Milford chronicle., 1960-05-06
5000
KEEP THE ENGINE RUNNING

Government should never engage in COM
mercial business when private enterprise is
ready and able to do the job-and pay taxes
for the privilege. This is a self-evident fact,
if we intend to keep this free country, in
which private initiative is the engine of eco-.
nomy.
If government does engage in CONNER
cial business, necessarily or otherwise, the
least we should demand is that it charge
prices that honestly meet all the bills. 1t is
manifestly wrong for all the taxpayers to
have to pay a part of the costs run up by
those who patronize below-coSt government
business projects. But that is what the tax
payers must do in the case of parcel post.
Despite the increased charges that recent
ly went into effect, parcel post continues to
be operated on a deficit basis. 1t contributes
largely to the annual losses run up by the
post Office department as a whole. And that
can't be shrugged off on the grounds that
parcel post is an agency of public enlighten-
! ment and information, as are the letter,
newspaper and magazine mails. Parcel post
is 100 per cent commercial, just as it is 100
per cent competitive with taxpaying private
parcel carriers.
Numbers of authoritative surveys, in
Guiding one by the second Hoover Commits
sion, have pointed to the need for adjusting
for all the costs involved-the indirect as
well as the direct. When will that be done?
1SS@%S
A TAX ON KNOWLEDGE
Is it the function of the Internal Reve-
nue. Service to decide what kind of advertis-
ing business should do to sell its products
or to protect itself?
Many people will regard that as an ex-
tremely hypothetical question: without foun-
dation in an existing reality But it has been
raised by Eugene +. Rlnta, Executive Dlrec-
tor of the Council of State Chambers of Com
merce-and with full reason.
The Internal Revenue Service has held
that certain advertising placed in newspa-
pers and magazines by certain businesses is
not legitimate business enterprise, and
hence is not deductible item for tax pur-
poses. The advertising in question involves
legislation and government policy The pri-
mary target of the IRIS ruling has been the
electric utility industry which, as a life and
death matter, opposes the ever present cam
paign to socialize it. However, non-utility
enterprises are also involved.
What this amounts to, as the American
Newspaper Publishers Association has point
ed out, is "the suppression through the tax
ing power of the opportunity for acquisition
of knowledge by the people in governmental
affairs" In other words, the right of the
people to know, as well as the right of enter
prise to present its side of vital controversial
issues, is subjected to heavy tax penalty.
AnQ CnlS pOllcy cOul0 De very Iar-reacnlng
indeed. AS Mr.. Rinta observes, it could even
affect such organizations as local Chambers
of Comraerce-for the reason that they lend
their support to community improvement
projects, such as school bond issues, which
often are involved in legislation.
If any man, or organization, or any in
dustry can't speak its mind without paying
tax penalty for the privilege, free speech
is in sorry state in this country Proposed
laws fO correct the IRIS TulinU are npndinp in
Congress. One should go on the books with
dolau