The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1932-07-27
Still In Chains

Faced by a grave emergency, the people
of the state find themselves still in chains
despite the fact that they are spending large
sums Of money on special session Of the
legislature to give them relief.
The chains are hypocritical attitude of
mind toward facts.
The chains are the secret grip on govern
ment of special privilege.
The chains are the petty political plots of
those who want power and soft jobs.
The chains are the incapacities of men
to look only for the common good and dis
regard the private and political interests that
appeal to small minds
The farm and small home are being
confscated by heavy taxes-and yet the leg
islature refuses to divert, for the time, the
millions of dollars that are being wasted by
the highway department.
Business struggles for existence and yet
there is the serious threat that it will be
hampered by heavy tax on privately OPP
Grated trucks, used by business in an en-
deavor to keep down costs of transportation.
The ranks of the unemployed increase
week by week, the demands for charity grow
by bounds, and yet the legislature hesitates
to give back to the cities the gasoline and
automobile taxes which would permit them
to put their citizens to work instead of feed
ing them scant meals from public funds.
New sources of revenue are sought and
yet there is a moral protest" against TAX
ing away part of the huge sums wasted by
desperate people on gambling enterprises.
In this city alone, several millions of dol
lars are spent each year on various lotteries.
The law can not reach these enterprises, due
to court decisions that draw so fine line
that convictions are impossible.
The people buy these tickets and see courts
order their return to the operators when
jealous police officers make raids.
The drain from this source alone amounts
to at least half the tax levy. 1t goes to the
racketeers. If the people pay, the least that
could be done is to see that the revenues go
to the victims in the form of taxation instead
of into private hands.
There is hypocrisy in the hesitation to
repeal the Wright law that it is not only in
effective, but costly.
Every effort to curb the rapacity of pub
lie utilities which have greater power to tax
than have public officials is blocked by servi-
tude to these powerful interests.
Public ownership of these utilities would
free business from much of it's burden and
the citizen from unjust tribute to pyramided
financial monstrosities.
Waste in government continues. Unneces-
sary and costly commissions continue to
thrive High salaries in public Office based
on 1929 levels, are paid by citizens whose
wage and income has been reduced almost to
the vanishing point.
The call is made for leadership. 1t needs
more than that. The need is for intelligence
and conscience.
Why not recognize that the emergency is
here and the time arrived for drastic action?
Why not face conditions and facts and be
as ruthless in the public interest as the
plunderbund has been for private profit?
The taxpayer and business demand free
dom. The clanking chains are too heavy to
carry
Hypocrisy, politics, private greeds have
no place in this hour.