The people's voice. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1939-1969, 1949-06-24

for the workers. 1t does seem sim
The revenue squeezed from a We
this country is UNNECESSARILY more
In fact, when taxation gets beyol
heavier the taxes the smaller the 81
point has been reached The fisc
$22 billion for this six months perit
will actually be short by 81 billie
that means that there will be continl
shortage in the semesters to come
deficit financing, selling new bonds
The expenditures for unproductive
effort, army, navy, air service, At
lantic Pact, arming Europe, our war
in Greece, ERP, holding Japan and
Germany will this year take % to 25
billion dollars. The debt of 1852
billion will be increased. How high
the spirits of all of us would rise if
this vain expense were reducing the
debt in one year to $3.50 billion, and
the entire personnel of the military
were put to useful work supporting
themselves, instead of living by the
sweat of others.
1t seems impossible for men in
high place to realize what billion
dollars is. Eighty years ago the
mines became active in Butte, the
richest hill on earth. Directly and
indirectly, underground, in mills and
smelters, and in farmers and cloth
iers for the miners, certainly 10000
men and women have been employed,
lie, hard at work for 60 years to
produce, reduce, refine the ores of
Butte. But the grand total, gross
value, market price, no deductions of
any kind, for all the metals, copper,
zinc, silver, gold (and some rare
metals saved, in all these years
from the Butte mines has not yet
reached the figure of three billion
dollars. Big output has lasted 60
years. Think of the labor of 10000 |
people for 60 years; think of the
lives lost in accidents; think of the
lives ruined by dust, the back-break-
ing work. Yet, the product for all
these years from all these workers,
still totals less than So billion.
Yet a man who tells from plat
forms that he worked in these mines
voted in congress last year to donate
TO the rotten Chang, nationalist,
racketeer black market, numbering
gang of grafters in China, three and
)ne-half billion dollars. This is 500
million dollars more than the Butte
mines have produced in 80 years.
He could have read in three progress
i've newspapers in his home state in
March, 1948, that all China would
,e Communist in two years. That
t would all be money squeezed from
American labor and thrown in a rat
lole. He was reelected. He now
lses long Latin words to explain the
ause of the falling standard of liv-
ng in our own country. In the
words of Shakespeare:
"What Fools we Mortals Be-" t
He was on the house committee I
f foreign relations, and held himself I
ut as a student of Chinese affairs. c
| voted for Henry Wallace, and | t
till think he is the only man promi- T
ent in public life with brains a
nough to bring us peace and plenty. Y
said publicly that if Dewey were {
lected he would break the country n
1 one year; if Truman were elected =
e would break it in two years. Both v
stimates may be too long. The =
Iurray plan for quick, large expen- 7
itures for valley authorities, school u
uildings, hospitals, highways, is all I
nat can save it now-but Democrats i
nd Republicans will wait too long to q
ut it through. The steady increase :
| unemployment is the beginning of h
he end. e