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Show Released by Vestern.Newspaper Union. V. S. LAND PURCHASES FOSE SERIOUS PROBLEMS SIX BILLION DOLLARS bought a lot of land. That represents the expenditure of the federal government govern-ment for real estate from 1941 to July, 1943. With such a sum, or to be exact, with $6,447,407,000, the government gov-ernment purchased 47,000 square miles, 30,080,000 acres of land. According Ac-cording to Senator Byrd, the government's gov-ernment's present holdings of real estate total 395,978,724 acres. That would cover the total area of all six of the New England states and all of New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, West Virginia, North and South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Ohio, Illinois Il-linois and Indiana the land equivalent equiva-lent of 20 of our states. Of the purchases made between 1941 and '43, the Federal Real Estate Es-tate board, a government bureau, estimates a "fair market value" of the land purchased to be $4,554,543,-000. $4,554,543,-000. The government paid a total of $1,892,864,000 more than the land was worth. That represented government gov-ernment generosity to the extent, of some $63 an acre, but the purchasing purchas-ing agent was not spending his own money. When congress gets down to an investigation of war expenditures, as it will some time, we may know how much of those more than 30 million acres were not needed. There were undoubtedly some mistakes made. The sooner they are discovered discov-ered and the unneeded land is again in the hands of private owners, producing pro-ducing food for the world, the better it will be for all. The American people are called upon to provide the close to 6 billion bil-lion dollars to pay for those more than 30 million acres of land, but that is not the end of their obligation. They must also pay an increased state and local tax rate to make up the loss that federal ownership owner-ship of this land causes to state and local tax revenues. The purchase of that more than 30 million acres meant a loss in state and local tax revenues of $89,302,000 each year. That loss is shared by all of the states, ranging from $103,-000 $103,-000 for little Delaware to $6,453,00C in California and $8,907,000 in New York. It took $4,972,000 out of the local and state tax revenue of thinlj populated Arizona, $3,522,000 out ol Nevada, $4,112,000 in Massachusetts, $2,904,000 in New Jersey, $2,228,000 in Illinois. In every state the local and state governments must gel along with less revenue or people ol the state must pay more because ol the purchase of that more than 3( million acres by the federal government. govern-ment. That tax revenue loss will continue until that land is again in the hands of private owners. What would we do for local anc state tax revenue if the federal government gov-ernment owned all the land and all the industries? PRODUCTION OF SCARCITY AND OF PLENTY AS A CURE for the depression, tt insure the return of prosperity, we were told to restrict our productior of wheat, corn, cotton and othei crops. We destroyed millions oi pigs. We borrowed hundreds of mil lions of dollars with which to paj farmers for the crops they did nol raise all for the purpose of producing pro-ducing a scarcity out of which prosperity pros-perity was to be created. The waj came and with it an ever-increasinf demand for production and more production. That production did the job scarcity had failed to accom plish. Now Vice President Wallace telli us that by maintaining or increas ing that wartime production througt the postwar peace time years, we will be so prosperous that we wil find no difficulty in carrying the financial load the war and its after math will have built. He says i' will mean taxes of some 45 billior dollars a year for us to pay, anc that we can easily do that out oi our production income if we keej up the production. Personally ; agree with the need for the postwai production which the vice presideiv voices, but "consistency, thou ar a jewel." WITH OUR AMERICAN Genera! MacArthur commanding in Australis and the South Pacific, our America! General Eisenhower commanding ii the Mediterranean, our Americat General Marshal commanding ir Europe, it would seem to be prettj much our American commandec war. With the help of Russian gen erals, the British navy and air force our generals and our armed force; are doing a good job. A 15-YEAR-OLD BOY, living a' home, was seeking a job for the school vacation period. A prospec tive employer asked what wages h would expect "I have been offeree a job at $25 a week but think ." ! should have $30," the boy replied ; He got the job at $30 and it will b. i an expensive job for that boy. Som day the war will be over. Help wil not be scarce. There will be a vas : difference between wartime ant j peacetime demand. That boy wil I object to working for a boy's wage: in peacetime days. |
