Imperial Valley press., 1942-10-30
CAPITAL TALKS
by
Peter
Edison

/
! billion tax bill fool you. The $S
! billion tag covers just the amount
/ of the increase in taxes which il
is hoped the new law will bring in
Total revenue which the Treasury
estimates it will take in during a
year under this law and the hold
ever provisions of PREVIOUS federal
tax laws is S24 billion.
But with the federal government
now operating on a budget of S78
billion for the fiscal year 1943, this
means that the difference between
S78 billion and S24 billion. or S54
billion. will have tC be raised by
borrowing. Sales of war bonds and
stamps will raise S12 billion, but
that still leaves S42 billion to be
raised by loans from banks.
Here you have the principal rca-
son whv the Treasury Depart
mcnt will ask Congress for an
other supplementary tax bill, aft
er election. Best dope is that
when il comes. il will have to
include sales tax. Budget for
1914, by the way. may be over
90 billion. which can only mean
still more taxes for 1914.
War Department has found a new
way to win the war outside the
main entrance of the Munitions
building in Washington there have
been assigned two military police
officers, one a major. the other a
captain or lieutenant. Their job
is to see that officers leaving the
building salute properly, have their
caps on straight, their coats prep
erly buttoned.
One thing the Senates cotton
block overlooked when it tried to
stop Rubber Director William M.
Jeffers from going ahead with a
rayon cord program for heavy duty
Army tires is that rayon cord truck
tires don't have to be tested They
were first introduced as "rayo-
cords" in 1887 and have been on
the market for truckers ever since,
a proved commercial success.
Another point the cotton SEN
atOrs didn't develop is that this
rayon is made from short staple
cotton fibers. There is sur
plus of short staple cotton, which
is raised principally in the south
eastern states. Long staple cot
ton comes principally from the
Mississippi delta, Texas, Arizona
and New Mexico. So the Army's
/ ms nf
hurting the cotton farmers, is
really new market for them.
What the rayyO-cord program
hurts is the manufacturer of cot
ton cords.
! All the trouble that the US,
South and Central American re-
publics are taking to increase pro-
duction of native rubber in Latin
America has raised the question of
what happened to Henry Fords
Amazon valley rubber growing ex-
pertinent. Fords first paintings
were killed by a blight.
New paintings had to be mode
and the years of nursing had to
run their course again while the
trees matured. The rubber tapped
at Fordlandia, as the plantation is
called, will be shipped north this
yea.
War production Boards appeal to
! 81 million American families to
reduce their purchases of canned
goods by one can week is being
questioned by scme cannery people
WPB figured this curtailment
would save 10000 tons of steel and
26OO tons of tin year-enough
steel for 5000 tanks, enough tin for
36C. 900 hoWitzers.
But the cannery people figure it
like this: 81 million cans week for
50 weeks a year is 1912 million cans
or 1874 million dozen cans, which
is moro than the pack of the en-
tire nation in a normal year.
Asking people to cut down
their buying of canned goods just
keeps the metal i'm the cans on
the shelves i'm the stores, which
is metal boarding.
Gamers say it doesn't make
any difference to them whether
the people restrain their pur-
chases or not, because the stores
are going to sell every can that
can be put up, anyway.
Where the danger lies is that
people may buy up these canned
goods and hoard them in pantry
or basement, thus boarding the
metal, too. The appeal to the pub
lie should be directed, say the cam
ners, against boarding and towards
buying only what is needed for i'm
mediate consumption.
Gas, water and electric companies
complain tc Washington that theil
meter-readers can't get into peo-
pies houses to do their work. Rea-
son seems to be that so many
hoarders have stocked up on tires
sugar. coffee, canned goods anc
even gasoline. to such an extent
that they lock up the cellar anc
because of their guilty consciences
won't let even the meter-reader'
have a lock, for fear they'll be re-
ported.
Justice James F. Byrnes, the new
director of economic stabiliZation
has kept his staff down to ONLY
five assistants, which is a record 0,
some kind for Washington. Blu
one of the assistants is from th'
Bureau of the Budget, an inevitable
appointment for every new govern
ment agency that intends TO grow