Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 21 November 1950 — Page 16
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Business Manager Tuesday, Nov. 21, 1950
Ta woes ax» ’ fasial gone 4 9. V "Sember oi
Scripps-Howard ey All it Bureau of Cireulations
Price In on County 3 sen ws a copy lor asily ang ioe for Bopday: Ma elivers by carrier datly and Sunday. 350 dally only. 25¢. Sunday only 10¢ Mall rates daily end Sunday, $10.00 a vear daily 35.00 a year. Sunday y. $5.00: all other states U 3 possessions. Canads ane exico. dally §1.10 » month. Sunday 10e a coDy
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' EL seripes ~ WowaRD |
Trading With the Enemy
CRIPPS-HOWARD Reporter Jim G. Lucas, writing from
the Far East, gives a striking account of heavy traffic
in strategic materials between Red China and the British ports of Hong Kong and Singapore. These are the highlights of Mr. Lucas’ charges: . _An estimated 75000 tons of structural.steel have been shipped to the Chinese Communists from Hong Kong in the last two months. The chairman of the Hong Kong Export Association boasts that “recently increased demands by the Chinese Communists for war and strategic supplies—have expanded exports to China, and in consequence, prices for exportable goods have seen great improvement.” Airplane parts, on the blacklist, are shipped as automobile parts. Heavy shipments of rubber, tin, copper and aluminum go to Red China from Singapore, even though Communist forces are ‘a serious threat to
- Malaya. : "8 ; i nen
“SOME of that war material moves back into Malaya from China to equip and supply the Malayan Reds,” Mr. Lucas writes. “A few hours after Mr. Lucas’ account was relonsed. Sen. O'Conor of Maryland charged that large quantities of steel recently had been shipped to Communist China and Hong Kong from American ports. Sen. O'Conor based his charge on secret testimony made before an investigating subcommittee which he heads. He said the steel sheets, some of which were tin-plated, ‘were of a type considered second grade in this country. But he emphasized that the materials easily could be turned to war uses. © Sen. O'Conor has asked the Commerce Department to place the second-grade steel plates on its list of controled exports and thus prevent additional shipments to the Chinese Reds. That should be done promptly. As to the shipments of structural steel from Hong Rong and Singapore to the Chinese Communists, it should be made clear just what kind of understanding there is between the American and British governments about such transactions. : & » LJ : : » - = IF THERE is important traffic in war materials between Red China and Britain and this country, the State Department must know about it, in which case the remedy" is here at home. If such business has been going on behind the State Department's back, then there are woeful defi-
~_ giencies in our intelligence services.
Red China has been waging war against our forces in "Korea since Oct. 20, according to Gen. MacArthur. A United Nations embargo should have been declared against Red China the moment that attack was confirmed—and, in any event, should be declared now.
"About Business Taxes 1 "HERE seems to be no real argument among -adminis- = tration and business spokesmen on the proposition that business should pay higher taxes to help meet the rising cost of the Korean Aghting and the threat of World War IIL > - The argument is over “Sow ‘the ‘taxes should be levied. : ~The administration asks what it calls an excess profits tax. This, in brief, would declare a corporation's normal income to be only three-fourths of its actual average in the pre-Korean period, and would tax all income in excess thereof at a rate of 75 per cent. Since corporations earning no more or even less than their average would thereby pay an ‘excess profits” tax, the term Shyiously .i8 a misnomer. Business spokesmen suggest the goversnient could get just as much revenue from business, with less damage ‘to productivity and new industries, by’ merely adding the _ required number of . percéntage points to the present straight - corporate income tax ‘rate of 45 per cent. Thereby, all corporate income would be more heavily. taxed, without. an attempt to define what. is or is not. “excess.’
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MANY the. complexities. of this. ‘dispute could be pli the administration would. first “make up ifs mind whether it is dealing with an all-out war emergency. “If it ig, it should take decigive action in. many other fields. It should stop all deferable non-defense spending. It should make all taxes. as B. M. Baruch suggested; ‘higher than a cat's back.” It should use the powers Congress has voted to place a ceiling on all prices and wages and salaries. It should move more rapidly to curb pr oduction of peacetime " goods, convert to war production, and spend the money Congress already has appropriated for rearmament to meet . the emergency.
From that premise, and with. that approach—which is __
what this newspaper has advocated since the first shot was fired in Korea—an excess profits tax would make more sense. : But in most fields other than business taxation, the ~ goyernment has pursued a dilly-dally. policy. It has not .-glashed deferable spending, has not seriously proposed adequate taxation to meet budgeted expenditures, has permitted wages and prices to rise unchecked, and has urged expansion of peacetime production on the theory that we can afford both guns and butter.
