Evening star., 1944-10-16

It's outstanding Frank r. Kent.
CHARACTERISTIC, due to the nebulous
nature Of its ideas as well as the
duplication, overlapping and con-
f1icting character of its multitude
nous boards, bureaus, commissions
and agencies.
Recently, however, evidence has
been furnished of new kind of
confusion-a confusion among the
higher officials with the closest
White House relationship, a reluc-
tance to confine themselves to their
own fields, tendency to enter other
fields in which they have no excuse
for intrusion.
T Take, for example, the cases of
Mr.. Henry Morgenthau and Mr..
Harry Hopkins. The former, as we
well know, is Mr.. Roosevelt's Sec
retary of the Treasury. which GER
tainly would seem a full-time job
for even the most competent of
men.
Morgenthau Sells Plan.
A few weeks ago, apparently in
state of bewilderment, Mr.. Morgen-
thau appeared to think that he was
Secretary of State, or possibly Sec
retary of War, instead of Secretary
of the Treasury. At any rate, he
produced a plan for the postwar
treatment of Germany, which was
a subject altogether in the realm of
the Secretaries Of State and of War
and with which the Secretary of the
Treasury had no conceivable busi-
ness whatever.
The plan was very comprehen-
sive one. 1t urged the postwar aboli-
ton Of all German industry and the
compulsory reduction of the Ger
man people to a nation of small
farmers and farm hands.
Mr.. Morgenthau not only produced
this plan but, 1t was reliably report
ed sold it to the President, who sent
for him to come to Quebec, and
seemed pleased, indeed with the
idea.
1t was only after Secretaries Hull
and Stimson had grimly made clear
their unshakable opposition and it
had been widely denounced not only
as economically unsound but as pro-
viding DR.. Goebbels with exceedingly
effective propaganda, tending to pro-
long the war at cost of many
American lives, that Mr.. Roosevelt
backed away from it.
Exactly what gave Mr.. Morgen-
thau the notion that it was his busi-
ness to solve this problem has not
been revealed. Nor does one know
who really originated the plan of
making Germany an exclusively
agricultural nation. Probably no
one ever will know these things
now, as the whole business has been
completely ditched.
A somewhat similar case of con-
fusion appears to have overtaken
Mr.. Hopkins, who, judging from his
article in the current American
Magazine, for which he was highly
paid, is under the delusion that he
is Secretary of the Treasury.
Perhaps, when Mr.. Morgenthau
reads this article, he will better un-
derstand the feeling of the uncon-
suited Mr. Hull and Mr.. Stimson
concerning his brilliant scheme for
settling the great problem of what
to do with Germany.
Anyhow, it is quite certain that
Mr.. Hopkins did not clear his ar
ticle with Mr.. Morgenthau or Mr..
Hillman or even Mr.. Elmer Davis,
through whom year or so ago
everybody was supposed to clear
everything of the kind-but hardly
any one did.
Hopkins Tax Program.
In this article Mr.. Hopkins lays
down The most comprehensive post
war economic and tax program for
this country yet put forward.
He urges that the excess profits
tax should be removed as speedily
as possible; that depreciation rates
should be permitted to vary in
accord with actual capital expendi-
lures of business; that in years
when businesses make large capital
outlays they be permitted to de-
preciate capital costs much more
rapidly than now allowed; that
persons earning SIS or less a week
should pay no taxes, direct or in
direct; that individual income-tax
rates in the upper brackets must
not be so high as to remove incen-
tive for assuming risks, ETC., etc.
These and other of Mr.. Hopkins
ideas on the subject seem curiously
sound and conservative for so ardent
a New Dealer, but what is of more
interest is how Mr.. Hopkins qualities
as an economist and a tax expert.
Neither his career as a social work
er, nor his record as administrator
of the defunct WPA, nor his sub
sequent career as the Presidents
closest friend, seem to provide the
necessary experience for that.
The only previous utterances of
Mr.. Hopkins on the subject of taxes
was that famous statement of his
that 1--WE are going to tax, tax, tax;
spend, spend, spend; elect, elect and
elect"
OF course, Mr.. Hopkins vehe-
mently, but most belatedly. denied he
had made that statement. But it
was so plausible and so true and so
typical that few people believed him.
Gov. Dewey in a speech few weeks
ago quoted that unforgettable re-
mark, though he failed to give Mr..
Hopkins the credit which is his due
Anyhow, until the publication of
this article that was the only time
that can be recalled when he showed
any interest in the tax question at
all.