Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 31 July 1951 — Page 12

Give Light end the People Will Find Their Own Way

Tax Collector—How Good Is He?

THERE are two ways in which honest Americans, paying i 2% their taxes to thejr government—with or without grip.ing—can get rooked of their money. .

~~ Ome way is for the government to fritter the money ‘away on needless or frivolous projects. On that subject, much has been said and not nearly enough done. But it also is galling for the taxpayer to get rooked because some of the people who owe taxes don’t pay them. Racketeers, for instance, who wilfully evade paying taxes. So-called legitimate businessmen who cheat. Smart guys, who outwit the government. _ "Uncle Sam’s tax collector is the Internal Revenue Bureau, a branch of the Treasury. This bureau, from time to time, has cracked down on cheaters, it has put on drives which netted many millions. But nobody outside the Treasury ever has takén a good look at the tax collector to see if he is as smart as he ought to be, as efficient and as incorruptible as he should be. :

» Ld ” ” . ”

A SUBCOMMITTEE of the House Ways and Means Committee now says it is ready to tackle this job. The ; chairman of this subcommittee, Rep. Cecil R. King of Cali- { fornia, indicates enough already has been found to justify his “great concern.” a He says the subcommittee soon will expose what it has found, up to now. And, presumably, it will go on to find more, and to expose that. Such things as the answer to the Kefauver Crime Committee’s charge that Uncle Sam “is being defrauded of many millions of dollars, perhaps running into hundreds of millions, of tax revenues by the mobsters engaged in organized criminal activities.” And the scandal in California in which it was charged that officials of the Internal Revenue Bureau sold worthless stock to persons in trouble over their income taxes. One regional tax collector (in Boston) recently was fired, without any public telling of the reasons. Another (in St. Louis) quit under fire, and a grand jury has been investigating for months. In New York, the tax collector's office became so mired in inefficiency that special trouble shooters had to be sent there in an effort to clean up. om N : a w=» TAX collecting is a big industry in this government. The intake of the government this year will be more than $60 billion. Compare that with less than $2 billion when the Democrats took over in Washington in 1933. : Bizness tends toward looseness in administration. Looseness makes for fraud. As in other branches of the government, politics has laid a heavy hand on the appointment of the prinicipal officers in the Internal Revenue Bureau. How well has it resisted pressure for favors and immunity from prosecution? The one place where the answers to this and related questions can be documented and exposed is in Congress.

The King subcommittee has rare opportunity for useful and exceptional public service.

Angry Senator

(CHAIRMAN Connally of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee has accused Marshall Plan officials of “thinkihg up ways to spend money” when they ought to be “going out of business.” Amen to that judgment. « This foreign-spending agency should not be permitted to become the permanent institution that its sponsors, and employees, want it to be. ; But the Texas Senator is a new convert to this position. Apart from the fact that he must run for re-election this year, the Senator may feel that he has been betrayed.

» » " » ~ »

HIS angry outburst against plans for spreading economic aid to Asia and other parts of the world, instead of concentrating on building up the defenses of Western Europe, was the inevitable consequence of overselling a policy. When the State Department decided to abandon China to the Reds, it adopted the line that Asia was of no importance to us—that Western Europe must be our chief concern. : Sen. Connally accepted that idea and championed it in the Senate. He went all the way with it, from the betrayal of Chiang Kai-shek down to the withdrawal of Gen. MacArthur. Now Secretary of State Acheson, whose policies Sen. Connally has been sponsoring, has turned his back on him. : With China—the key to Asia—in the hands of the enemy, the State Department is trying to salvage something ‘out of the wreckage of its disastrous policy by spending some mopey on the fringes of Asia. And Sen. Connally does nét have.the mental agility to adapt his thinking to that aboyt-face. j . ~

THE Senator made one mistake in blindly following the State Department too far and he should not compound

the urge of his new-found independence. ; ‘

The State Department was wrong in abandoning Nationalist China. But it is right in attempting to salyage * something out of Asia now. The important thing is to ‘see to it that it spends our money in the right places, here assets exist which we can build on. This spending sed not be geared to the tempo of the Marshall Plan » we cannot afford that. anid he ‘Marshall Plan organization can be disbanded e emphasis now must be on rearmament. But on of that armament it

State

ous imprisonment of an American citizen? . - Secretary of State Dean Acheson has ex- _ pressed his regrets over the treatment of Wil-

. A Sorry Spectacle

WORDS, WORDS, WORDS .