” = " = =» » ACTUALLY, so far this fiscal year, the government. has spent no more on defense than in the comparable eriod last year. The administration apparently has been its sluggish way on the assumption that there is ttle immediate danger of an all-out war, that we are now only in the initial stages of a prolonged cold-war tension, to be punctuated by hot flashes of police action, and that d better pace ourselyes for the long haul. - . This newspaper, regretfully, has been unable to accept rosy outlook. But we must say that. from what the administration's - own . premises, the have the better of the tax argument when reverie should be obtained by an
. railroads,
GoLD
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BEHIND AMERICA'S BACK
Steel From England, West Europe Finds Way To China | Reds wht :
TAIPEH, Nov. 21—An ‘estimated 75,000 tons of structural steel has heen shipped into Red China from Hong Kong in the last two months. The bulk of it was bought in England and _ other Western European countries, Very little of it comes from the United States. : When a London newspaper charged recently that the British crown colony was Red China’s principal supplier of war goods, Hong Kong professed. to be indignant. But a reputable busi-
nessman assures me he has seen bills of lading *
for 35.000 tons of steel shipped into Red China from Hong Kong in a three-week period of last month.
The British colony's attitude toward Red:
China is difficult for Americans to understand.
Last week the Hong Kong Standard carried a’
long interview with Yuen King-sang, chairman of the Hong Kong Export Association,
Decline of Exports MR. YUEN ,-tionalist ‘blockade of Red China ports had “brought about a decline of Hong Kong's export activities.” But he added: ‘Recently in-
creased demands by the Chinese Communists .
for war and strategic supplies , . . expanded exports to China, and in consequence, prices for exportable goods have seen great improvement.” However, Mr. Yuen’'s optimism was under control. He admitted it was too early to say that “a turn for the better” in export business was in sight, Recently another Hong Kong newspaper editorially remarked that the fact Chinese Communists were killing British soldiers in North Korea had no bearing on England’s recognition of Red China, The fact was irrelevant, the paper said, because the Tommies weren't in Korea under the British flag. They were fight-
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CORPORATIONS . .. By Earl Richert
Excess Profits Tax Too Unfair?
WASHINGTON, Nov. 21—Corporations say they are willing to pay whatever extra taxes Uncle Sam says they should. © They're not arguing about the amount of
dollars, What they're fighting with all their might is the method proposed for collecting them —the so-called excess profits tax.
What are the arguments against the administration’'s $4 billion excess profits tax proposal, which would tax corporate earnings above a
fixed base at a rate of 75 per cent? Here are some: ONE: Such a ‘tax fosters waste and inefficiency. A corporation gets no reward if, by
keeping costs down and increasing ‘efficiency, it is able to increase its profits sharply. Hence, there is little reason to try to keep costs down. Most businessmen contend the government would do better by increasing flat corporation taxes enough to get the extra money desired. The Committee for Economic Development proposes an increase from the present 45 to 53 per cent tax rate on corporations. Under this system
+ the government would be saying to corporations
that they could keep 47 cents out of every $1 of profits and there would bé more incentive to cut costs, TWO: The excess profits tax feeds inflation. Since there is little incentive to keep costs low, the corporations spend more for all sorts of things—travel for executives, hotel rooms, entertainment for guests, advertising, etc. This pours more money into the spending stream at a time when spending should be held down. It would take an army of internal revenue agents to keep corporations from “doing what former
OPA Chief Leon Henderson terms “expensing the excess. THREE: It stifles growth. Since Uncle Sam
will take practically all of what profits can be made through expansion, why should a company try to grow? And what the country needs is an expansion of production facilities. Venture capita) dries up, too, when a ceiling is put on incentive to expand. FOUR: World War 1I .only one out of every six corporations that earned any income paid an excess profits tax. Many large industries, such as escaped with paying little, if any, excess profits tax, although their profits soared. So many exemptions and provisions for relief must be written into any excess profits tax law. that litigation lasts for years #Afterward. At
“the beginning of World War II, there were-still
a number of claims pending for relief from the World War 1 excess profits tax. And now, five. years after repeal of the World War II tax, there are still. some 15.000 relief cases pending, involving more than $4 billion.
