Browning chief. [volume] (Browning, Mont.) 1941-1953, 1947-05-23
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Released by Western Newspaper Union.
TRANSPORTATION TAX WORKS
HARDSHIP ON FAR WEST
Justus F. Craemer is a California
newspaper publisher, and as such is
known to newspaper people in all
sections of the nation. He also is
member of the California public
utilities commission, and has been
for a number of years. As news
paper man his instinct and training
lead him to seek all that is due the
people he serves. AS public utili-
ties commissioner, his job is to
search for, and correct, unfair prac-
tees on the part of those serving
the public.
Either, or both, of those ca
pacities could account for
Craemer's role in leading the
attack on what he insists is an
unfair system of federal taxes
levied on n port tion
charges.
When you buy car of coal you pay
tax on the transportation of that
coal from the mine to you. But you
pay exactly the same amount OF
tax whether the coal travels 100
miles or $500 miles, and regardless
of the amount of the transportation
cost. The tax is on the weight Of
the coal, and is not percentage of
the charge for transporting it to
destination.
COAL ONLY EXCEPTION
Coal is the only commodity on
which the transportation tax is
on the basis of weight, and SO
it is uniform regardless of the
distance. All other commodities
pay transportation tax that is
percentage of the Transporter
ton charge, and SO it is more
on long haul than on short
one.
Wool is produced in every state Of
the union, but the one market is Bos-
ton and the price is FOB. that
market Should the Ohio farmer
ship carload of wool to Boston, he
pays transportation tax of 1894.
When the Wyoming farmer ships a
car of the same commodity to the
same market, he will pay fully twice
the amount of transportation tax be-
cause of the longer haul and the high
er transportation charge.
What is true of wool is true Of
every other commodity whether
from the farm or the factory.
Potatoes grown in Maine and
shipped to New York must pay
transportation tax of $3.50 on
each car, while potatoes grown
in Idaho must pay tax Of
more than twice the amount.
Craemer is especially interest
ed in citrus and ether fruits and
in garden produce. His people
must compete in the eastern
market with the products of
Florida. The shipping tax on
carload of oranges from Lake
Wales, Fla, to New York
amounts to S11.75, while the gov
eminent collects tax of S21.03
on every carload of oranges
shipped to New York from P0-
! mona, Calf.
The total of the transportation tax
collected is not peanuts, but is a
stable sum that, in the end, the con-
sumner must pay. California citrus
growers will pay to Uncle Sam as
transportation tax this year more
than a million dollars on the one
crop.
Craemer, as Californian, insists
the present method of assessing a
transportation tax on every COM
modify, except coal, is inequitable,
and he is vociferously proclaiming
that the western states, regardless
of their distance from the eastern
markets, are ahpart of the United
States and are entitled to an equal
opportunity to compete in those mar
kets. A tax on weight, as it is in the
case of coal, or on the value of
the commodity would be equitable,
and that is what he, as a Califor-
MAN, is demanding.
In California they count on Craem-
er getting what he goes after for
his people.
CALL RUSSIA'S BLUFF