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Show The Observations Of Ml Jones Inflation Arrives Inflation is upon us. It is right before your eyes in the building boom. The Federal Government is buying foods and materials for shipments abroad and paying unreasonable un-reasonable high prices. Vood at the local grocery and at hotels and restaurants is still, being pushed to new highs by the Government Gov-ernment itself. Spending is at a peacetime high. Nearly every branch of trade is getting a slice out of today's boom. "New Look" For Highways But Watch The Designers The fashion designers of New York and Paris have bedecked the distaff side of our population with longer skirts that are said to give them (the girls, that is) a "new look." And if there is any truth to the rumors we hear from the very chic fashion circles of Fifth Avenue and the Rue de la Paix, the men are eventually going to get a "new ' look" in clothes, too. Well, there are a lot of "new looks", in the offing for a lot of things and one. of the important ones is apt to be in our highways. high-ways. We use the word "apt" advisedly and with considerable reservation because many tilings can happen between the: time the motorist - taxpayers hand over their gasoline and other automobile automo-bile taxes to the tax collector and the time they are "invested" for them by the authorities. After years-'of war service during dur-ing which they received little in the way of .repair, our highways rightfully deserve a "new look" and there is no earthly reason why they shouldn't have it. Gasoline Gaso-line tax collections have reached unprecedented heights,', motor vehicle registrations have made an unexpectedly early comeback after a natural wartime slump, and road fund prosperity reigns throughout the land. With this healthy condition, highway requirements re-quirements can be bountifully fulfilled without a single new tax or a single increase in an. old one being levied against highway high-way users. " Motor vehicle owners have paid dearly for roads and they should have them. But there is a caution which they should heed. They should look below the surface of present highway plans before accepting them as the gospel truth on what is best for the highway system. For in many of these plans one finds clever designs" to advance the sale of more and more road contracts con-tracts at a cost of more and more money to the taxpayers contracts con-tracts that in many cases do not render a fair return on road in- wctmonfi: Cunningly conceived, these tactics tac-tics usually take the form opro-pagandizing opro-pagandizing highway users ,'mto believing that they need more highways than they actually do. After this belief is established, they are then sold the idea of submitting to higher automotive tax rales which, add another weight to the already heavy burden bur-den they are carrying. It simply boils down to a singularly sin-gularly crafty means of hoodwinking hood-winking taxpayers into thinking that higher taxes arc- needed to finance roads. In this way, those who reap the money benefits from road-building may selfishly selfish-ly go on building . roads limit-lesssly limit-lesssly "and extravagantly" with little thought of giving taxpayers a fair return on thei.r highway tax dollars..' To those who would give their highways a "new look" at a cost they can truly afford 'to pay, there is this word of warning: Don't be misled. Know what's behind highway plans and, above all, keep an eye on the designers de-signers who make the plans. It is your right and duty. American Business Wage control as rell as price control still has the jitters. Rent control seems likely to be continued through the coming com-ing year. New anti-trust laws vWll attempt to shap plans to divide di-vide up scarce materials but not to fix prices. All forms of transportation except ex-cept the shipping industry have been given green lights so far as Government regulations are COn- cerned. Fish Is "Turkey" At Christmas Christmas may mean a turkey dinner with all the trimmings to most Americans, but to many of those whose recent ancestry goes back to foreign lands, fish is "turkey." In Scandinavian communities throughout the United States, the proper celebration of the Christmas Christ-mas and New Year holidays includes in-cludes the serving of "lutcfish" in large quantities. Lutefish or call it "Lutefisk" or "Norwegian "Norweg-ian turkey" is served as the I main dish at community suppers in churches and lodges or in private pri-vate homos by persons of Norwegian, Nor-wegian, Swedish, or Danish descent. |