Evening star., 1938-12-13

wv, r,,,;,r of David Lawrence.
few years ago whereby she did
not pay taxes on earnings from her
speeches, lectures, etc.
Mrs. Roosevelt herself never in
tended either to evade or avoid the
payment of her taxes. In fact, she
went to the Treasury in advance
with her proposed contract for pub
lie speaking to learn if she had to
pay taxes. A kindly official made
ruling which was subject to public
criticism because it was at variance
with other rulings. The decision of
Mrs. Roosevelt to ignore it is a
splendid example of civic honor and
of an unWillingness to accept special
privilege, even when proffered her
in technically approved form.
Government to Get More.
The incident came in for consid-
cradle discussion among tax experts,
who pointed out that only a certain
percentage of ones income can be
given to charity without paying
taxes. The net result of the new
plan to be adopted by Mrs. Roose-
welt is that the Government will get
more out of her earnings and she
will have free hand to dispose of
less of her income than she did
before.
This, however, is the plight of
many person in the upper brackets
who wants to donate money to char
liable institutions. The Government
nowadays steps in and takes It's
share for its own purposes. first and
reduces the balance that can be
given away by the taxpayer. In
deed, over and above a certain per
cent allowable for charity, the Gov
ernment at present imposes a gift
tax, too, so all in all charitably
inclined persons have less and less
to say about what happens to their
income.
AS for the President, the contro-
verSy which arose in connection with
the sale of his books and the data
of press conferences turned on the
fact that no disclosure of purpose
for the use of the proceeds was made,
and only after the Presidents action
was criticized was it officially an
nounced that some public purpose
was in the Presidents mind and
that he did not expect to profit by
the transactions. Close friends have
known for some time about the
Presidents desire to have erected at
Hyde Park building to house his
official and private papers Tor the
benefit of students of history. just
how much will be available for this
object will depend again on how
much the President has left after
paying income taxes. Doubtless it
will be necessary for the library
project to be incorporated in some
legal manner in order that the Pres
ident might make a gift to the in
stitution he has in mind.
Matter Is Cleared Up.
The public, however, will not be
concerned with details, since now all
has been made plain concerning the
sale of books to the public by the
President relating to official pro-
eeedings of the Government of which
he was a part. The implication
which was widespread for a brief
interval and which this correspond
ent took occasion to help nullify
as soon as the President revealed
that he would give the proceeds to
q public purpose has unquestionably
remained to some extent, but now
will be cleared up because of the
detailed announcement of the Pres
tdent's plan.
There always will remain subject
to debate the question of whether
any President, or any member of
his family, should engage in any
business transactions involving the
sale to the public of particular COM
modities-either books or services
because many Americans feel that
the prestige of the White House
should not be associated with any
thing that is sold to the public,
especially when radio sponsors who
compete with other companies get
financial benefits by employing
members of the Presidents entour-
age. But however opinions may
differ on this point, the all-impor-
tant fact remains that neither the
President nor Mrs. Roosevelt is to
profit personally by any of these
activities, so there cannot be the
slightest blemish on their respective
records of officials or personal in
tegrity.
Copyright. 1881