL GODWIN ASHINGTON the cc campaign impal n wan washington to reelect re elect elec roosevelt must be an inspirational one one it must be an attack on the reactionary interests which have been at the presidents policies from behind the barred windows of banks and stockbrokers stock brokers offices and it must put up the slogan of progress now that recovery has been accomplished from now on to election time there must be a spiritual awakening to tile the magnificent accomplishments accomplishment or of ignos yell and his new deal ami an for those who are not calin capable ble of comprehending the spiritual side of 0 americas s advance there must be a dollars rind routs cents argument which nil knock into a 11 cocked hat the idea that this Is over its ears in idelt a il lit bt that our grandchildren will be bahur find and paylag paying and paying actually the campaign camp started Pd when roosevelt put the opposition on n the defensive in the speech lie ilk made at atlanta ga that speech was the signal for the general attack and advance by the democratic who have been restrained fran too much advance firing until the enemy had bad exposed his big position and had shown what will be its his tactics it seem that roosevelt Is worried by the sniping a man who has lifted a nation from kiili to recovery in two years and a half Is too bl big even to hear bear the old ladles indies sewing circle type of stuff that lias been brought up against the administration some time ago I 1 wrote in this column that the democrats would eventually explain the national debt the treasury balance etc in terms that the average small business man can understand and I 1 am gratified that the president did so when he exposed the fact that americas leading bankers were willing to rlyn run the country into debt as much as seventy live five billions in order to get the united states off its back and on its feet the country has assets of a hundred billions or more it has an income of fifty billions or more on a showing like that any going concern could go to a bank and borrow up to seventy five billions lust just as the bankers suggested but so far the country has bas borrowed about thirty billions what Is known as the national debt and it Is the item which Is being turned into a nightmare by opposition leaders the debt after he the world war was somewhere around 1 and we were paying that off and could have paid off more of it had not the harding coolidge regimes reduced taxes instead that war debt debr was for destruction the new deal debt Is for construction it represents largely investment much of it represents millions of homes saved millions of hungry fed millions of acres of land protected from devastation by flood fire and erosion it Is good business aside from business the roosevelt policies I 1 believe saved the country from riot rebellion and a possible revolution ol ution people scarcely realize we were so close to going over the edge c comfortable men with large incomes and high social positions are hiring all the political rattlesnakes they can lay hands on to poison the roosevelt regime and yet it was that very roosevelt regime which saved the api system so believed to this type of industrial and financial leader who contributes heavily to the party showing allowing the greatest reaction away from the human buman to the property side and yet in the roosevelt instance I 1 think im safe to predict that the cam campaign al n will show even the most bitter reactionary business man that the roosevelt program of reform has made business better and safer while on the subject of politics it Is pertinent to remark that I 1 have studied the republican publicity for some definite sign the republicans expected to win the next election ele cllon I 1 have found none the republican congressional committee which in my judgment Is the hardest hitting agg aggregation gre on the 0 1 1 0 P side has apparently parent ly claimed a gain of 75 seats for the republicans in the house but that win will rot not give them a majority looks to ms me as if all tills this was merely for the sake of getting people to contribute money WHERE TAX BURDEN LIES it always amuses me to hear the politicians of one party explain how they are going to reduce taxes when the other crowd la Is turned out and their own party elected to office and I 1 am wearied at the gulli gullibility tillitt of that portion of the public which has been led to believe that the roosevelt tax program has ruined business while no one seems to he worried at all about the really serious tax burden which Is not in washington but in the states find and towns forty seven state le legisla isla tures met this year and increased baxes right and left the roosevelt sevelt tax 11 merely touched the crowd that could stand it 11 best we will hear much about federal taxes from now on they are ilk likely ely to become the subject of a notion nation wide debate and the next administration may hang on the public esi eslami lm 1100 of the present tax program yet it Is ilic be state and local taxes which take most of tile the american taxpayers money the ilme limelight light of publicity Is directed toward the federal budget while the local till tax I 1 gatherer gets his enormous share in the alie dark of the noon moon nor is there any science about local taxation the federal government without the emergency temporary items