WASHINGTON, July 31—Why can't the Czechoslovakia in retaliation for the outrage-

d D. Russell ackles Uncle bar dicts tht, he Dre

fact have done nothing to shut off Czech

— dk (AUR

.. By Frederick C. Othman

What Are They Talkin’ About?

WASHINGTON, July 31—-Sometimes our masters in this town, both male and female, become sharp-tongue. But they're so danged polite about it that I can't figure out exactly what they mean. On this one, maybe you can help: There before the House Appropriations Committee was Mrs. Anna M. Rosenberg, who is perhaps the most powerful lady in Washington. She is Assistant Secretary of Defense, with her private limousine and office staff of 17 people, in charge of manpower and personnel. Mrs. R. was explaining to the gentlemen what a good job she'd done to date. Many made, she said, in manpower. One thing she’s started to do is cut down on what she called the shocking number of carbon copies federal stenographers make of their letters. She's also doing something about the crammed filing cabfnets, which hold these copies and she’s trying to reorganize the outmoded managem = cedures, Chairman George H: Mahon (D. Tex.), in charge of the $60-odd: billion-dollar defense appropriation, ‘said he’d had TMHEH™With a man who claimed one elegant waste of manpower was the brass bands of the Army, Navy and Air Force. “Canned music is now available,” the man said, according to Rep. Mahon. “Canned music is now available, vet we still insist on spending many millions of dollars per year on bands.” Mrs. Rosenberg ignored that one.

She kept

KOREA . . . By Ludwell Denny

If U. S. Accepts Red Plan—What Then?

WASHINGTON, July 31—American acceptance of the Red proposal of the 38th Parallel as the Korean truce demarcation line would have serious political and

savings has she

talking abcut her accomplishments and her hopes. Rep. Errett P. Schrivner (R. Kas.) said he for one was a little disappointed. Maybe, he said, he expected too much. “With the amount- of buildup that was given you maybe I expected you to do miracles and -you are not able to, but in the seven months you have been in office just what progress has’ been made?” he asked. “What have you actually done in the way of concrete things where we can put our finger on them and see some benefit to the taxpayer?” Mrs. R. said she would be delighted. “She came up with a 1200-word printed statement

listing her achievements as manpower boss. “Madame witness,” demanded Rep. Harry Sheppard (D. Cal), “are you a production engineers

Mrs. Rosenberg didn’t even gulp. She smiled and she replied: “I would say that T am a manpower specialist, if such an animal exists, Congressman.

That is a very/ embarrassing answer for a woman, but- that is what I am supposed to be.”

“I assume there. is such an animal in existence,” retorted the gentleman from California. “I did not coin the phraseology.” Worrying me now is what did Mrs. R. and Mr. S. mean? Sheppard said he guessed possibty —Mrs—Fosenberg qualified as a personnel specialist.

‘Typical Female’

“I WOULD say,” said Mrs. R. without false

modesty, ‘that when it came to doing utilization work, 1 have done probably more than anyone in the country today,” both in -utilization of civilian plants and of government facilities.” She said she sometimes rushed in where angels feared to tread, but that so far she nad not noticed much difficulty getting things done. Now it's your turn, gentle reader. You try to read between the lines.

