Show 0 national topics interpreted by william bruckart national press washington D C washington his name will mean little to anyone except the rather w alde ide circle ot of Sw Siv artys friends and busl busi story ness associates who admire his courage and thrift since there are hundreds of thousands like him in this country I 1 will identify him by his nickname I 1 have known him some ten or eleven years as a friend and a neighbor a fellow who could be properly called the salt of the earth Sw artys story Is most interesting because it illustrates a condition he was the tha son of a country doctor in his early twenties he became a traveling salesman his personality and his ability carried above the ranks of 0 the average or der taker he saved his money he and his wife inherited a few thousand dollars each from their respective fathers went int into 0 busness business for himself here in wa washington shine the business prospered to the extent that had bad built up a backlog of savings as a reserve and had bought his own home a modest place 7 they are a happy little family and in that as well they are like hundreds 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 re serve so that there could be something on which to draw again it 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 lie allows himself tor for managing the business and besides all of these he has the strictly local taxes of the district of columbia amon among these of course is a tax on the little home that he owns a business privilege tax which assesses him a certain percentage of his total receipts a license tax for the privilege of doing business a tax on his motor cars which he uses in his business bus iness 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 be 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 tor for christmas and there were three diff different erent 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 of taxes that t I 1 am concerned with inthis s story of his affairs are the taxes s 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 h hire ir e them now however because becaas e the margin of profit available to him Is small he has to accomplish as much with six men as he u used sed to with eight or nine or ten in order to make a living out of the business for himself and his family famil Y I 1 recounted the details of his own business to me about the time that the great westinghouse corporation ot of pittsburgh made public its tax story in substance and in in brief westinghouse pointed out that its tax obligations had bad in creased from around two million dollars eight years ago to something over sixteen million dollars in fed oral eral payments in the last year ir in the years 1935 1936 and 1937 th the taxes paid by westinghouse were wen held to have been sufficient to have hav maintained about additional addi tiona workers on the payroll I 1 know that someone will retort that a great corporation like westinghouse In ought to pay big taxes there can be no doubting the truth ot of that assertion but there is a much graver condition shown by exposition of 0 the tax affairs of the big business of westinghouse and Sw artys little business the only difference between the problems ot of the two is that being a little fellow Is not slapped clapped and cuffed and called crooked by the demagogues Sw artys government Is doing to him however exactly what Is being done to westinghouse by same authority thus I 1 believe it Is fair to con elude that these two cases illustrate beyond possible refutation how government has become how its machinery has grown to a point almost beyond comprehension these two cases among tens and tens of thousands show ahoi v what the ship of state is costing indeed I 1 feel more and more that it if we have a ship of 0 state it Is leaking so badly that half of the taxes collected how flow into the oce ocean an of ineffectiveness and econ economic ornic waste the condition obtains from the smallest unit of township ip administration to the doors of congress and the white house in washington we are into a new session 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 tor for cultivation except that members ot of the house and some 30 odd senators face primaries and elections that fact alone provides the answer to many things you 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 polities 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 con gress some time ago it will be recalled the president said with emphasis that the budget must be balanced this year that spending ot 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 ito I 1 it seems however they are laughing out ot of the other side of their mouth now because suddenly the politicians discovered that if the budget were brought into balance great 9 gobs of political pap patronage and projects would have to be eliminated there was a reaction to the presidents 1 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 slowing down in road building but members of 0 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 hauling and filling but if congress really 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 information in format ion I 1 am informed as to how halt half a billion dollars ot of new deal experiments could be eliminated and our united states would never miss a single one of them 1 I do not 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 would kill and pass the legislation legislation that would eliminate the spending and bring a balanced budget by so doing he has dodged all of the backwash from local politicians of his own machine 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 Grcen greenbelt belt t that h a t blight over model community greenbelt erected by the distinguished re r 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 the me tenants did not read the fine print of their leases too late they learned that the fine print prohibited them fr from om hav having ing dogs or any kind of pets I 1 understand there has been a bit of bootlegging of 0 pets but anyway there is a prohibition against such things now however a great movement is under way in green greenbelt belt petitions are in circulation demanding that landlord uncle sam change the lease I 1 one never knows where such things will lead 0 western newspaper union |