Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 7 February 1951 — Page 16

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“The Indianapolis Times

A SCRIPPS-HOWARD NEWSPAPER sa ROY W. HOWARD WALTER LECKRONE HENRY W. MANZ . President

Editor Business Manager PAGE 16 Wednesday, Feb, 7, 1951 : CER TL Sr Teg Te

PPS fee and Audit Bureau of Circulations

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Telephone y 5551

Give Light ond the People Will hii Woy

It Can Be Done

THE BAD news from the tax front hit the streets Monday. To raise a fast $10 billion for rearmament, Treasury Secretary Snyder proposed: . . Twenty per cent tax on new autos—up from 7 per cent. Twenty-five per cent on refrigerators, radios, television sets—up from 10. : Ten-cent-per-pack tax on cigarets—up from 7. Double the present 1% cents a gallon tax on gasoline. Twelve dollars a gallon tax on whisky, up from $9, and $12 a barrel on beer—up from $8. And other whopping increases all along the line, including income and corporation tax rates. Well, we've got to dig it up somewhere, if we pay as we go in the defense effort—which is the wise thing to do. But the worrisome fact is that there's a lot of fat in that $71.6 billion budget President Triiman has set up. :

”» s » » ” n @* THE TAXPAYERS could be a lot more cheerful about paying through the nose if they could only be sure their dollars were going for what they intended. Zs Sen. Hubert Humphrey (D. Minn.), a strong administration supporter, says the Truman budget can be trimmed

by at least $2.5 billion; and he puts the finger on a number:

of welfare state items. oo ; Sen. Douglas (D. IIL), another administration supporter, set no specific figure but he's for cutting to the bone in non-essential spending. Sen. O'Conor (D. Md.), says $5.3 billion can be lopped off, and Sen. Byrd (D. Va.), has offered a formula for knocking out $9.1 billion. The U. 8. Chamber of Commerce calls for a $7 billion cut. Strike an average of these responsible, detailed estimates and you get $6 billion. That's approximately what + President Truman proposes to ask for still later. It won't be necessary if Congress saves us the $6 billion. It can be done—if Congress resolutely eliminates or ‘slices huge chunks from a lot of the non-essential items

which Mr. Truman has palmed into the budget, as even his

own backers now acknowledge.

~An Over-All Asian Policy’ ers 2 JOHN FOSTER DULLES, head of the American mission ©" to Japan, has offered that country-—after it regains its -sovereignty-—a collective security treaty with the United States, under which an attack on Japan would result in a U. 8. attack against*“‘the roots of aggression.” If this security program is accepted, “the U. S. would sympathetically consider the retention of U. 8. forces in and ~about Japan,” Mr, Dulles said. * Eventually Japan would be expected to supply its own ground troops, but would continue to depend on the Ameri-

can Navy and Air Force. The U. 8. also would undertake

to pay part of the cost of Japanese rearmament. This part “would be most if not all of that cost, for without its pre- ~ war empire Japan's economy cannot support a real rearma-

“ment program. ’ ” - » » n » WE LIVE in complete sympathy with the objectives of

Much an arrangement with Japan. But is our country in a +7 position to accept this additional obligation, in view of our

. prior commitments elsewhere, without other dependable

+ Asian allies? Moreover, with Manchuria in Communist

hands, it is doubtful whether Japan could survive as an independent nation if Korea and Formosa also were absorbed

©, by the Reds. ~~ Before new commitments of this kind are made in that +’ part of the world the United States should have an over-all

5 "policy for Asia which will make some sense to Asians and

‘Americans alike. This problem is too vast and much too complicated to be dealt with in piecemeal fashion.

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‘We began to build trouble when we abandoned China to the Reds and walked into more trouble by going to the defense of Korea. Our whole position in Asia should be reexamined before we take another big bite which may be more than we can chew or digest. -

- » . ». » THE FUTURE of Formosa is the first issue to be decided. If that island is to be handed to Mao Tze-tung on an appeasement platter, there won't be much point in talking about defending either Japan or the Philippines. Formosa, as Gen. MacArthur has remarked, is an “unsinkable naval and aircraft carrier” almost midway between Japan and the Philippines. The Chinese Nationalist army there is the only substantial force in Asia actively opposing communism. Unless these assets are used to the fullest, it is idle to think about making a stand anywhere in that area.

