The Skyland post. [volume] (West Jefferson, N.C.) 193?-1988, 1939-04-06

WAOf11NG1NN - IL usually
takes a new Congress
about three months to get "shak- !
en-. down" so that it can tackle
matters of legislation with a
clear understanding of what they
are all about and what chance
theft is of getting action.
This 18th Congress is no excep-
ton. Here it is April and the
boys on Capitol Hill have been
in. washington since the first of
January, learning the ropes and
getting acquainted with each 9TH
er"s points of view Now it looks
as if they were about ready to
get down to serious business.
To be sure, the departmental re-
organization bill was serious bus
mess, but not as serious as the
Presidents opponents made it out
to be. The major points on which
the reorganization bill was beat
en- last year have been taken out
of the measure as it now stands.
While it gives the President
wide powers to re-group and con-
sOaidate Government bureaus and
offices and to 60 as far as politi-
cal eXpediency will permit in lop-
ping off useless jobs, the powers
granted him are not as great as
those which President Hoover
asked for and the House voted to
give him in his last two years in
office. And before Mr.. Hoover,
Presidents Coolidge, Wilson and
Taft had asked for the same au-
thority to introduce business
like methods into the administra-
ton of Government.
The big job which Congress is
now about to tackle is taxation.
Here the President lent a help
ing hand by agreeing to accept
the proposal to amend the Social
SECURITY Act so that the increas-
ed taxes for old age retirement
will not go into effect next year,
as provided under the law as it
stands.
Mr.. Roosevelt and the Treas
ury are also agreeable to the eli
mfnatiCn of the somewhat ficti-
tiouS reserve fund" for Social
Security, which has been widely
criticized as tending toward in
flation. There seems little like
Ehood now that the Social Sc
curfty act Will be broadened to
take in classes of workers not
now covered by it.
Scrap Over Taxes.
The real scrap in Congress will |
be over methods of changing the
tax system SO that it will still
produce enough revenue to run
the government yet relieve bust |
ness and capital of the burdens
which industrialists and econo-
m1Sts say have been preventing
expansion of business and the /
creation of new jobs for workers.
Details have not been made !
public of the Treasury's plan,
WHICH has been carefully worked
out by experts, but in general it
proposes to broaden the tax
pase" by including in the income
tax millions of persons who are
now not directly taxed, provid-
ing for collection such taxes at
the SURGE, by deductions from
payrollS, scrapping all the pres
ent various forms Of taxes on
corporate business and substitute
ing a single graduated tax on cor
porations with special preference
to small businesses.
Part of the plan is to abolish
all the excise and nuisance"
taxes, but here the problem of
what to substitute for them arts
es. and is likely to cause row.
There is every expectation that
Congress will pass the Rankin
bill providing pensions of $40 a
month fer every veteran who
wore uniform for 90 days or
more during the World War, Whe-
Their he ever got farther than a
training camp or not.
The only veterans organization
opposing the measure is the
American Veterans Association,
whose spokesman contend that
the total cost to the taxpayers Of
the proposed pension plan will
run to at least Is billion dollars.
There probably will be some ex-
citing debates when the measure
gets to the floor of both houses,
but the best-informed men on
Capitol Hill concede the likli-
hood that the measure will be