SIDE GLANCES

Sam’s Hands In Oatis Case

upon to investigafe the controversy and make

goods #o this country is that we are stymied by the type of trade agreement we have with Czechoslovakia, according to one authority om Some light on our trade agreements with the Czechs was shed by O. R. Strackbein, chair-

. man of the National Labor-Management Coun-

cil on Foreign Trade Policy. : Recalling that the State Department three weeks ago ended trade concessions on imports

‘from five Communist countries, Mr. Strackbein

noted that despite the provocation offered by the Oatis case, we have done nothing about our concessions to Czechoslovakia. Yet we import about three times as much from that country as We did from Poland, Romania, Hungary and “There is a reason for this difference in treatment of Czechoslovakia and these other countries,” sald Mr. Strackbein. “We have a trade agreement with Czechoslovakia under the Trade Agreements Law. This agreement is a part of the general agreement on tariffs and trade and was negotiated in 1947.” Before the agreement could go into effect, Czechoslovakia went behind the Iron Curtain. In spite of protests made to the State Department against going ahead with the agreemeht, the department recommended to President Tru-

. man that he proclaim the pact, which was done.

As a result, we reduced our tariff on a list of products that we get from Czechoslovakia, even though it had become a Communist puppet state, it We cannot simply zive notice to Czechoslovakia that we wish to cancel the trade agreement and also notify her that we are withdrawing most-favored-nation treatment, says

. Mr. 8trackbein,

That is because we are involved in the international general agreement on tariffs and trade. Procedure for denouncing a trade agreement with an individual country is complicated under that instrument. As a first step we must make written representations or proposals to Czechoslovakia-—for example, calling for the release of Mr. Oatis. Then if no satisfactory adjustment is made, according to Mr. Strackbein, the matter may be referred to all the parties to the general agreement, some 40 nations. ese nations are called

MR. EDITOR: _ When is the city going to start replacing the dead elm trees on the curb lawns? At one time Indianapolis was known all over the nation as a city with beaytiful trees but nobody could say that about us now. In fact, it would be better to call Indianapolis the city of the dead trees . .-. or maybe just the city of the dead since that seems to be the attitude of most citizens toward the problem of beautification. I doubt that most citizens would want to stand the cost of planting the curb lawns, so why doesn’t the city undertake this as part of -the project of “Keep the city clean, etc.” It won't be long now before all of our beautiful elms are hauled away and there won't be a tree..left on our streets. There's no sense in hoping that someone will come up with the answer to the elm disease. There just isn’t one. In all the history of this country there hasn't been any effective means of controlling insects over wide areas. There's no sense in believing that there will be. An insect spreads the elm disease so the answer is replanting. : —Tree Lover, City.

‘A Poor Policy’ MR. EDITOR: The people who discuss pro and cen the attributes of the President of the United States, might do well to reflect on something Lincoln sald: “The man does not make the Presidency, the Presidency makes the man.” : After a great deal of study, I am convinced that no man sits in the White House at Washington, or ever did, wno did net do his level best for the country. It is just that kind of job. They make mistakes, because they are human, but they do the very best they can. They have been vindicated by history, in most cases, and have proved themselves to be head and shoulder above the critics of their times. If I were a Republican, I would not say too much about Harry Truman personally, for they once had a small town editor whom death happily took before the outrageous conduct of his friends broke over his head. They stole more in a year and a half than.Harry's friends could have in seven years, As far as criticizing a man because he is lowly born and not too well educated, that'is snobbery. —F. M., City;

By Galbraith

A nl

« . 2

recommendations to ‘the two “countries eon“If the countries that are members of the general agreement consider the circumstances serious enough,” said Mr. Strackbein, “they

‘might authorize us to suspend such of our obligations to Czechoslovakia under our agreement as the countries might determine to be appropriate. * “There you have it! We are no longer free to act alone. . “We have signed away our freedom of action, unless we should elect to denounce and withdraw from the general agreement on tariffs and trade, altogether. This is the agreement that binds us itn the manner just described.” The next scheduled meeting of the contract-

' ing parties, under United Nations auspices, is

not scheduled until September. “That is nearly two months -away,” Mr, Strackbein pointed out. “The State Department perhaps regrets that Mr, Oatis cannot be freed today. If so, the Department has only itself to blame, so far as the use of economic reprisals are concerned. The Department openly, willingly and with enthusiasm forged the handcuffs that Uncle Sam now wears in this field of action.”

Hoosier Forum--‘Replace Elms’

"l do not agree with a word that you say, but | will defend to the death your right to say it."