Graduation Time

For 14 years Uncle Sam has been paying U. 8. farmers to do what they should be doing anyway—terracing, fertilizing, building ponds, planting winter cover crops, ete. All this was supposed-to be edueating farmers to adopt good farming practices, thus benefiting themselves and the country. Well, 14 years is a long time—more than twice long enough for a bright person to go through college and get a degree. ; "We think the farmers are pretty bright fellows who ‘certainly don't need 14 years to learn about good practices in their own business. Certainly their bank accounts are

in good shape, with farm prices averaging 110 per cent of

parity (10 per cent above the so-called fair price level even by the Agriculture Department's rigged formula). How about giving the farmers a degree for this course ‘and turning them out into the cold world? Surely they would do all right.

It would save $285 million a year—enough to buy about 600 medium tanks.

Selling at Cost Iv these times of ever-soaring prices it is rather remark. able to discover one extremely low-priced commodity whose cost has not advanced even a fraction of a cent all during this period of growing inflation. This item is recipes. dor curing inflation. The price remains constant-—a dime ; ai & \ :

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ROME, Feb. 7—Italy will be worthless as a

military ally unless she continues to get Ameri-

can economic aid. She is too weak. This is the attitude of Italian officials, who naturally want all they can get. Of more importance, it is the consensus of Allied representatives and foreign observers here. The usual question of butter versus bullets does not apply. Most Itallans never see butter and have none to give up. The average income is $240 a year, or after taxes only $180. Their problem is to find enough bread to exist. Unless that bread is provided, Italy as an ally will collapse. She would be unable to prop up her peacetime economy, much less produce light armament and supplies for Western Europe as planned. Her anti-Red coalition government would crack. She could not maintain internal security againot the huge Communist fifth column here,

1 Can Get It for You Wholesale"

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A PROBLEM OF BREAD, NOT BULLETS . . . By Ludwell Denny

Italy Is Weak, But Willing

—But-—the American taxpayer may well ask at this point—what about that $2 billion and more we have poured into Italy since the war? Wasn't that to help her become selfsupporting by 1952? The answer is that much has been accom-

plished—agriculture is almost up to prewar and

industrial production is about 20 per cent above prewar, : ! ee ¢ o

ACTUALLY, there was never a chffnce of creating a healthy Italian economy by 1952. The nation was too sick, and still is. Major surgery was required. But that was not desired by the ruling political and economic groups, and it Ras not been tried. _ What has happened -is that repeated blood transfusions in the form of dollars, together ‘with plenty of native pills, have brought the patient to 4 state of precarious convalescence.

A BARREL OF TROUBLE . . . By Frederick C. Othman If We Hike Whisky, Beer Tax Will We Get Bathtub Gin?

WASHINGTON, Feb, 7 — I don’t suppose we'll really get around to taxing the baby's milk, but it begins to look as though we may slap an excise on practically every other fluid, that gurgles down the

except maybe water, human gullet. Honest John Snyder, the Secretary of the Treasury in his dark blue testifying suit, brought this up -before the House Ways and Means Committee when he told how he hoped to pry another $10 billion a year from the rest of us,

He'd boost taxes © on practically every- , thing and everybody, he said in a voice which sounded sad; he'd raise the take N on whisky from $9 to $12 a gallon and on beer from $8 to $12 a barrel. Oops. Rep. John D. Dingell, the Democratic stalwart from Detroit, was amazed. What was Mr. ' Moneybags trying to do to the people, anyhow? . . “It costs 55 cents a gallon to produce whisky today and we tax it 18 times that,” the Michigan gentleman said. “I think that is about the limit. Now you want to boost that tax to 24 times the value of the product. That's going to bring back the bootlegger, the moonshiner, and the smuggler. “It's going to bring back bathtub gin.” Mr. Snyder shuddered at the horrid prospect and started to reply, but Rep. Dingell was just getting a good start: “And look what you want to do to beer,” he said. “Beer is a temperance, food drink. It is the workingman's champagne. I'm going to fight for it. The tax

