The Kennewick courier-reporter. [volume] (Kennewick, Wash.) 1914-1938, 1938-01-06

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little to anyone except the rather
uc,, wide circle of
SUartys friends and bust
Story ness associates
who admire his
courage and thrift. Since there are
hundreds of thousands like him in
this country, I will identify him by
his nickname-"Swarty." I have
known him some ten or eleven years
as a friend and neighbor, fell
low who could be properly called
the salt of the earth. Swarty's story
is most interesting because it illus
trates condition. ~
He was the son of a country doc
tor. In his early twenties, he be-
came a travelling salesman. His
personality and his ability carried
above the ranks of the average or
der-taker. He saved his money. He
and his wife inherited a few thou
sand dollars each from their respec-
tive fathers. Swarty went into bust
ness for himself here in Washing
ton. The business prospered to the
extent that Swarty had built up a
backlog Of savings as a reserve
and had bought his own home, a
modest place. They are a happy
little family and in that as well they
are like hundreds of thousands Of
others in this country.
There came the depression OF sew
en- years ago. Sales by Swarty's lit
tie plant declined. He kept his ten
employees on the rolls, however, as
long as he could. The drain be-
came too much and he had to re-
duce the payroll; indeed, he had to
draw on the backlog. After nearly
five years, things began to pick up.
He started again to restore the re-
serve so that there could be some
thing on which to draw again If
business was slack. But almost si-
multaneously, Swarty found a lot
of new taxes coming in the front
door. One of them was the ridicu-
lous levy that said in effect that he
could not build up that backlog
again because if he did he would
have to share the excess with the
federal government.
There had been some other taxes
before that one, but it was the most
disastrous in its effect. There were
other taxes after the surplus earn
ings tax, too. until lately he told
me that he was paying nine differ
ent taxes each month, and each
year he has to pay an income tax
on the salary that he allows him
self for managing the business and,
besides all Of these, he has the
strictly local taxes of the District
of Columbia. Among these, Of
course, is tax on the little home
that he owns; a business privilege
tax which assesses him a certain
percentage Of his total receipts; a
license tax for the privilege Of do
ing business; tax on his motor
cars which he uses in his business,
a tax on the gasoline which powers
the cars, and few other odds and
ends.
I made no mention in the above
paragraph that he, like you and I,
pays several hundred taxes that are
not called taxes. He smokes ciga-
rettes, for example, and the federal
tax is six cents pack. MANY states
have a state tax in addition) He
bought his wife piece of jewelry
for Christmas, and there were three
different federal taxes hidden in the
price he paid.
I could 60 on and on with reve-
lation of the taxes, but mention
them only inciden-
Matter tally. The taxes
of Taxes that l am con-
cerned with in this
story of his affairs are the taxes
directly on his business. They are
important for the reason that he
told me the other night that if it
were not for all Of these taxes. he
could re-employ several men whom
he had to discharge when the bust
ness was at its lowest. He can not
hire them now, however, because
the margin Of profit available to him
is small. He has to accomplish as
much with six men as he used to
with eight or nine or ten in order
to make living out of the bust
ness for himself and his family.
Swarty recounted the details of
his own business to me about the
time that the great Westinghouse
Of Pittsburgh made pub
lie its tax story. In substance and
in brief, Westinghouse pointed out
that its tax obligations had in
creased from around two million
dollars eight years ago to something
over sixteen million dollars in fed
eral payments in the last year. In
the years 1885, 1886 and 1887, the
taxes paid by Westinghouse were
held to have been sufficient to have
about $500 additional |
workers on the payroll.
I know that someone will retort |
that a great corporation like West
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