The Ely miner., 1937-12-09
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National Topics Interpreted "a GsS14nM1a2
by William Bruckart TFTTI1HX
PressBu Building Washington. D. c.

man Douglas of the securities and
exchange commission with small
cargo of dynamite about crooked
dealings underneath in the stock ex-
changes of the country. Fortunate
ly for the hundreds of thousands of
small investors, the stock exchange
quotations did not fall much further
as result of Mr.. Douglas learned
remarks. The prices already had
fallen below the knees. But the
Douglas statement certainly gave
no confidence to those who were be-
ginning to believe that congress
would try to undo some of the
wrongs previously done.
Just about the same time and dur
ing frequent appeals from the SEN
ators and representatives that the
tax laws had to be overhauled, the
President sent report to congress.
It was report by the New York
Power authority, charging the pow
er interests with some weird mis-
doings. / happen to know some of
the folks on the staff of the power
authority and l feel that they know
just about as much about the power
problem as I do-which is to say
they are pretty dumb about the sit
uation. Of course, those alleged
economists have brilliant ideas
about reforming America, and am
dumb about that, too.
Further: While this power au-
thority report was being en-
blazoned upon the front pages of
newspapers, President Roosevelt
was holding long conferences with
Wendell Wilkie and Fred Carlisle.
who personalize the "power trust, !"
if there be power trust. Mr..
Roosevelt was talking with those
men in an effort to get the large
power interests to go ahead with
construction and expansion pro-
grams to provide work for unem-
ployed.
The political strategy of blaming
everything on "big business"
worked well for a
different time, just as the
Picture old demagoguery
a b out "Wall
Street" used to infame thousands
when a politician Grated and slapped
his legs with widely swinging arms.
But the picture is different now.
The attack on business has become
a mill stone on business and it has
crushed little as well as big-and
since there are so many more
smaller ones than there are trusts
and monopolies, members of con-
gress are hearing about it from
men whom they went to school with
at home.
But what is to be done? Let con-
gress repeal about five hundred laws
that force business to pay more for
the privilege Of doing business than
it gets out of its whole volume; re-
duce or revise the direct taxes and
bring the thousand and one items
of tax out in the open so the people
can see and know what they are
paying; cut out forty or fifty of the
silly experiments that were worked
up by the coterie of individuals who
are constantly feeding Mr.. Roose-
welt half-baked and cockeyed
schemes for spending money and
thereby reduce the federal expenses
these and many more of honest
purpose can be done. If they are
done, business again can employ
workers and as it employs work
ers, they come off the relief rolls,
and as they get wages, they buy.
This means profits and profits mean
tax receipts by the treasures of
state and nation.
To show how some of these taxes
come about, I am told that Herman
Oliphant, general counsel to the
secretary of the treasury, promoted
the ridiculous tax on undistributed
profits of corporations. When it was
pushed through congress Mr.. Roose-
welt said it would force corporations
to declare dividends of all of their
earnings and he was for it. 1t did just
that. But when the corporations had
distributed everything to their share
holders and their volume of business
fell off, they had no money left to
tide them over until business picked
up again. Hence, some of them
are on the verge of bankruptcy. /
do not know where Mr.. Oliphant
got the idea, or how he sold it to
Mr.. Roosevelt. I do not know of
any business connection that Mr..
Oliphant ever had with any impor-
tant corporation. 1t is important,
however, to note that Mr.. Oliphant
has made no move whatsoever to
defend this brain child that turned
out to be such an unwanted baby.
(And while writing about Mr.. Oil
phant, it may be noted that until
Secretary Morgenthau came onto
the scene, there was never any need
for a general counsel to the secre-
tary of the treasury
l was talking with two of the
younger Democratic members of
the house the other day-Mark Will
cox of Florida and Worth Clark of
Idaho-and l could not fail to note
the similarity of their views on the
necessity for curtailment of expend-
itures. These men see far enough
into the future to realize that con-
tinued excesses eventually will sap
the business of this country until it
will not have any lifeblood left.
They know further that the folks
who have money invested in business
are going to take only reasonable
chances; they won't risk going into
debt to do business if they must be
afraid that changes in policy at
Washington will destroy them after
they have started.
Mr.. Clark a-d Mr. Wilcox are, as
l said, of the younger group and
they are wondering where all the
tax money is going to come from in
xt,a f,,4,,ro Tboro orQ rYoonu Of tho