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right now on beer is out of line.” Furthermore, said Mr. Dingell, thinking out loud, most people take their whisky with bubbly water. “So why not tax that?” he demanded. “And also tax ginger ale and cola?” From the press table came an irreverent suggestion that Mr. Snyder might tax ice, too, but he acted as though he did not hear. “What I mean,” insisted Mr. Dingell, “ig if we're going to tax what people drink, why don’t we go right down the line?” Honest John, who has troubles enough ‘as it is, was having none of that one. He mumbled a soft answer, the gentlemen got into arguments about the more esoteric aspects of the heaviest taxes ever contemplated in America, and Mr. Snyder thought he was through with that soda pop idea. He did not figure on Rep. Herman P. Eberharter, the Pittsburgh Democrat, and his interest in drinkables.

Are Babies People?

“HOW MUCH,” the latter asked, “would a one-cent tax on all soft drinks bring in in a year?” Mr. Synder tried to laugh that one off; said he'd get the figures later, but even as he closed his mouth a busy little man on his right came up with the official U. 8. Tréasury Department. figures on what a penny tax on soda pop might bring in. He thrust them under his boss’ nose. “About $280 million a year from a one-cent tax on soft drinks,” Mr. Snyder read. “That's a pretty good sum,” said Mr. Eberharter, making a note of it. My guess is that we'll have taxes on soda pop; that can lead to taxes on coffee and tea, if we're going to be fair about it. Nobody's mentioned the baby’s milk yet, but I have no doubt that one of the experts eventually will attempt to prove that babies are people, too, and deserving of no special tax exemptions.

punty or prodigious, into what is sometimes moving prose. The net is that Washington isn’t run right and even if the Democrats do anything good they don’t like it. One of the best of these banshees is Nyle M. Jackson, Seymour, who does the weekly wailing from the office of Rep. Earl Wilson, Bedford. r Except for a hitch as a Na. val officer in World War IT, MT, Jackson, like his Congressman, now is serving his sixth term. Also like his boss, he takes a dim view of things here. Some of his reports leave the reader feeling that the only hope forthe country is for the Russians to drop an A-bomb on Washington and let. the people take over from there. . n .

IN A recent screamer the Wilson office had this to say about the preparedness effort: “The. same (irresponsible people with top connections are being assigned to serious and responsible jobs while tent people who would

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So there can be a serious relapse unless the dollar transfusions continue. And, of course, unless the government here makes careful use “of that added strength. Even then there is no guarantee that Italy will become self-sup-in| part Bt there is cogsiderable evidence that Italy always will be weak and in danger until she solves such basic problems as extreme over- . population and mass illiteracy. Unless she can regulate the size of her population to her scarce . natural resources and limited land, and find a fairer distribution of goods for her hard-work- . ing people, she will be permanently dependent on foreign doles and foreign protection,

MEANWHIL American aid Italy has been saved LL en Red dictatorship. She has gained time, She has an opportunity to help defend herself. "Here are some of the achievements:

ONE: The Communist tide has been turned back, It rose perilously high in the winter of 1947-48, It has been countered with more bread and more jobs for the people. At the same time internal security forces have been strengthened inst Red violence. wo: The lira has been almost stabilized. Inflation has been so well controlled that the international economists complain of deflation. THREE: A first halting step has been taken fn tax reform. In theory Italy has had a high income tax rate, but almost nobody paid. To break the national tradition of tax evasion, the new law reduces rates to reasonable levels in the hope that people will make returns and pay —and that the courts will punish dodgers. Unfortunately, the government still has no power to examine bank accounts, so the temptation and scope for evasion is still great. Moreover, the revenue system is still based on indirect taxes which punish the poor. Such taxes were 82 per cent of total tax revenues last year,

FOUR: Excellent progress is being made in land reclamation. Under a four-year Marshall

Plan, already one-fourth completed, more than

800,000 acres are to be reclaimed, 400,000 protected from floods and more than a million

newly irrigated. All of this could be done quick- .

