Detroit evening times. (Detroit, Mich) 1921-1958, 1944-02-18

ppoNNdi pldHHAhS' All VI our FuDHC
officials and business men are losing
sleep that we may not have a period
Of widespread unemployment.
The onus is placed upon the
business men responsible for Jobs,
the producers, and yet With our
government shouting from the
housetops that the fault wiH be
squareiy upon the shoulders of
these men, these economic royal.
lists, these princes of privilege,
that same government IS addmont
in its refusal to let these men
LAY ASIDE A RESERVE so that
they may reconUert their plants
to peacetime production and carry
their workers through'this period.
This refusal comes in two ways:
Distorted taxation and renegotiation.
I do not believe there are many
people who would want to make
money out of this war and all talk of
war millionaires is sheer nonsense.
TT is IMPOSSIBLE FOR ANY
ONE TO EMERGE WITH HUGE
SUMS OF MONEY WITH THE PRES
ENT TAX RATES BUT TT Is IN
SANITY TO TAX so THAT THERE
WILL BE NO PRIVATE BUSINESS
AFTER THE WAR.
All those not financed and
therefore, controlled, by the goU-
eminent, WiI go into bankruptcy.
My business is a little business.
employ approximately $50 people.
And because my employees are so few,
| know every one of them
They are not labor" to me. They
are people, plain, ordinary folks, my
neighbors and my friends.
| know something Of each domestic
situation and lie awake nights Won
dering what will become of Mrs.
Smith and her three small children,
old Mr.. Shippey, 81 years old, who sits
in a wheel chair and makes small
grips.
Who will pay for the operation and
convalescence Of Dicks wife? Mrs.
Keller Is working and putting money
in the bank to send her bright, young
boy to college.
In other words, my people are
cross section of millions of people all
over the United States.
They don't Want relief"
They don't lUant to become yards
Of the government and objects of
charity. THEY ARE UPSTAND-
ING, INDEPENDENT, FREE
AMERICANS.
A LII they ask is the chance to use
a their skills and the labor of their
hearts and hands so that they may
EMAIN SELF RESPECTING.
LOYAL CITIZENS, PAY THEIR
OWN BILLS, SUPPORT THEIR OWN
FAMILIES, EDUCATE THEIR OWN
CHILDREN.
And my government refuses TO
permit these people to do just that.
Either by design or through ignor-
ance, that government refuses TO al
low me 10 set up a postwar reserve
so that | may continue this bust
ness which l have spent 10 years in
building.
Not only that, but through a smart
trick called forgiveness" and getting
up-to-date-pay-as-Igo, it tackled on an
additional Is per cent.
And this so-called pay-as-you-go
tax proposes TO tax me on wartime
inventory. work in process, some of
which will not be delivered for six
months, the money tied up in expan-
sion of machines, most of them so
much Junk when the war is over.
NOT ONLY is THE GOVERN
MENT TRYING TO COLLECT A
TAX ON PROFIT BUT IT Is ACTU-
ALLY FORCING ME TO ANTICI-
PATE PROFITS ON WORK NOT
YET DONE. IT WILL TAKE AT
LEAST A YEAR TO L1QUIDATE
SOME OF THE MATERIAL NOW
ON HAND BUT APPARENTLY
THAT is JUST MY HARD LUCK,
If this scheme is deliberate. and
| think it is, ! would not be the
daughter of my pioneer ancestors if |
supinelV submitted.