The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1937-06-24
OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES
| WHO'S NEWS
THIS WEEK..
By lemueI F. Parton
Observation-Disclosures
New Income Tax Ferret.

w ASHiNGTON:-The more fer
w vid New-Dealers took 1t pretty
hard when Prof. Roswell Foster Ma
gill became special assistant to the
secretary of the treasury, to ex-
plore tax-dodging and point out the
dodgers.
He was known as conservative,
and he is a son of the distinguished
Hugh Stewart Magill of Chicago,
who, as president of the American
Federation of Investors, is bracket
ed more with the HAYES than the
have nots. The peterborough
crowd here wanted Harold Groves
of the University of Wisconsin for
the tax job. Economic royalists are
Mr.. Groves favorite clay targets.
Secretary Morgenthau insisted on
bringing in Professor Magill, as
an authority on federal taxation, and
as a man who ought to be able to
uncover hide-outs and getaways in
the income tax maze. The Magill
report on tax evasion spurs a drive
for general overhauling and tight
ening of the income tax law. Presi-
dent Roosevelt, in his last press
| conference, made it clear that the
swing on big-income tax-dodgers
was entirely premeditated and that
a congressional investigation would
follow This writer gathered, at the
conference, that action would be i'm
mediate and overt, possibly start
ing with the Presidents return from
Hyde Park.
Hold-Outs on the Magill appoint
ment are cheering the Columbia
professor today. There is no indica-
ton that he pulled his punch in his
fact-fnding inquiry and the Presi-
dent seemed to think he had enough
ammunition to sink one or all of
those S100, 900 yachts, allegedly used
for tax write-offs.
Professor Magill might be one of
those "six men with passion for
anonymity" for which the President
yearned when he was telling about
the Brownlow report. Naturally a
| tax expert isn't garlanded or spot
lighted like the top-bracket politi-
clans here, and that is all right
with Professor Magill who has been
buster than gopher burrowing
through the treasury tax under
ground the last few months.
He is surprisingly human for one
of his profession, with nothing des-
located or actuarial about him, and
| hoe yooIa Ga1I Iox, o,,f
of his tax evasion study.
Professor Magin is forty two
years old, native of Auburn, ILL.,
He was graduated from Dartmouth
and from the University of Chicago,
as Doctor of Jurisprudence. He
was captain in the World war
and began the practice of law in
Chicago in 1920.
He was on the University of Chi
!. cago faculty from 1921 to 1923 and
has been with Columbia since 1924.
He was adviser to the tax COM
mission of Porto Rico in 1928 and
is the author of several impressive,
and to the layman quite bewilder-
ing, books on federal taxation.
Conservatives on the Supreme
court turn liberal. Certain congress-
men talk like sockless Jerry Simp-
son and work like the Common
wealth Edison. The conservative
Professor Magil gets big hand on
the left. Past performance doesn' t
seem to be the guide and indicator
it used to be, here in the capital.
Social Security Advances.
IT'S anchors Aweigh' for the So
cial security board, as the Su-
preme court hands it its clearance
papers. Arthur j. Altmeyer, in the
chart room, had the course already
mapped. Plans for immediate wide
extension of the scope and activi-
ties of the board, in six fields, are
announced. This extension will bring
several additional million persons
under the act.
Mr.. Altmeyer has burrowed in dry
statistics for years, coming to the
surface as director of novel govern
mental financial operations probably
unprecedented in history. He is a
native of De Pere, Wis, the son
of Dutch parents, an alumnus of
Wisconsin university, former sta
tistician of the Wisconsin tax COM
mission and chief statistician of the
Wisconsin industrial commission.
In 1888, he was made chief of the
labor branch of the compliance di-
vision of the NRA, and later was
appointed second assistant secretary
of labor. He is the author of several
books on subjects in the field Of
labor law and governmental ac-
counting.
@ Consolidated News Features.
| WNII Caruice