What are the arguments for the excess profits tax? . Treasury Secretary John Snyder says the tax as proposed by the administration ‘is
It is more selective and places the ‘tax burden on prosperous businesses, A flat increase in corporation - taxes, he said, would impose particular ‘hardship on. corporations whose profits are declining. - : Mr. Snyder says the Internal Revenue Rureau is better prepared now than in World War II to police the excess profits tak. He also savs, the law could be improved enough to prevent repetition of the 55,000 claims for relief filed. from the World War II tax,
more ‘equitable.”
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AVASHINGTON. ¥ov
is raising a question, in the words of Sen.
was complaining that the Na-
It is discriminatory and unfair. In-
world;
. . By Charles T. Lucey “Millionaire” Politics — Marked ’50 Campaign
21 ~~ Reports indicating that recent Congressional election campaigr® was the most costly on record Guy Gillette whether * only millionaires can be members of the United States
By Sim G. Lucas
ing—and losing their lives—as United Nations troops, the editorial pointed out. Hong Kong maintains a “positive” blacklist of several thousand items which can’t be sold to Red China. But it's farcical. Certain kinds of steel can’t be shipped because they might be used to make arms. But structural steel is not on the list. With China's reserves of manganese and other alloys it's not difficult to convert structural steel into a grade suitable for weapons. Airplane parts are also on the blacklist but a Hong Rong trader put it this way:
“What's to prevent plane parts from being
declared as automobile parts, which aren't on
the list? ‘And as a practical measure, who's going to check them?” 2
Occasionally a shipment is stopped. One wis halted in August, another in September. In both cases aircraft parts were listed as auto
>. parts. They were confiscated. But this is an
exception rather than the rule. ' _ Portugal's colony, Macao, 40 miles from Hong Kong, is reported to be Red China's principal source of aviation gasoline, outside
He Wants Some Pants, Too .
I, FL? a S
PROGRESS
FHIS TIME IT'S : GoT YO BEON witH TWO PAIR OF
. By Frederick C. Othman
This Way You Don’t Have to Burn The Packing; Butter It and Eat It
~~ WASHINGTON; Nov. 21—My favorite sister-in-law in St. Louis is a champion baker of fruitcakes. These fragile confections she's been mailing to the relatives at Christmas for many
years, packed in layers of shock-absorbent popcorn. I usually eat the cake first and then the packing,which she ' thoughtfully butters and salts. It locks like she should have patented the idea, and : if you don't believe this is a topsy-turvy read on: One of the leading drug companies in America, which does not even have a bowing a ¢ quaintance with my sister-in-law, medicine bottles
now is in fresh-popped popcorn; - as ..an economy -measure;
Turns out that popcorn to fill the holes between the bottles weighs one-third less than
shredded paper and thus saves a pretty ‘penny .
in freight bills. What floors me—and should give” pause to Agriculture Secretary Charlie Brannan—is the fact that a 25.cent package of popcorn will do thé work of a dollar's worth of chopped ‘paper.
SIDE GLANCES
(D.-1Ia.),
. give a hoot what the fashion is.
packing - its’
This wholesale druggist, now popping corn at a faster pace than a chain of movie palaces,
is a heartless fellow. Has no regard for the.
boys in the shipping room. Leaves off the
butter and the salt and at the end of the line
- the popcorn goes into the trash barrel. Equally as amazing are numerous other developments in the world of commerce: Lemon juice now is coming frozen in cans. Shampoo is being packed under pressure, like bug bombs and fire-extinguisher fluid. Slot machines are going up all ‘over into which you drop a quarter; out pops an electric razor on a chain, a mirror, and a squirt of after-shave lotion. Last year, you may remember, the. arbiters of fashion persuaded thousands of ladies to cut off their hair. Now these same arbiters inform
« the scalped females that to be in style they
must have long tresses. The only solution 1s what- your mother used to call a switch.
- Silk Like Hair
what it means to be cold . . .
of Russia. Macao has no blacklist, and it's & ° simple matter to relay supplies into China. - Singapore has no blacklist, either. Heavy | shipments of rubber, tin, copper and aluminum go to Red China from Singapore, well-informed commercial sources say, even though Commuist forces are a serious threat to Malaya. Some of that war material moves back into Malaya
from China to equip and supply the Malayan
Reds. Hong Kong of course has its side of the argument. The colony has always been a free port. It depends on trade with the mainland for its existence. There can be no doubt that a majority of Hong Kong's residents detest the Communists and are ashamed of their uncomfortable role. But they ask, what else can we do?