er and cheaper if machinery and dynamite could be used instead of all hand labor, which is the Italian way of reducing unemployment. «. FIVE: The government finally has begun the land tenure reform which it pledged in the election three years ago. It remains the hottest issue in the nation. Half the population must live directly from the land—23 million people for only 40 million productive acres. Survival depends on highly intensive cultivation. Instead, much of the land is in large estates, most of which are poorly farmed. The problem is to switch over to small owners. Two laws have been passed as emergency installments on a general law to come. One covers 180,000 acres in the Sila area of the toe of the Italian boot, and the other a potential million and a half acres in the Po Valley and the South. The plan is to settle about 200,000 landless peasant families. The race is now between land distribution and peasant revolt. There is sporadic violence by conservative Catholic peasants turned Red, who march in and occupy unused acres. : . ; SIX: The increase of steam-generated power ~ from 4 to 14 per cent of hydro-electric production. - Power js the industrial: bottleneck, with

seasonal droughts closing factories dependent

on hydro-electric current.

SEVEN: Reduction of direct governmental

"I do not agree with a word that you say, but ‘Smear Campaign?’

MR. EDITOR: 3

The Welfare investigation has thrown light .on the Welfare Department and there is no doubt that some Welfare policies need to be changed. What interests me most are the tactics being used by the Ways and Means Committee investigating the Welfare Department. Their procedure resembles a smear more than an investigation. Facts have been surrounded with half truths and the true meaning of situations changed. If these legislators really want to save the taxpayers money, why haven't they supported legislation that would penalise welfare chiselers? ¢ @ A STATUTE forcing people, taking welfare funds to which they are not entitled, to pay the money back plus penalties and jail terms would stop welfare chiseling. When sincere administrators are castigated for working within the limits of the laws, rules and regulations governing their departments, it is time to carefully examine their critics and discover their motives.

—~Ralph E. Hanely, DDS, City.

MR. EDITOR:

...I have been stirred by the “current accusations against the County Department of Public Welfare and its director, Mr. John C. Mueller. These attacks have been voiced especially in the Indianapolis Star and before Ways and Means Committee A of the Indiana House of Representatives. Reference has been made to scores of people receiving money from the Welfare Department who have no right to it. I sat-through an afternoon hearing of the Ways and Means Committee when these charges were being hurled. In only one case was A name given so that the facts could be checked. This is also the only case mentioned specifically in demanding Mr. Mueller's immediate resignation. The charge as originally presented in a letter to the Ways and Means Committee was that a man making $77 a week at the Citizens Gas &

By Galbraith DEAR BOSS . . . By Dan Kidney =~

Singin’ the Blues, Those GOP Blues

WASHINGTON, Feb. 7—Indiana has produced such hit song composers as Cole Porter and Hoagy Carmichael, but when it

fuels

To Oppose Reds With U. 5. Aid

-' overpopulation.

. ing the monopoly evil.

administrator, Boyd, defense minerals

subsidies and of government contributions te cover deficits in state enterprises. This drain, which accounted for 13 per cent of all govern ment expenditures two years ago, has been cut in half. ‘ EIGHT: A beginning is being made in re. OFFSETTING these gains are some impo Pe failures: : ONE: Most serious is the fhtiure to stop the population increase. Population density is 372 persons for every square mile, compared ‘with 48 in the United States. The total of 46 million is growing at the rate of half a million a year, faster last year than the year before. Land reform over a period of 10 years cannot take care of more than 500,000 at best. Emigration failed to solve the problem When Mussolini resorted to African conquest, and has failed under the republic because othet, countries are unwilling to take such huge Italian over.

/) WEAK BUT

WILLING

flows. Allowing for returning immigrants, the net migration last year was little more than 100,000. That was 4 per cent less than the year before. : ’ S . The Catholic Church of course opposes birth control. So does the government. TWO: Tiliteracy goes with the poverty of One-third of the ‘people are illiterate; in the south one-half, and in some parts of the south more than three-fourths. Those are the areas in which the Reds have gained most converts among the peasants, This is no basis for political stability of any kind, much less of democracy. THREE: There has been no progress in curbIt is a major cause of industrial inefficiency, excessive production costs and high prices. Tariff walls are higher instead of lower. And the lack of an intelligent mining law, to encourage exploration of natural gas and other subsoil potentials, robs the nation of

its one chance to get at least a few of the

natural resources it sorely needs. : FOUR: Neglect of administrative reform. This is perhaps the government's worst failure within ‘its own bailiwick, its neglect of administrative reform. It has a bloated bureaucracy of ex-Fascists, with many useles§ offices staffed with petty officials and clerks on starvation pay which invites corruption. ¥et the govern‘ment is unwilling to fire them, partly for paftronage reasons and partly for fear.of adding to the two million unemployed.

| will defend to the death your right fo say it."

