The Brookings register. [volume] (Brookings, Brookings County, S.D.) 1903-1971, 1921-05-26

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ment for these places, upon expiration
Of the terms of those holding Offices.
shall be made from one of the three
highest eligibles," says the president.
who also states: This order applies
to all present incumbents of postoffices
whose terms have expired and will ap-
ply to all incumbents as their present
terms expire"
There should be plenty Of comfort in
that for the man who won the cleo
ton last fall"
1t is evident that wages and prices
are enemies. The shipping board has
a lot of wage troubles upon its hands.
and a controversy has developed into
a strike against the government. The
shipping board finds that the high
freight rates are running shipping. and
they claim that lower wages are nee.
essary if rates to shippers are to be
reduced. The condition which the gov
eminent faces is identical to that
which individuals encounter in every
walk of life. 1t is the same thing
with the railroads and the industrial
plants. All the government status
ties show that prices are gradually
coming down. Still President Com
pers of the American Federation of
Labor has issued a threatening state
ment as to the dire results that may
be expected if wages of working peO-
pie are lowered. Mr.. Gompers says
that the capitalists are in control of
the situation at the present time, but
he IS sure that this will not last long.
Mr.. Gompers is as thoroughly "irre-
conciliable" in the belief hat wages
cannot be reduced as is Judge Gary
of the steel trust, that they will be.
The stubborn resistance Of both of
these great leaders reminds one of
the case of the prisoner who was be-
ing visited by his lawyer. The latter
said comfortingly: "Why they can't
put you in jail" Don't you think
they can't" replied the prisoner, 81
have been here already nearly TWEEN
ty-four hours waiting for you to come
to tell me that they can't lock me up"
There is not a community in the
land but what has at some time or
another been compelled to meet the
issue of proposed tax exemptions, and
when this policy has been carried into
effect to benefit some one, the in
creased burden has always fallen on
other shoulders. Factories have been
secured by the bait of free taxes"
and municipalities have punished tax
dodgers while they were, at the same
time, floating ~taX-exempt bonds. Uncle
Sam uses the same method to make
the sale Of liberty bonds easier.
Philip II. Gadsen of Philadelphia, told
the senate finance committee the
other day that there are now $14, OOO.-
OOO, 900 tax exempt securities out
standing. He asked the senate how
the public utility concerns were to
float their securities without which
electric railways, gas, electric light
and power plants cannot be built to
keep up with the growth of the coun
49, ''~i IN AiioiANy " u
be secured from the public in COM
petition with five per cent govern.
ment securities upon which the holder
does not need to pay any tax. Mr..
Gadsen carries his illustration to the
point where he shows that u indus
trial development is being seriously
hampered by the extension of the tax
exemption principle in order to ease
the way for selling government bonds.
Unless this policy of exempting mu-
nicipal securities is discontinued" he
said, W are rapidly drifting into
practical socialism, which in its es-
sence means ownership OF everything
by the public"
The different schemes for paying
taxes have become SO complicated that
every vaudeville artist in the country
has amused his audiences by making
jokes about their income blanks.
Everyone seems to be perfectly willing
to let the burden of taxation fall upon
his %neighbor providing it reduces the
size of his W check to the tax col.
lector. AS one follows the arguments
with relation to tax schemes he can.
not help but feel sympathetic with the
dear old lady who suggested that III
these taxes are SO bad why do we have
them to bother u.s." The proposed
sales tax has been discussed in Wash.
ington before the senate finance com
mittee, and at the outset the argu-
ments were all in support of the plan.
Now comes r. G. Elliott of Chicago,
representing the credit men, who con-
tends that the operation of the tax vii,
make it fall upon the ultimate con,
sumner. thereby throwing the burden
upon the necessities of life and upon
persons least able to pay. On the
other hand it is said in behalf of the
sales tax that it is direct and to the
point, and although it may have its
painful features, the taxpayer knows
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