Nothing Unusual MOST Hong Kongers are deseperately afraid of offending the Communists and are almost servile in .dealing with them. They accept un-
- believable insults without protest. Recently John
Keswick, managing director of the Jardine, Matheson and Co. trading firm at Shanghai, started back to Hong Kong with his wife. He
« was “invited” by Communist police to leave the
ship a few minutes before sailing so that “some outstanding questions” could be checked. A week later Mr. Keswick was permitted to sail, without explanation and without being questioned at all. When he arrived at Hong Kong: he angrily insisted that nothing unusual had happened. He stressed that the Communist police were “most polite” in asking him to leave his ship. He said he was ‘not inter fered with in any way.”
fYOOS\E "FORUM
"| do-not-agree with a word that you-say, but | will defend to the death your right to say it."
A Public Service By Theo. B. Marshall, 1114 Tecumseh St. THE Indianapolis Times and Reporter Bob Bourne should be highly commended for their splendid job of investigating and reporting the deplorable treatment received by the aged who,
are ‘inmates of Julietta, under the supervision
of Harry Barrett. This is a service to all the people of Marion County and should be a pattern for all the newspapers of our country as it is surely in the interest of democracy. The Indianapolis Times will no doubt continue opposition to this sort of thing, and should be supported by every citizen of the county, until our prosecuting attorney and the grand jury make a complete investigation of Julietta. It is the indigent people as well as those more favorably situated. It is the duty of the prosecuting attorney to protgct the interests of these indigent People | as well as those more favorably situated. ; °
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THIS brings to light the great fault of our . political practice of rewarding party workers
with patronage jobs without due regard to their fitness for the job. These places should be filled by merit based on qualifications and moral fitness entirely divorced from politics. The evidence uncovered by The Times reporter justifies an assumption of misuse of funds that belong to the people and the people should demand an -accounting of these funds and the meat that was purchased for these people but which they did not get. If evidence warrants any suspect should be tried in our courts and receive a sentence commensurate with the crime and not merely discharged and the thing whitewashed for political reasons.
Army Blunders By a Veteran, City IT MAKES my blood boil to think of the boys in Korea, trying to fight a war when they don!t even have warm clothing. Maybe by now they do, but still there is no excuse for the irresponsible blundering of the Army. I went through the breakthrough and I know to be without proper. clothing. Then -it was unavoidable. It was just one of those things that happened in war time and that you expected to happen. But there are no excuses for the boys going without clothing in Korea. There was plenty of time to get clothing to them before cold weather set in. Too many people thought Korea was a. “three- -day war.’
THESE’ switches are attached to what ts left
of a woman's own hair by means of bobby pins. They long have been made from the hair of European ped##nts. The latter are smart. They get the money for their locks and they don't So it is that a good switch today costs up to $100. And even then it may not be a perfect match.
So now we've got at department store cos-.
metic counters switches made of long strands of silk filaments. This looks like hair, because it comes in 15 shades, ranging from platinyrs -bloMtde to Latin. black. The business in imitation hair is ‘tremendous; I suppose it'll continue to be rushing unti} the female sex’s own hair grows out. "By then shbrt tresses probably will be in style again, but the silk switch still will be handy. A lady can use it to swish flies off her horse, shine her shoes, or dust cobwebs from the ceiling. "I tell you, it's a marvelous world.
By Gelbraith STALLED... By Clyde Farnsworth
How-Long Will Keep Her Eyes shu?
LAKE SUCCESS, Nov. EY the intended mechanism of world security, the Upitéd Nations seems ‘to be stalled on
dead center.
Let's Clean Up Julietta . By Mrs. C. W. Peters, Lebanon THE TIMES -and reporter Bourne are indeed to ‘be .commended for their exposure of conditions in the Marion County Home; however,
.mere words are not enough. After reading each -
of Bourne's series of articles, we discuss the horror of conditions in Julefta, but what is actually being done to alleviate this situation? The same state of affairs has been brought ‘before the public’ many times before and ap~ ‘parently remains as bad as ever. Perhaps if the public were informed as to just how they . could bring about the needed reforms, they would go into action. At any rate, sométhing should be done and done. immediately to relieve thé conditions of malnutrition and filth that have been Shown to exist in Julietta.
So long as Russia and her satellites continue to use it as an instrument of Communist confusion and expansion—which probably will be just so long as they stay in the organization-—
-and that may be as close as any other.