» - : Reo Iv

‘Improve Service?’ MR. EDITOR: I read in a local paper a few days ago that the Indianapolis Street Railways, Ine., has petitioned for the use of trolleys on the Illinois St. line, to replace the street cars. The petitioner claims this move will improve the serv—tee—Jf the street car company has in mind these trackless trolleys that are running about town, then I fail to see any improvements in the offing. On the contrary, it, to my mind, would be a retrogression of service. The street cars will hold between thirty or forty more people than will a trackless trolley,

I have ridden «in both too many times to remember, so I ought to know, These big busses might serve the purpose, but not the trolleys.

—Fred Lee, 4030 Cornelius Ave.

‘Old Uncle Atlas’

MR. EDITOR In ancient mythology, the giant, Atlas, has always been portrayed as carrying the world on his back. But lo and behold; in modern times poor oid Uncle Sam has been jockeyed into the position

-of assuming the role of Atlas for the entire

and Mrs. Citizen, are now loaded down with the job of Atlas. How long can we bear this load is a moot

modern world and you and I, Mr.

question that only time will tell the answer to,

Are you tired. neighbor? —R. Smith, 1402 N. Alabama §t,

THANKS TO GOD

I OFFER up my suffering ... . to my dear God on high . . . so He may find a place for me . .. in heaven when TI die . . . each heartache that I chance to have... I conquer in His name so that He will have mercy on . » » my soul that is to blame . . . each pain I have I had for Him . . . who died so I might live , . . so small a gift so great a price . ., . but what more can 1 give . . . and so it Is as days roll by . . . and life goes on its way , .. I try to show my thanks to God , . , and for His blessings pay. —By Ben Burroughs,

TRUE OR FALSE? . . . By Andrew Tully

Tass Is a News Service, Dagmar Has Anemia

WASHINGTON, July 31—Congressmen have a good argument in demanding retaliation against the Russian agency, Tass, for the Czech government's jailing of reporter William Oatis.

all .over the United States, it

that error by going top far in the other direction, under .

must not be forgotten

military results. On the political side it would

ONE--Violate the American

; and United Nations’ specifica-

tion that the Kaesong neygotia-

tions be limited to military matters, which the Reds accepted. The parallel is a political line, and an artificial one, having no relation to purely military considerations. TWO — Encourage appeasement groups within the United Nations, which are striving for restoration of a Red North Korea—as well as Red China's admission into the United Nations and control of Formosa as a necessary price of “peace.” THREE -- Destroy waning prestige of the Korean Republic (South Korea) at home. FOUR--Buttress Red propaganda in Asia that United Natigns forces have been ‘defeated.” ' FIVE—Give new ammunition to American political opponents of the administration's Far Eastern policy, and undermine national unity in support of Korean defense. On the military side it would: ONE — Defy the condition laid down by American and United Nations officials, in-

"cluding Defense Secretary George C. Marshall, that any - truce aj

must be on

“a military line which will be.

defensible in the event of any renewal of hostilities.” Experi-

Red atthck a year ago proves that the parallel cannot be a defense line. Even those who want to accept the Red proposal admit this, though tirey argue that United Nations forces could drop far back and re-establish the South Korean line of last spring if necessary. TWO -— Require many more American troops than needed to hold the present hard-won natural defense line in the mountains above the parallel. THREE: Shake;the morale of American and United Nations troops with the suspicion that their sacrifices have been in vain, and that retreat is the reward of victory. The argument of those who favor ‘‘compromise” is that the exact line is relatively unimportant if it buys a ceasefire and leads to-a “peace settilpment.” They add that the Reds already have given up their troop-withdrawal demand and that, unless the United Nation8 delegation makes concessions in turn, the Communists will lose face and refuse to go on with the armistice parley. None of these arguments stands up. The position of the demarcation line is important, ‘as Gen. Marshall and others have explained, because. it would largely determine our fate if hostilities were renewéd, It is also ‘important because of Stalin's practice of turning 0 y

£3

COPR. 1951 BY NEA SERVICE. INC. T. M. REG. UU. 8. PAT. OFF,

"Oh, you didn't really surprise us, Auntie! Last week Daddy said he saw you coming to-visit us in a nightmare!"

an alleged temporary military demarcation into a political frontier. That is precisely how he acquired political control of North Korea in the first place, and that is the method he used to make Eastern Germany a

satellite state.

