Evening star., 1939-05-23

III every CdSe uIiu JuSl Wkldt
had suspected. His local Cham
ber of Commerce, his local news
papers are yelling their heads of
to have those projects built with
Federal assistance. And say to
him, Consistency, thy name is
Geography. You believe with the
United States Chamber of Com
merce that Federal spending on
public works should cease-ex-
cept in your own home town"
The item of funds for work re-
lief: There my visitor customer
makes a last stand. He wants
that cut, and cut hard.
Will Never Condemn
Citizens to the Dole.
We agree that there are be-
tween 100000 and 4,0000 900
American workers, who, with their
families, need work or money to
keep alive. I drive him to the
inevitable admission that the only
alternative to work is to put them
on dole.
That is where I make a stand.
l tell my visitor that never so
long as l am President OF the
United States will 1 condemn
millions of men and women to
the dry-rOt OF idleness on a dole;
never condemn the business en-
terpriSe OF the United States to
the loss of millions of dollars
worth of customer purchasing
power; never take the terrific risk
OF what would happen to the So
clal system of American democ-
racy II we foisted on it an occa-
Sional market basket Of groceries
instead of the chance to work.
Yes, l well know the difficult
ties and the costs of work relief.
l do not have to be told by any
congressional committee Or any
United States Chamber of Com
merce that 5 per cent of the
projects are of questionable value
Il know it. Or that per cent
OF the people on relief projects
ought not to be on the rolls-I
know that, too, and SO do you.
But when you think of nearly
5000 600 men and women scat
tered over all the 48 States, in
Guiding the four who are not
here, and all of the 3,1OO coun-
ties in America, 1 am proud of
the fact that 95 per cent of the
projects are good, and that 95 per
cent Of the people are properly on
the rolls. And know that the
American people cannot be fooled
into believing that the few ex-
ceptions actually constitute the
general practice.
And finally my friend across
the deck murmurS something
about old-age pensions. He is a
bit half-hearted about this and
he finally admits not only the
need for dignified support of old
age. given and accepted as new
American right for all time to
come from now on, but he real
ICES that over period of years
this support will have to be ex-
tended rather than reduced. You
and I and all Americans agree
that we must work out this prob
lem for the old people of our
Nation.
Pretty Difficult II Not
An Impossible Job.
And SO my visitor leaves con-
vlnced, in nine cases out of ten,
that l am not complete and
utter fool, that balancing the
budget today, or even next year,
Is pretty difficult if not an i'm
possible job.
And now we come to the other
side of the budget.
(Here the President interpolat-
ed into his prepared speech
reference to the taxes paid in
Great Britain. adding: You
have a very delightful gentle
man here. Mr.. Selfridge III. Cor
don Selfridge. jr., London mer-
chant. Ask him about the taxes
he pays to keep England af1oat.D
A few words about Federal
taxes:
They fall into three principal
ategorieS-conSumer taxes, like
the taxes on cigarettes and gaso-
line and liquor; personal taxes,
like the personal income taxes
and the inheritance taxes, and,
finally, taxes on corporations. To-
gether they yield to the Federal
Government nearly six billion
dollars.
For good sound business rea-
sons two things seem clear to me.
First, especially in view of the
unbalanced budget, we, ought not
to raise less money from taxation
than we are doing now.
Second, it would be bad for
business to shift any further
burden to consumer taxes The
proportion of consumer taxes to
the total is plenty high enough
as it Is. Remember, as business
men and as retailers, that any
further taxes on consumers, like
a sales tax, means that the con-
sumers can buy fewer goods at
your store.
Therefore, I want to leave the
proportion between these three
groups of taxes just where it is
now.
That means that if we reduce
so-called deterrent taxes on busi-
ness corporations. we must find
substitute taxes to lay on busi-
ness corporations. That language
is as plain as an old shoe. Let
me give you an example of what
I call making mountain out of
a molehill. There is a hullabaloo
for the repeal of the undistributed
earnings tax. You would think
that this was the principal de-
terrent to business today. Yet it
is simple fact that out of one
billion one hundred million
dollars paid to the Federal Gov
ernment by corporations, less
than twenty million dollars
comes to the Government from
the undistributed earnings tax
less than per cent of the total.
Two SirnuIo Cond;f1ons