- small states the figure is abh-
~ sonally' may maintain the fice
Senate.” Mr. Gillette {s chairman of a Senate Subc ommittee which has investigated complaints of ir- Today a so-called ‘full iti Senat races . - ; : : regularities. in enate showing” on. billboards in ‘a i f .states. Te J : mn 4 number D3 states > large. state may cost. $30,000 Committee's final report on, <45000 State-wide radio ballot - box trickery. probably
; hookups run quickly into thou-, wi]l be no match for some of
those in ‘past years. But the full story of election campaign’ spending this year will be something else. . Even making allowance for
sande of dollars. high-pressure days the candidate doesn’t turn out single piece of literature telling what a fine fellow he is.
; In Ohid.- fpr example, the prevailing higher costs a Sen. Robert A. Taft forces everything, the advance. indi- turned out bushels of pam-
cat] Tes + cations are that" no off-presi- Balers with such assorted titles
dential year J election ever “Re-Flect Bob Taft—A Man cost more. pe ons a ot o* il Can Trust” “The Veter; w 8 - as to who ah " ’ I iii ig the full * ans and Bob Taft,” "The Vet. amount of campaign spending erans Tomorrow,” *What's never will: be known. One esti- Best for the Ohio Farmer?” mate iz $25 million in Senate “The Railroaders and Bob
and House campaign spending, gape “How the Taft- “Hartley
* Law Protects You." The state was plastered with postcards bearing a likeness of a smiling Taft. Another brochure’ ‘reprinted a Taft foreign : policy speech, Es surdly low. AY candidate per- Sa wa AND oh the anti-Taft sidé; labor politicians came up with a so-called comic book ridicul-
ing the Senator, and With o other. Yisrntury, *
Federal law puts a. $25,000 limit. on the amount a Senatorial candidate may spend, ‘but except perhaps in some
tion of staying under the limit but-a host of committees “working for his election may lay out hundreds of of thousands 5 ot dollars.
And in these
just a
‘sive, and if this trend con-
, COPR. 1980 BY NEA SERVICE. INC. T. W. RE. Us 8. PAT. OFF. Miss Binkson, how about. closing school for a week or-two? | . think wa re getting bored with each other!’ .
“It “is “hardly a healthy thing.” Sen. Gillette, “to see hundreds of thousands of
doliars spent in campaigns for a Senate place that pays $15. 000 a year; : six-year term.”
ér $75.000 over a
“Senate campaigns are becoming tremendously expen-
‘of 1tmited means campaigning
there appears to be three possible trends, order of likelihood: - : ONE: Concessions by t h'e majority to the minority, starting with appeasement of the Chinese Communists, not only in Korea but also by their admission to the United Nations and moves toward a set-
Communist favor. : This wotild provide tentative peace but increase the weight of future demands dnd the likelihood of further concessions. In that way, the future of Europe is related to the pressing issue of Asia. TWO: A stiffening of non - Communist United "Nations membership in the face of Communist extortion. This ‘could come only at the ir diate risk of another orld war, but that is a risk not to bé avoided in any event. THREE: Continued wrangling and stalemate in which the tinue to decline from the peak of power and prestige -which it met the Red challenge
1-24
fof a Sénate seat. The alternative is. contributions from individuals or groups to make up campaign funds—and this - always may imply a later obli- ' become . another - gation. Such a condition means. Nations.
ally the United Nations would
ft will be almost impossible to ~ elect a man to the ate un- certain indication of the United "less he’ lis Inige tude or Nation's future untij after the of large funds.”
= Secure). Council, | By ; J
in the folowing
tlement of Formosa's future in
the
United Nations will conwith in Korea last summer. EventuLeague . of . There is not, likely to be any.
the end of this week, has re-
ceived a delegation of Chines Communists. They are on their way here to elaborate charges of American aggression against China and Korea, i - - » IF THE Chinese Reds should prove ready to accept. a come promise in Korea instead of full withdrawal of United Nations forces, as they have demanded, - there . 18 a strong chance of payoff in the form of a United Nations seat. The United Nations never has dropped its. double-talk long enough to touch the heart of the problem—the international Communist scheme for a new world order. It has shut its eyes to Russian threats to peace which were first plainly paraded in - Manchuria nearly five years ago. A reminder of that willful blindness was the - scheduled representation today of Nation- - alist China's case agaifist the
‘Soviet Union, The China com-
plaint has Iain on the General
‘Assembly’s ‘continuing agenda
for a year. It was set aside by the Assembly last year and. probably will be set aside again
at this session. despite a new’
proposal T. 'F. of the Nl,
nave a Unitas Nutond coms :
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