Milford chronicle., 1947-02-28

taxation it should look squarely at this grim
fact: the small and medium-sized enter
prise is taking the worst beating under pres .
ent tax policy.
The big business, with reserves of capital
built up over many years, IS better able to /
look out for itself. But the small business,
with its current tax burdens, cannot obtain
and keep the wherewithal necessary to rap
id expansion. Money that, in past times,
would have gone for new plants, new develop
ments, new employment, now goes to the tax
collector.
Senator Gordon of Oregon put the issue
well when he said that, once we make it I'M
possible for the small concern to progress and
reach its proper place in the economic sum-
we are paving the way for monopoly. And
monopoly is the surest road known to social
ism-with it's destruction of all traditional
American freedoms.
The tax structure must be revised to per-
NIT all enterprise to grow, to compete, and to
become big if it has the capabilities. That is
the way this nation was built. That is the
way we became the worlds greatest and rich
est power in a century and a half. A tax
system which says, in effect, 'small business
must remain small" will prove ruinous to all.
OUR REACTION TO the price of any
commodity is naturally conditioned by past
experience. Anyone who compares today's
prices, for example, with those of 1941 or
1886, is due for shock. And it is very easy
to get into the habit of thinking that nor
NAL" prices, to which we will some day re-
turn, are those of a vanished year in which
a five-dOllar bill would do job that it takes
ten or twenty to accomplish now
The hard truth of the matter is that
r1I'icaS arn NOT OOinO tO YptI1,.p tbo ,or,o,,,
bered lows, short of an economic debacle of
the utmost severity. We have, for example,
some $4,000 100000 worth of Federal debt,
which in itself is an infiatonary factor. We
are paying record wages to all classes of la
Dor, and IN many important fields, output
per man-hour has declined while costs have
risen. We are fastened with the highest tax
es, corporate and individual, in our history,
and these are reflected inevitably in all prices.
We are, in short, living in a high-prced econ
omy, and there can be no valid comparison of
the present with the past.
The best we can hope for is honest value
which is simply the lowest prices, quality
for quality, commensurate with the cOndi-
tlOns of the times. The American merchant,
whether he operates a little crossroads store
OF an outlet for a national chain SYSTEM is
the consumers most dependable friend in
giving us that. He is the man who pares his
operating costs in order to hold prices to the
minimum, and to lower prices when he can
He is the man who buys with care, so that
the customer will get the most for his money
He can't perform the impossible-b he can
and does do all in his power to protect the
purchasing power Of that green folding stuff
YOU carry IN your wallet.
THE SATURDAY EVENING POST re-
Gently published an editorial which should bt
read and remembered by every coal miner ir
the United States. Entitled, "Will Coal Price
Itself Out of the Market?" it deals with /
simple and incontrovertble economic truth
which Mr.. Lewis followers seem to hav,
forgotten.
The Post says, Demand for any commo
dlty for which substitutes exist can never b.
considered fixed OF taken for granted" Goa
IS our primary source of industrial energy
but other sources, such as oil and natural gas
can be employed for many of the same pur
poses Coal, in other words, is a competitiv
commodity-and it must seek its markets i
the'face of growing competition.
The Post cites a few thought -prOvOkin
statistics. Not so many years ago, all raj
road locomotives were cOal-fired Durin
1945, on the other hand, the Glass railway
installed 534 diesel and electric locomotive
!. as against only 109 powered with steam.
similar situation exists in the field of hon
heating. In 1910, 80 per cent of all FHA
financed homes used coal. BY comparison, {
the first $4,000 permits issued for hon
!, building under the veterans priority plal
but II per cent specified the use of coal
: and the balance specified other fuels.
Some of these changes are evolutional
in nature, and to be expected What the
do, however, is to point to the possibleqec
! nomlc consequences to an industry when IL
= cost of producing its product rises dispr
), portionately To quote the Post once NOR
q q 1T is certainly no service to the miners
: make eXtravagant demands which can on
:, result in such drastic increases in cost as
= price coal out of its market and coal mine
out of jobs
The primary interest of labor, in al
field, is the preservation of profitable pl
: gresslve industry capable of providing co
e tlnuous employment. Beyond a certain poil
y higher wages can only result from increas