Glacier County chief., 1940-07-05
PATMAN BILL
HITS CHAINS
Agriculture, Housewife,
Labor Rise to Defend
Chain Stores

WASHINGTON. D. C.-(SpeciaD
A Congressional hearing on the
Patman Death Sentence" bill to
place punitive tax on chain stores
and force them out of business
drew near a close this week.
Farmers. industrial leaders. bust
nessmen and housewives have ap-
peared during the five weeks the
hearing already has been in session
before subcommittee of the
House ways and means committee.
Rep. Wright Patman of Texas. au.
thor of the bill and those in favor
of its passage first presented their
case.
In the weeks that followed. n ris-
ing flood of protest against the Pat
man act developed There were
charges it would disrupt the eco
nomic system of the nation. add to
the unemployment problem and the
already heavy burden of the aver
age consumer. merely to benefit a
minority of independent merchants.
A small but well-Organized group
of Independent retail merchants
and wholesalers backed the bill.
Through it they hoped to restore
conditions prevalent in the retail
trades over 90 years ago by legis-
lating the chains and their methods
out of existence.
Representative Patman denies
that his bill is a punitive" tax
measure. yet the prescribed taxa
tion rate on the larger interstate
Oh t,,s- t. t1t, Il h.,
possible for them to continue in
business if it were passed.
The tax would be levied on
sliding scale, starting with $50
store for ten to fifteen stores. pro-
ceeding gradually to $1,000 a store
for all above 500 The total tax is
to be multiplied by the number Of
States, plus the District of Column
bia, in which the chain operates. A
chain with. 600 stores in the As
states and the District would in two
years. when the tax becomes fully
operative. be presented with a tax
bill of S19,134,50O per year J. C.
Penny Company would pay SCI .955.-
$50 year and Safeway Stores
Sos .955.75O. and other companies in
SlLllldE dSlIOuOullCdl injuries.
Both sides are waging Il struggle
over public sentiment toward the
bill. Each side accuses the other
of attempting to secure monopoly
of the huge retail market.
The Chains contend they contrt-
butte to the welfare of the consumer
by reducing the cost of living. The
Independent says the chains tend
toward monopoly. that bigness itself
Is bad, that competition between
the chains and independents should
be equalized and that the cOmpeti-
tive practices of the chains in both
buying and selling are unfair
But the chains contend that their
ekirts are far cleaner than those OF
the Independents in practices of
buying and selling and that the
Patman bill is designed to give the
Independents monopoly. at the
expense Of the average consumer.
Opinions of unbiased officials and
economic analysts appear to favor
the chains. Secretary of Agriculture
Henry A. Wallace fears that elm
ination Of the chain stores from the
competitive field of retail food dis
tribution would result in higher
costs Of marketing and a wider
spread between prices received by
the farmers and prices paid by city
consumers.
The National Grange. an organiza-
tion of 100000 farmers in sc states,
opposed the measure because they
said the chains did much to bene-
fit the farmer through promoting
national sales campaigns to elm