Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1933-02-16
This Week
BY ARTHUR BRISBANE
Small Homes Tax Free.
He Views With Alarm.
This Little Plant Thrives.

| lain 6s GdAu6LL bcAlb Lu0 XOlouI
Committee Of One Hundred that "own-
ers of small homes should be exempt
from property taxation"
| That idea is growing in Florida and
may be tried there first. If it is tried,
Florida will be amazed at the results,
the importing Of hundreds of thou
sands of people with small fixed in
comes, that would like to spend their
incomes. not have it taken away in
taxation.
| If the State of New Jersey would
exempt low-priced homes from taxa
| tion, there would be an overflow Of
money from New York State that
would amaze Trenton and solve New
Jerseys money problem.
| The difficulty Is that the small home
owner Is a tempting morsel for the
tax-laying politician. He is not organ
ICED, and is quite defenseless.
When a grating contractor needs
money, the political friends with whom
he splits" allow him to run new sew
ers or sidewalks or street pavements
in front Of few hundred homes, and
'let the fools that live inside pay"
Nothing, from the depths of the
sea to the tops of the trees" is as de-
fenseless as the average American
home owner.
| An oyster taken from its shell and
landed in the middle Of Death Valley
with the temperature at one hundred
and ten would not be q more pitiable
object.
William S. Lee, vicepresident and
chief engineer of the Duke Power Co.,
is Mortified by President-elect Roose-
velt's suggestion that he may do some
thing about government ownership and
| operation of power plants. President
elect Roosevelt's plan, with govern
ment owned power to put 100000 idle $
to work on a giant project involving
reclamation work, worries this power
company employee. Says he: "The
more people that work for the govern
ment the nearer we approach to So
cialism."
That may be, but it is wise not to
lose sight of the fact that the longer
twelve million Americans remain idle,
with the government doing nothing,
the nearer we approach to revolution.
AS matter Of fact, we are not going
to have revolution, and we are not go
ing to have any one of the many brands
| al
going to have, let us hope. is little
common sense, and in time.
Crisp County, Georgia, built its own
hydro electric power plant and issued
bonds to pay for it. Now the county
calls in bonds, paying them, principal
and interest, before they are due.
But perhaps some tina invested in
private power plants, insult plants for
instance, wish they had bought bonds
of the little Georgia hydro electric in
stitution instead.
Iowa sends notice that farmers plan
nationwide strike. President Reno,
of the Farmers Holiday Association,
says there will be a break between
cities and FARMS" and cities won't
know anything about 1t until It hap
pens" Then they won't have anything
to eat.
Farmers conspiring to starve the
cities, while twelve million people
wander up and down idle, might be q.
good idea and might not.
Hitler, in Germany, refuses to take
his Observation-Disclosures salary. He
makes living by his writing.
Our congress totes to keen salaries
of Congressman at $4,000 year. AS
a concession to economy, it decides to
spend less money, officially, on attend.
ing funerals.
The chief performer at a funeral
doesn't know what is going on, and the,
others don't enjoy themselves much.
The simplest way to cut the cost of
Congress would be to reduce the num-
Der of Representatives by half, which
would leave twice as many as are
needed for real work, then try to elect
congressman that would be worth
more than $4,000 and pay them more.
Marshal Chang Hsueh-Liang, COM
mander of China's armies in the north.
warns Japan, I'VE are ready" He has.
100000 men modified
But until he knows just what air.
planes can do to marching troops, he
cannot accurately LAY, I'VE are ready
When the Spanish conquistadores
came on horses, thu poor Indians of
South America had no chance: they.
thought horse and mar were one ami.
NAL. Troops marching on the ground
with explosives and poison gas coming
down through the air have less chance
than the soldiers Ct the Incas had.
Not TO be outdone by South America
and Java, old Vesuvius is rumblinR.
grooming, spouting, with two hundred
quakes in less than twenty-four hours.
Big stones shoot straight up into the
air falling back into the crater. and