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Show Economic Highlights Happening: That Affect the Dinner Pall', ivido!id f. ij.t-i k ; and Tax BliU ii Every lc,Ai i. Nuiioiil and Interaiiiio.i irrtlenii insip-arable insip-arable from Local Wclfar-. The president's i.ew tax pre gram was gT.ted with air.aezm' nt by the-hat'er. the-hat'er. including practically Con-gre Con-gre i ma i. save fcr the Administra-ticn Administra-ticn floor-leadei-s who he.d been informed in-formed cf what was tnming. Th.- amazement was due less to the term ; of the program, than to the fa t that the President should put it f. ward far consideration at this Cot gr--:.:ioxal. ses-ion, which air-ady lar behind schedule, is lghcci down v ;th half a dozen or other propcsols of the- first im-pcrrance, im-pcrrance, and w'i'cli seoms to have 1 Uic- ehance cf adjourning before th ruddle of e ateir.ber, in spite cf i;'du trys debci't wish thtt it would wind up its bu' iness and go homo. Experts say that it would take at lea't a month to properly dray such a bill as the President nroocsr. and as much or more time to get iE through the Congress. The President's plan belongs in the "share-the-wealth" category. It nclud s increa'ied income taxes in th higher brackets, and stiffer corporation, cor-poration, gift, inheritance and estate iax-.ii. Ar.d it would do away with tax-eexemption cf government bonds. Of great gignificancei was the at-li.ul' at-li.ul' cf the pmcipal American newspapers, all of which exiressed their views in editorials on the following fol-lowing day. The more rxtreni" opposition pa-1 pa-1 :r5 said that the President s iro-pcsal iro-pcsal definately ahgned him with th left-wing Long-Coxighlin .'chocl of natonal economy. Midd'e of the grou"d papers, for the most part, simply said they believed the bill was wrong in principle, and that the President was tre lading on dangerous dan-gerous ground. Some papers were mon-ccmmittal, pi ai ing prtEl ol'i lite plan and criticizing other parts, liclativ ly few papers approved of the propaal in toio. Representive e.pinion was txpre fe1. -v the Atlanta Atlan-ta Con tildticn. which said that the plan "conflicts, with the promise cft-ilepeated that there would be no tax increases during this session of Congress .... For Congrese, to re-ma re-ma n in session for the length of time neces aery to enact the program . . . would be a national calamity." Many observers sad that the higher taxes on income', etc.,. would simply stifle industrial initiative, frighten inverters, and thus further retard rcccvery- On the ether hann, the majority cf commentators seem r. is v.ei the viobisWis for taxing zi. iTLfi.c-iit iiecuntus. Senator Byrd :f Vngrda, a ccii.-rvative Detno-L-ri-t. at onoe introduoed a bill ana a consUiuticnal amer.dment to make tnt possible. All in all, response to the bill is net what the Pre idrnt might have xp e'ed and it is eextremely doubtful doubt-ful if he will b? able1 to muner his usual Ccngi essicnal support beliind it. CoeegTessmen are being de'ug-ed with 1 ttens pret'sting the existing burden cf taxation, and they will na'.urally be charry cf increaeing it further. In the opinion cf the well-informed well-informed Wall Street Journal, the bill will go into committee, will be tT.Ci3.t':d as if it were on the "mubt" li:t of the current session but will be put over until rrxt year when it is found that it will necessitate too lenp, a delay. There was one other important l'gi lative act luring the week in review. The- Houe Committee came cut with approval of a Puglic Utility Holding Company bill which is in sharp contrast with the bill that pass d the Senate. Wh're the latter lat-ter prcvided for the iliminaf cu of hclding companies the House measure meas-ure prcpcsri: te stringently regulate them. Immrdiate rel ult of this was a rise? in utility secuiity value. On June 15, a number of notes went out from the Stab-i Department Depart-ment in Wash'lrgton. Addressed to the principal foreign powers, they pol't'ly informed tfrre-m that th'ir annual installments on the war debt were due airnd payable. A5 everyonei knew, all the not's, with a : ingle exception, represented a waste of postage and effort. EveTy major pow'r owing this country money had previously informed us, direc'.ly cr indirectly, that the: installments in-stallments would not be paid. Excepticn, ale in the past, was Pin-land, Pin-land, which remitt'd iters $165,453. It in doubtful if anything in history has done so much to promote respect fcr that little nation in the Uni.ed Stat's as its promp'ne s in meeting its d tot. The Senate showed its gratitude by pas ing a bill to appropriate appro-priate $300,000 fcr erection of a diplomatic and consular building in H is ngfors. America male war loans to twenty naticl's. for a total of $10,338,000,000. $2,747,000,000 of that has been returned. re-turned. However, overdue interest payments continue to increase the debts which will probablv remain forever in the category of repudiated obligations. During May, the long-lagging construction industry reached its high po'nt of the year. Residential awards were larger than for any month in 3Vi years and ran 81 percent per-cent ahead of a year ago. In spite of thf lack of public works building, r-bn-Wisderillial construction registered regis-tered a 22 per cent advance over April. |