costs about a year our state governments cost about a year while our local governments tile cities anil and towns cost about rich rach one of these figures lias has increased tremendously in the past decade aind tire reason of course Is tile the increase in population and the demand for better and better serece sen ice on tile tha part of government schools streets hospitals prisons welfare worl work police and fire departments are all on higher standards giving more service to more people and likewise the stole state and federal governments are expanding their activities at the demand of the people themselves the outstanding crudity or of our system Is the fact that various layers of government are arc superimposed one on top of the other on tile the taxpayers americans have the federal state and county governments goern ments on their bucks backs all of them costing money and in in ill stances giving duplicate se sen nices ices while the tax ta gatherers dance a war dunce dance around certain outstanding taxable sources probably the best known target of tile the tax tai gatherer Is gasoline in many instances we pay as much for the state and federal and sometimes local gas tax ta as we pay for the gaso line ine itself there are other kotlier ions such as income taxes where state and federal governments both bolh get fi a whack inheritance and estate taxes and taxes on admissions to tb theaters eaters on in liquor and tobacco actually there are instances where federal and state taxes hit the same article I 1 am told old by the council of state governments but the examples mentioned are the he best known A sharp reduction id local taxes would be a fine thing for general I 1 business there cannot bo be any tremendous cut in federal taxes we may mock knock off a high bracket here and there here but we have so many billions of if fixed charges that it will be embar assing to expect much of a reduction BIG BUSINESS SQUEALS although roosevelt Ruo sevelt saved tile the business world from collapse and restored industry to activity on a safer basis and a higher moral plane the group known as big business now decrees Roose Roosevel veles ts defeat they charge that roosevelt hurts business and that the obvious business recovery occurred in spite of the new deal not because of it none of this in my opinion Is true business over the years of the past century has eventually confessed that reform measures were just what the doctor ordered but they vare ware taking the dose they squirmed and idled like little boys taking bitter medicine jackson was opposed by big business which wanted the banking privileges for its own lincoln was opposed by big business theodore rodsevelt Kon Ron sevelt putting over his antitrust laws the pure food and dru drug act federal inspection of meat cleaning up the filthy stockyards stock stok yards was at I 1 tricked with unheard of fury by the same interests in fore ats now launching an assault upon the present roosevelt they used politics and dirty gossip on theodore I 1 roosevelt just as on franklin roosevelt but you cannot find end a business man mail in the country today who does not accept the standards raised by theodore roosevelt as splendid american practice even now wall street Is thankful for the betterments to the federal reserve system and for the securities and exchange isach inge commission which this administration created for cleaner strick stock selling find and to protect the public from the sharks who always prey on the unsuspecting and unan strutted ted casual investor roosevelt has made it hard bard to sell crooked stock 0 a 0 POWER TRUST propaganda the propaganda against roosevelt on tills this business matter has been inspired by the public utility holding comps companies nies commonly called the power trust which has liked balked b at accepting tile ahe strict regulations imposed by the wheeler rayburn act which includes tile the so called death sentence for useless and crooked holding companies there are only a handful of com coin panics so crooked and useless that tile tha death sentence will be passed upon them but nevertheless the whole company of ut utility clity magnates with the possible exception of the telephone people stand up with the crooked power people in dealine de tiance e of government this Is 14 one more phase of tin the great light fight which has been brewing for 25 years ind and which will some day have to be waged to deter determine mind wil who 7 runs this government the power trust or the HIP people it Is that til it as the various utilities und and their holding companies refuse to register with the securities and exchange commission more and wore inore towns and cities enter into contracts with ith the TVA for government power and electric light at low rates latest important city to adept TVA service Is memphis tenn business men dien are fright pried at the idea of the distributing power but there never would have been a TVA biad it not been for the be d d attitude altitude of a large section of th tha a utility business busine 9 nor would there have been a federal holding company y re regulatory u law with its death sentence c e hail had not the power trust invented spurious cor ions to defy state and take of millions of dollars dollar over find and above all dividends for the personal benefit berie fit of a handful of financiers 0 biorn newspaper union 1 |
