Askov American., 1943-06-24


try's largest railroad systems.
In a recent speech he advocated an
America-firSt postwar rubber pro-
gram that would make us absolutely
independent of all foreign sources of
supply. His speech was a slap at
the theories of Vice President Henry
A. Wallace and other global planners
who have suggested a resumption of
imports from the tropics to spread
Americas material wealth among the
worlds underprivileged
when peace comes" said Mr. JET
| fers, ''let'S see to it that we Amer
leans are looking after us Americans
| Certainly we should be friendly with
our present Allies but this does not
mean that we should scrap hundreds
of millions of our money invested in
synthetic rubber plants.
''Next year." said he, well make
| 850,000 tons of synthetic, more rub
ber than was ever imported. 1t can
be manufactured here as cheaply as
it can be imported, certainly more
cheaply than it can be imported from
as far distant as Malay and the Dutch
East Indies And we'll make syn
thetic as good as natural rubber.
'I've been a shepherd of the gov
ernment's rubber program and at
times have had to use the crook" )"
he continued, referring to his quar-
rels with President Roosevelts off,
cial family. "And the use of the
shepherds crook was not in vain
The public doesn't yet understand
just how close America came to
collapse owing to rubber shortage
! That shortage will be ended by late
1914"
When the war is over we will
have to relocate between 40 and so
million men and women who are now
| engaged in war work, or actual COM
bat service. To do that effectively
and economically it will be necessary
to create new industries and the man.
ufacture of synthetic rubber promises
to give steady employment to many
thousands. Surely, from that angle
alone we cannot afford to scrap the
synthetic rubber industry that has
been created at cost of about 700
million dollars of American money.
Let those who advocate the scrap
ping of this most promising industry
remember that following the last war
the British-Dutch rubber cartel ran
the price of rubber to the American
consumer up to $1.24 pound where
it should have been 18 or 20 cents
pound. They were able to do this
because they had us at their mercy
That must not happen again. To
prevent it we must make ourselves
independent and self-Sufficient in
every possible way after the war.
Only in that way can all Americans
be profitably employed and the
American standard of living main
tanned.
Good News
The Presidents signature on the
pay-as-we-earn tax bill was hardly
dry before the Treasury department
announced that it would be neces-
Sary to raise an additional 16 billion
dollars in revenue. Now, we are told
that IL billion will be sufficient.
Where to get this stupendous sum
without dislocating business is Civ
ing the membership of the Ways and
Means committee all kinds of con-
Germ. We cannot look to corpora
tions for any appreciable part be-
oil oSI
much as the traffic will bear. That
is equally true of those in the lower
and higher personal income tax
brackets, so part of the burden will
probably fall on those having in
comes between $4,000 and $25, ,0O0
Other sources of revenue must be
found. Many advocate a sales tax
but what we are up against there is
that 30-odd states already have a
sales tax ranging from 2 to 10 per
cent. Were the government to i'm
pose 10 per cent sales tax it would
mean 20 per cent sales tax to the
people of Mississippi, and that rate
is out of the question. A better
source would be manufacturer
sales tax which could be easily COL
lected and at the same time would
be comparatively immune to chisel-
ing.
Certain excise taxes such as on
liquors and tobacco are certain to
be increased although the cigarette
tax now amounts to about 81 100 per
acre which is many times the value
of the land upon which the tobacco
is grown.
On per capita basis the Amer
lean is now the most burdened tax
payer in all the world. Other coun-
tries do not have the multiplicity of
taxes that we have and the Ways and
Means committee is determined to re-
vamp the whole tax structure in
order tO SimpIifv if and at tha Same