Evening star., 1939-05-17

y
means Of Stim-
ulating private Charles g. Ross.
investment. It's not likely that the
revision which now seems feasible
would do great deal to that END,
but it would do something. Why
it should not be tried, at least, is
hard to understand. But the back
ing and filling goes on.
It's a great game. Now you see
the little pea-taX revision-as it
shuttles back and forth among the
shells Of the presidential and con-
gresSlonal players. and now you
don't. Not even the keenest repe.-
torial eye can tell you at any given
moment exactly where the pea is
resting.
Nobody Knows.
The congressional champions of
revision confer, and then they con-
Ter with the President, and then
they go back and report to their
colleagues, and then they see the
President again. They say-Chair-
man Harrison of the Senate Finance
Committee and Chairman Douehton
OF the House Ways and Means Com
mlttee-that there is going to be
some kind of tax bill They don't
know just what kind. NOBODY
knows.
The Presidents extreme fondness
for the undistributed profits tax is
one of the things that prevent an
agreement. He has said that if
that tax is taken out, it must be
replaced with some other device
to prevent tax avoidance through
the accumulation of reserves,
Chairman Harrison says the pres
ent unreasonable reserves" clause
is sufficient for that purpose. MI.
Roosevelt doubts that this is 50
He sticks to the undistributed profits
tax like glue. The argument goes
on and on.
II would seem a simple enough
matter for the tax revisionists of
congress to get together on a bill
and try to put it through Congress
and up to the President. This, at
least, would clarity the issue for the
country. If the bill got to the Presi-
dent, he could take it or leave it.
But 1t is probably too much to hope
/ mat Congress, from which all initia-
tive seems to have passed, to adopt
any such fortnight procedure.
Initiative in Doldrums.
Congress yelps about Executive en-
croachment, but such is the low
estate to which it has fallen that it
functions, nowadays, only in re-
sponse to the Executive spur. When
the President withholds the spur it
dawdles.
The whole state of affairs is messy.
The President the other day came
out for the purchase of a quantity
OF Argentine corned canned beef for
the Navy. He was at pains to en-
phasise that the Argentine product
was not only cheaper but a great
zeal better than that put up at
nome. Immediately. members Of
congress from the cattle States went
into an oratorical fury. The Presi-
dent was pictured as trying to ruin
the cattle growers. Words damning
his nefarious scheme poured into the
Congressional Record.
NOW If the President had fullv
stated his case at the press confer
ence where he first talked about
canned beef, the edge would have
been taken off the criticism in ad.
vance. He had good case. Tho
reason that the canned beef from
Argentine is better than ours is sim
ply that down there they put better
cuts OF beef into it. We use the bet
ter parts to supply the market for
fresh beef. Our poorer stuff goes to
the making of hamburgers and hot
dogs. The President meant no re-
Election on the great American steer
or COW. Besides, the canned beef
trade in this country, owing to our
enormous consumption of the
cheaper cuts in other forms, is neg
ligible
Explanation Comes TardiIy.
All this the President explained at
his press conference yesterday. One
wonders why he didn't lay his full
case before the public at the earlier
conference, instead of waving a red
flag, Intentionally or otherwise. In
the face of the cattle Representatives
and Senators. He made his state
ment sensational and provocative
better" beef, indeed-when there
was no excuse for it. There can be.
as In this instance. too much show
manship in the Presidency.
Then. If anything is needed to
complete the dismal picture, there is
the matter OF the proposed Florida
ship canal. You thought that
scheme had been buried? 1t is, on
the contrary, very much alive in the
Senate. Here Is chance for the
much publiciZed economy bloc
which, for the most part, succumbed
to the drive for higher farm bene-
fits without protest-to do it's stuff.
Under the best of circumstances,
with the Treasury rolling in money,
the Florida ship canal, as Senator
Vandenberg demonstrated from ex-
pert evidence yesterday, would be
of highly doubtful merit. As things
are the proposal to spend from
5000 100000 to $300,oO0,0OO on this
project is, In Vandenberg's phrase,
amazingly indefensible."
It's high time for the taxpayer to
center his attention once more on
the home front.