Evening star., 1943-10-09

hons home . i ioS will ill., 5,, he ~
opportunity to David Lawrence.
work out something for himself in
business or must he look forward to
years Of another WPA and leaf rak-
ing?
The policies of the postwar period
are being made now. They are be-
Ing made by the Treasury Depart
ment and by the members of the
House Ways and Means Committee
and by the Senate Finance Commit
tee. These policies are tax methods
that mean American business will
have hard time furnishing oppor-
tunities to returning soldiers and
sailors.
The tax program offered by the
Treasury is not only unrealistic but.
like preceding tax bills already
passed, it completely ignores the
biggest fact about postwar econom-
ics-the necessity of businesses, es-
pecially small ones, to develop cash
reserves enabling them to cushion
the shock Of the period of declining
purchasing power.
Incomes Are Up.
With all the hue and cry about
preventing imitation, the fact is very
little is being done by administra-
ton policies to cure the imitation
that already exists. Economists
point out that the vast sums dis
tributed to the millions of workers
are not really being taxed. The net
income Of individuals is far higher
than it was before the war. AS for
businesses, most of them will show
a net income below pTeWar levels.
Many large corporations with big
war contracts show the opposite, but
the many businesses in the smaller
Classification, and especially those in
nonWar businesses which have been
held down as to fixed prices are find
ing their net after taxes much lower
than in the years before the war.
This is but another way of saying
that these businesses are not adding
to their surpluses but are beginning
to eat up those Surpluscs.
Fer Individual workers there is The
protection OF unemployment iusur-
ance. For small businesses there is
no such protection. Unless reserves
are accumulated now and seed .
money is put aside for the future
the American system of private en-
terprise will receive a terrible blow
after the war 1t will do little good
then for the electorate to condemn
the New Deal and sweep from polit-
ical power anybody who has had
anything to Go with the Roosevelt .
Administration. Such reprjsals at
the polls will occur after the DAM
age has been done
President Rooscvelts leadership
on war strategy has been superb.
but his failure to assert a leader
ship on the economic SIDE is ore of
the tragedies Of our times. The
British, under Prime Minister
Churchill, are making plans 20 keep
their businesses alive and they are
losing little time in planning for the
rnCt of tlNCi,,
cial operations. MI Roosevelt has
been so preoccupied with the war
that he has failed to note that the
American business system, which .
consists of small as well as large
units, is now being asked to pay
taxes that wipe out any chance for
reserves.
Made Jobs Decried.
Jobs can be created on a sound .
basis only By private enterprise.
Government-made jobs only mean
more WPAs and more deficits and
the American people are not likely
" app OfS VI lIIO4 { 1tdl-i dhlllG ana
public works spending on borrowed
money. Too many citizens are buy
ing bonds today and will expect their
Government to deal fairly with the
borrowers by limiting future boy
roWlngS to the minimum necessary
to maintain essential operations and
not to build up social projects or to
develop "GoVernment-made" work.
The returning soldiers who find
their Government has strangled the
private enterprise system will not
be interested in a turn to the left,
but IN a turn to the right. One
extreme is as bad as the other.
After the last war, incidentally, the
mood of the returning exservlce-
men had much to do with the vote
by Congress against International
cooperation. Isolationists were
made among our troops then and .
a deep-seated antiWar feeling arose /
which lasted through the '2Os and
the early sos and kept military
and naval appropriations on a low
basis. Mismanagement of our do
mestic economic problems now can
lead later to indifference to serious
issues of the peace.
The damage is being done now in
the mishandling of the tax problem
and in the failure to provide post
war reserves.
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