Claims that the Reds gave

drawal of foreign troops from Korea are inaccurate, still on the agreed agenda under the omnibus point five, which - covers any ‘recommendation” they wish to discusg., ia ; The test of a demarcation line is security-—mot enemy

It is

For if Tass is a bona fide news service, Dagmar is suffering from anemia. It's true, of course, that Tass puts up a good front. Its 15 reporter#in New York and its staff of four here are among the busiest of the craft. They’ cover all important stories, attend all the big press conferences and are always in the front row when official texts are being released. These labors are reflected in the verbiage transmitted to

+ Moscow.

From its New York headquarters, Tass radios or cables between 6000 and 15.000 words a day--speech texts, transcripts of congressional hearings, a variety of government handouts and an assortment of business and technical reports, n - » BUT only a tiny fraction of this output is ever seen by the average Russian. On a good day, for instance, Moscow's newspaper, Pravda, will use only three or four stories from the United States none of them more than two or three paragraphs in length, Other Russian newspapers carry even less American news, The rest of Tass’ huge. output is for private consumption —by big wheels in the Soviet government who can be trusted with such information. It goes

rounds, each official filing

At he feels may be useful to

him in the future. Although - most of it

¥ “

is highly secret information in Russia--the average comrade mustn't see it lest he get ideas, Financially, it's a good deal, too. For, posing as reporters, the Tass men can send their material to Moscow fast and cheap—the press rate is 6!; cents a word, compared with the diplomatic rate of 11; cents and the corhmercial rate of 23 cents a word.

» ” ” CANADIANS used to scoff at American warnings about

~ Tass men—until the roof fell

in on them in 1946. Then it was disclosed that Tass reporter Nicolai Zheivinov, who had just returned to Moscow, was a key member of the Soviet spy ring which had been stealing the Canadians’ atomie secrets.’ An example of the kind of background Joe Stalin favors in his Tass correspondents is that of Mikhail Fedorov, 30-year-old chief of the Washington Bureau. Mike Fedorov is an aeronautical engineer who spent five years in the Soviet Ministry of Foreign Affairs before coming here in 1948 to take over the bureau. The man he supplanted was

Larry Todd, 68-year-old veteran newspaperman, who had _

worked for Tass:-since 1923. But Larry ‘Tog, though =a fiery Socialist, is. not a Rus-sian-—apd thus, presumably, could not be trusted to take

care of some aspects of the Job. i A Si oo

By FRANK H United Press

AT THE F 31-—-Blood se white bandag head. “How are t Kaesong?' hi

Artillery so thunder in tr of smoke spi the next hill. “Napalm,” rett, Parag without stirri jelly bombs." He was si North = Kore rumbled aro

East Si Raided Of Pros

As East Side filth and reek today was rai center of pros Policewomer and Luba Adj Division descr 2819 Moore A worst they hac Mrs. Marga mother of charged with « women reporte encouraged he daughter in pi The $tepdau; from the Indi Feebleg Minded Three juver old girls and have been nal petitions grow ported prostitt “Dozens” nx juvenile boys i men, are expt by JAD officia Mrs. Warren xtill at home welfare autho ed. Four will ¢ent’s Orphan: One 17-year tion from Juv hicle taking, i Arizona. Anot a foster home the Catholic .C Mrs. Warrel Robert, is on Farm followin ceny. Stabbed F At Accusin Times RALEIGH, ~--Capt. Vaug fused today against his wil in the back w “to keep him rea.” Police char Banks, 27. of ] assault with She was held The couple old son were hotgt Capt. Banks dition at a ho

U. S. Stat

WASHINGTON, ment expenses al rent fiscal year ti with a-year ago T Expenses 5 4.0 Receipts a3 Deficit 1,6 Cash Balance 3 Publci Debt 255.5 Gold Reserve 21.7

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