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Show ; o y (RL-lL-ast-d by Western Newspaper Union.) SHOULD BE DIRECT, NOT INDIRECT TAX WHEN WE TAX business we tax production and distribution. When we tax production and distribution, we tax the consumer. This is the hidden tax we hear about. Taxes are a part of the cost of production and distribution. They are a part of the cost of a product. That additional cost is added to the selling price of the product, or prevents pre-vents a lowering of the price if economies econ-omies of production would otherwise lower it. If business production and distribution dis-tribution did not pass on to the consumer the increased cost occasioned occa-sioned by taxes, business would soon be bankrupt and the consumer would lose by a loss of jobs. We are all a part of American business and all are dependent on its continued operation. All of us are concerned directly or indirectly with production and distribution. When the politicians tax business directly, they tax all of us indirectly in-directly as much, or more, than any direct tax would have amounted to. Politicians looking to their personal per-sonal future a continuance of their jobs attempt to mislead the mass of Americans by boasting of their intention to take from business the money needed to pay for the extravagances extrav-agances of government, and they succeed in putting over such a misleading mis-leading Idea. Men well versed in finance and Industry, well qualified to speak on the subject, tell us that before we are through with the present world holocaust the federal government will be facing an indebtedness of $150,000,000,000, a sum so great that it is impossible to conceive what it means. In the face of such a prospect, congress does not attempt any economies in the normal operations opera-tions of the government. Despite the fact that more than a million men are now in the armed forces of the nation, that industries engaged in providing implements of preparedness for ourselves and war materials for England are providing provid-ing work at high wages for millions of men, and seeking more help, our relief costs do not come down. We are still spending billions for relief. The politician is not willing to say to those who prefer the meager living liv-ing a government dole provides to working for a better living that they must either work or starve. The receivers re-ceivers of relief vote, and the politician poli-tician will not jeopardize that vote. We must prepare for defense. We must have battleships, airplanes, tanks, merchant ships, all the implements im-plements needed for war. But we must also prepare for the future and it will be a dark future if we are to face a national indebtedness indebted-ness of $150,000,000,000. Congress should economize in every practical and possible way, and it should levy an honest tax and collect it in an honest way so each individual may know what he pays a direct instead of an indirect tax. PIONEER SPIRIT STILL ALIVE ORANGE, CALIF., is a little city of 8,000 people, typical of the Golden state. It was founded by pioneers who stopped there when it was but a crossing place of trails. Many of its first generation of settlers are still living. They knew it when the spot on which the city stands and all the surrounding country was a sandy desert. Their children see it today as a modern small American city, enjoying all the advantages America offers and surrounded by well-kept, prosperous farms, ranches and orange groves. But the younger element is not permitted to forget its pioneer origin. I witnessed the parade that is a part of each annual harvest festival. The outstanding features of that parade were the covered wagons of the pioneers, the prospector and his burro, the cart of the pioneer peddler ped-dler and handyman every possible display of the hardships and simple pleasures of the pionaer as the foundation on which the city was built. Interspersed with these were the brightly uniformed bands, many of them from the various county high schools, each led by high-stepping girl majorettes, and with modern mod-ern floats representative of city industries in-dustries and institutions. But it was the evidences of the pioneer days that appealed to the people and caught and held the crowds. These displays represented the spirit that is back, not of Orange only, but of all the towns and small cities of the West. That pioneer pio-neer spirit is not dead, and will not die. It is the American spirit. OUR DEBT THEY TELL US that to maintain a democracy it is essential that the citizens be informed. One of the things we should like to be accurately accu-rately informed about is what we owe nationally, including the liabilities liabili-ties of the numerous corporations corpora-tions and administrations we have financed and whose debts we have guaranteed. HOW MUCH would a real growl from the Russian bear frighten the Nazi wolf? |