The Western news. [volume] (Libby, Mont.) 1933-current, 1940-08-01

pul lildl just
FRANK hho1 swallow in the sum-
mer of the Democracy, and the truth
remains that nobody is particularly
burned up because he didn't get the
place-elther war or navy-himself,
or because he wanted it for some
lieutenant.
Boles Penrose once told Presi-
dent that he didn't want any $4,000
or $4,000 jobs for his Pennsylvania
Republicans.
Give that $4,000 job to somebody
from Ohio he is alleged to have
said, and give me five 81 500 jobs
instead"
WHAT HE WANTED
1t later developed that he wanted
all the 81 500 iob-holders to work in
or near Pennsylvania, so that they
would keep on playing their part in
the organization. =
Since that time a congressman
pay has jumped from $4,000 to s10,-
600, and most other government sal
aries in proportion. SO you have to
double the figures to apply his ideas
to present-day politics. But once
this is done there is little doubt
about the political wisdom involved.
It's not the big jobs that help in
organization building. It's the little
jobs.
So very few of the big city bosses
were annoyed when Roosevelt put
Stimson and Knox In his cabinet.
They didn't have any candidates for
the jobs. Most of the other men
who would have liked the jobs for
themselves had either been taken
care Of, had become persona non
grata at the White House, or just
obviously didn't fit.
CORRECTS THE MORASS
President Roosevelt has gone part
Of the way to correct the morass into
which the national defense program
had begged down. This was In his
endorsement Of the fve-year amorti
zation plan for computing war prof
its, which is embodied in the new
legislation to be pushed through to
take the profit out of war
The trouble was due chiefly to the
determination of Secretary Henry
Morgenthau' bright young men to
let no guilty tax dollar escape in
the spending OF billions for national
defense.
Airplane motors are the best Illus
tration, though this particular prob
lem may be solved shortly. But
with engines the admitted bottle
neck, and with skilled machinists
to make the tools and dies admitted
the chief lack, as realized long be-
fore President Hoosevelt's promise
OF $4,000 planes, weeks stretched
into months at the treasury without
action.
AN ILLUSTRATION
1T was like asking us to buy
bonds-not stock with a chance to
make a killing" said one big manu-
facturer who gets along fine with
Knudsen but boys down at the treas
ury. THE trouble is that these
bonds may pay their interest for
one year, maybe for four, but after
that, when the defense crisis passes,
the bonds will default We will have
millions tied up in additions to plant,
which, as Mr. Roosevelt SO graph
ically put it in his acceptance speech
at Chicago in 1892, will be standing
stark and idle.
TITS not a question of how much
profit we make. It's whether we
Have any chance at all to get out
without a loss. The amount of profit
is not nearly SO important as
guarantee of some sort against los
Ing our shirts. For example, sup
pose company makes $l,000,00
net profit on a war order. OF that,
under the existing tax law, one-ffth,
or 5000, 900, would go to the federal
treasury anyhow under the corpora
ton income tax. Other federal taxes
take a piece. The new war profits
tax will then take big chunk of
what is left. Finally, the residue
presumably will be paid out to the
stockholders. So what? Percentages
az those dividends running way up
to nearly three-quarters, according
to the Individual incomes of the re-
cipients, will be paid into the treas
rry under personal income tax lev
les y