Coke Utility gets $110 a month from the Welfare Department for the support of his two children. Since a name was given, I have been able to check this charge. Here are the facts which I found. The man in question is not employed by the Citizens Gas & Coke Utility and has not been since Apr. 8, 1950. His weekly wages when he left the company amounted to only $45.60 before deductions—not $77 as stated. Furthermore, he 1s divorced from his wife and the limit of his financial responsibility is set by a court order requiring him to pay $8 a week toward the care of the children,

Now consider the mother involved. She is a diabetic in such an advanced stage of the disease that she has been at times in coma. Unable to work, she must have constant insulin treatment. The monthly grant from the Welfare Department for this woman and her two children is not $110, but $68, which is the legal maximum possible in this case. According to my mathematics, even if the father pays the support money regularly, the total monthly income of the mother and two children is only $102.67. In view of current prices it can hardly

be said that they are livin extravagant! public expense. g 5 y.at

A faithful and well qualified public servant like Mr. Mueller should not be slandered by false accusations.

~Grover L. Hartman, City.

CHARITY

HAVE charity my friend because . . . someday it may be you . .. who's sick and tired, down and ous... and all but nearly through « + have charity and you will know , . . a feeling that’s divine . . . because you've helped another soul... to gain reason and rhyme . .. have charity and you will gain . .. for every 7enny spent... for money spent in such a way +» « is always heaven-sent . . . for though you may have faith and hope . .. and live real honestly ...the greatest virture of them all...

is to have charity. —By Ben Burroughs

James ad-

hasn't made clear his exact plans concerning Korea, West-

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comes to steady mass production of the blues it is hard to beat the Hoosier Republican Congressmen. Each GOP Representative has a competent press secretary who can turn composer and put their bosses’ gripes, whether

this time are cooling their heels in drafty anterooms, unable to get so much as interviews with the big shots who are mismanaging this emergency. “When great industrial leaders, men of decision and action, contemplate the 1Inefficiency, incompetency and the frustrating mental and physical inertia of the people In government with whom they would have to work, they are bound to think better of fit and stay home.” ~ - ” THE Wilson handout failed to take cognizance of Charles E. Wilson, director of defense mobilization, Eric Johnston, economic stabilization admin-

Jstrator, William H. Harrison, '

defense production adminis-

trator, Manly Fleischmann, national production administrator, Cyrus Ching, chair-

man Wage Stabilization Board, James Knudson, defense transportation adminis-

. Reps:

ministrator, Robert Goodwin, director of defense manpower, John. 8mall, chairman Munitions Board, and Thomas B. McCabe, chairman Federal Reserve Board, which 4s In charge of credit restrictions. All are Republicans and men of distinction in American business and industrial life, Such criticism is contagious, however, handouts with the same theme, in varying de-

gree, already are coming from some of the five freshmen Con-

ern Europe and world peace, “These questions must be answered before we can hope for any real unity among our people,” Mrs. Harden's last press release said . There is an old adage that an ounce of performance is worth a tén of complaint.” All four of the GOP veterans were in the Repub'ican 30th Congress and Mr, Halleck was majority leader. Maybe raore should have been done When, they were ruling instead of

gressmen. For Mr. Wilson it watching. 7 has proven an effective formula for a Republican to stay in office in a district which Barbs long was rated Democratic— » the Ninth. : WE wonder how many dads . s n=» recall when only their teenage MR. WILSON isn't the only gots Used to wear their flashy

veteran Republican from the state - who joins the anvil chorus, however. At times there~ is a quartet, including the dean of the delegation: Charles ‘A. Halleck, Renssalaer; Ralph Harvey, New Castle, and Cecil Harden, Covington, Republican national committeewoman from In-

There are said to be twe million heavy drinkers in the United States. Sounds pretty staggering to us!

Man's energy is worth a penny an hour, says a sci entist. Not In some of the prize fights we've seen,

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