The Wilmington morning star., 1940-10-12

always naTIlOI1LS WANA AVS koSA
tion.-The Editor.
NEW YORK, Oct. 11.-An eco
nomic royalist of my acquaintance,
widow who supports herself and
her 19-year-old daughter, who is a
college student, spent half a day
making out her income tax return
for 1899 and sent it in, with
check for the whole amount-about
$145.
A few days ago this Tory got a
note from the collector demanding
that she bring her books and rec
ords and submit to a searching re-
view for the year in question, fail
ing to do which she would make
herself liable to certain penalties:
The citizen says she has paid ner
tax and is too busy to spend hal: a
day going over the details, but the
collectors deputy insists. This ir-
ritates the taxpayer, and she has
put herself into a mood to 60
storming into the collectors office
with a question Of her own as
follows: 'What have you done with
my $145, and how much Of it has
gone for graft, gravy, luxuries nnd
waste?''
Now, of course, her $145 wasn't
earmarked, but, inasmuch as it
went into the big, general pool or
sinkhole, it may be explained, for
her satisfaction, if not for h r
pleasure, that it was spent in part
as follows:
To pay salaries to Communists
in the late theater project or in
the writer's projects.
For the car and chauffeur there
of provided for the official and
personal use of Harold F. Ickes,
for his rest cure in the U. S. Naval
hospital and for his vacation cruise
in company with Harry Hopkins
aboard a cutter of the U. S. coast
guard, along the pleasure coast OF
Florida.
For the wee-grown gully which
was to have been a ship canal
across Florida and for the aban-
doned tidal dams and the postcard
village of Quoddy, at Eastport, Me.
To pay part of the salaries OF
Wild Will Lyons, at $4,000 a year,
and Theodore Bilbo, at that time
busted Mississippi politician, at
5000 a year, for pasting news
paper clippings in scrapbooks, and
of Tom Heflin, the old political
derelict from Alabama, who also
appealed to the pity of the bleed
ing-heart humanitarians and was
given post of equal utility in the
national administration. Mr.. Bilbo,
now a senator, candidly admitted
that he was given his $4,000 mock
job because he was broke and had
political nuisance power.
To pay the salary Of m m y
Roosevelt, the eaglet, at $4,000 a
year, plus service pay as a lieu
tenant colonel of the marine corps
reserve.
To pay a cousin of the President
Sc, 900 a year and expenses to pref.
tify American embassies and lega-
tions in foreign lands.
To pay the salary of 5000
month and allowances, up to $116
month, of Elliott Roosevelt,
whose conscience guided him into
the army with the rank of captain.
To pay the salaries of hundreds
of press agents and admission fees,
at SIS head, of American citizens
who are compelled to join the car
penters' union ere they are per-
mitted to build new army camps.
Part Of this Tory's $145 probably
went to take up the deficit in the
national income represented by the
failure of Joseph F. Guffey, the
new deal senator from Pennsyl-
vania, to pay his own income taxes
in the amount of $4165, in 1921 and
1923. This arrearage has been out
lawed by the statute of limitations,
and the lady Tory in question doubt
less wonders why her taxes, too,
cannot be settled by the painless
and inexpensive process of out.
lawry.
Part of it has gone to pay the
cost Of being nice to the children
of other citizens who are eligible
for government assistance up to
the age of Is, while her own child,
although still dependent, is doomed
by law to be self-supporting be-
cause she has passed 18. Up to
that time the taxpayer could de.
duct $400 a year for her support.
And, finally, a portion of her
$145 has been spent to support the
unemployed, although she is not
permitted to deduct anything for
the support of dependent aunt,
because the aunt is neither too old
nor too ill to work, but just un-
qualified for any gainful employ
ment and but for our taxpayers
sense of decency and duty would
be on the public rolls herself.
These are some of the purposes
for which her $145 was spent and
to which the additional $3.50 or
$12.72 will be put after the New
Deal politician in the internal rev.
enue has consumed another half.
day of her time and disallowed her
figures. 1
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