Evening star., 1935-08-11
EARISDECLARED SPREAD
BY NEW TAX THREAT
III. G. Smith, Head of Shipbuilders'
Council, Declares "SOak-the.Rich''
Program Blow to Recovery.

'1 know we've got to take care Of
people who would starve il we didn't.
But I'm beginning to wonder about
some of the people that are being
taken care of. A situation where you
can't hire workers in New Jersey, for
instance, to pick the berry crops, and
the crops are left to rot because people
on relief don't think the pay Is high
enough for picking them doesn't ap-
peal to me-"
Mr.. Smith said it might be inter-
eSting to obtain the views of intelli-
gent young men just emerging from
the universities on the rising burden
of governmental debt which their
generation will be called on to pay.
I'VE might ask them if they're really
going to pay it ALL" he said. Current
overspending, he said, is courting all
the peril of imitation.
Defines Business Wealth.
Mr.. Smith said he believed the
whole idea of taxation as a means to
redistribute the wealth of the coun-
try was highly theoretical. THE real
wealth of any business concern" he
said, lis not in its plant, necessarily,
or in its cash for that matter, but is
in the organization which makes
profitable production possible. The
wealth of a business is in its men.
You can't redistribute that wealth.
The man who furnishes the motive
power that makes a business pay is
the real creator of any wealth that
is in it.
Il don't know what Huey Longs
idea is about distributing wealth. But
I know that the development Of pro-
duction stops when men are debarred
from taking chances to win or lose
from business enterprise. We've always
made pretty good progress in this
country by letting men take those
chances. One serious aspect to be
considered in this taxation problem
is its effect on progress"
Advocates Ship Subsidy.
Mr.. Smith said that progress in
building up the merchant marine was
at Standstill for the moment, largely
because of uncertainties about the
ship subsidy measure now pending in
Congress. Some sort of subsidy, he
said, is absolutely essential to the
progress of the industry, and he be-
lieved that the sooner some ship sub
sidy measure could be put through
Congress the better it would be for
the industry and the country.
He classified himself as a liberal
Republican" in politics, but said he
was not opposing the Roosevelt tax
program because of partisan bias.
Parts of the administration policies
he believed we're very helpful to the
country. A policy of lowering tariffs,
he said, would be helpful to inter-
national trade, and therefore inevita-
bly, helpful to shipping and ship build
ing, though what effect it would have
on the national life as a whole he
was not prepared to say.
He declared that there must be
increased buying in this country from
abroad, as well as increased selling
to other nations, if the country is to
be really prosperous" Therefore he
would favor some degree of tariff
lowering"
FavOrs General Sales Tax.
I'm not condemning tax programs
based on the capacity to pay" he
said. I'm in favor of graduated in
come taxes, but I'm convinced that
some day we've got to come to a
broad general sales tax, so that every
one will pay something. I don't be-
lieve in just a manufacturers sales
tax 1t would be discriminatory"
He said the Federal and State gov
ernments should find some way of
dividing the field of taxation so that
their taxes would not duplicate and
conflict with each other. But the
most important thing to bear in
mind at the moment, he said. Is that
any increase in taxation of any kind
Just now is brake on recovery.