Milford chronicle., 1955-07-29
DEVOTION TO DUTY


DEVOTION TO DUTY
Former President Herbert Hoover, who
will be 81 years old in August, can look back
on public career that has had few, If any,
parallels in the history of the republic.
When Mr.. Hoover left the presidency in
1888, he had even then reached an age when
most men look toward retirement and the
tranquil satisfaction of a seQuestered life.
But Mr.. Hoover never laid aside his vital
concern with the nations fortunes at home
and abroad.
Herbert Hoover should have the warm
gratitude of all Americans for his extraor-
dinary and unselfish devotion to public duty.
Mr.. Hoover has always stressed the phil
osophy of government upon which this ma
tion was founded and which has been the true
source of it's strength and well-being. Not
long ago he expressed that philosophy in
sentence when he said: "The remedy is to
restore the checks and balances of power,
to reinvigorate state and local governments
and to defate the bureaucratic empires"
<&UA&
TWO KINDS OF EQUALITY
According to bureau of Labor Statistics
records it looks like the old and obviously
good idea of paying people according to their
experience, skill and productive ability, is
back in style The idea of economic levelng,
which started in the New Deal days, result
ed in pay raises on a cents-per-hour basis
across the board This benefited the lower
paid less skilled workers much more than
the experienced and capable people in high
er wage brackets and tended to draw the two
ends of the wage scale together.
i In 1850 we began to get back on the track
as the trend shifted to percentage wage
raises which result in the increase being a
proportion of current income, instead of an
arbitrary dollar-and-cents figure. This is
good news for America and everybody in it.
People have different capabilities and you
can't change that, so the best thing to do is
recognize and take advantage of it.
Our country was built on the idea of
maintaining as much equality of opportunity
as is humanity possible The alien and de-
should be buried deep and forgotten. 1t
could build nothing but national mediocrity
1~So@S[
EASY PREY
1t is said that once lion discovers hu-
man-beings are easy prey he will abandon
his usual diet and dine strictly on people.
This kind of reasoning is not confined to
the king of beasts. Tramps are supposed to
leave a secret mark on the doors of homes
where they have been received with OPEN
handed hospitality. Swinders and confidence
men exchange sucker lists" of people who
are susceptible to gyp schemes. Shrewd
statesmen have way of picking out gullible
the inventory can be unloaded.
Similarly, government-when looking for
more tax money-stalks those particular tax
payers it considers easy prey-the groups
rated unlikely to put up an effective defense.
Unfortunately for the gasoline consumers
of this country, they seem to have a reputa-
tion for being the easiest prey of all. This
line of thinking shows up sharply in the pro-
posed national highway program now before
the y. S. Congress. The program itself has
been advocated on the grounds that it's es-
sential to national and civil defense. This
means it's program designed to benefit ev-
cry American in every walk of life. But when
it comes to providing the money to pay for
this program, just one group of citizens is
tapped: The motorists and other consumers
of gasoline.
That's why Congress, without even the
formality of a public hearing, has advanced
a proposal to boost the two cents per gallon
federal gasoline tax so per cent for defense
roads and pile other new special taxes on
motor vehicle owners.
There's no logic behind this proposal no
logic at all. The federal gasoline tax has
neUer been connected with roads up to
now. Furthermore, national defense pro-
grams are supposed to be supported by all
the people That's traditional No one group
pays special tax to build battleships or
bombers.
lie TACT is, TIE RsSoilHe consumer is the
very first name on governments sucker list,
and has been for years. Look at the top
heavy state and federal taxes he's already
paying on gasoline.
In the lion country, whenever one of these
great beasts turns man-hunter, the whole
community joins forces until the lion learns
that man is not such easy prey as he had
seemed. Not until the 100000 licensed
drivers of this country make similar Wig
OrOuS and combined effort in their own self
defense will they rid themselves of the repu-
tation that puts their names first on the menu
OF predatory tax srenders.