Milford chronicle., 1961-11-10
MILFORD DELAWARE
SUDDENLY WE'RE NOT HUNGRY

SUDDENLY WE'RE NOT HUNGRY
Today we're giving you only one guess
as to the Number / expense item IN the
family budget.
You're right. It's taxes.
Remember when food represented the
heftiest outlay? The Grocery Manufacture
ers of America, Inc, slips the nasty news to
us that food -traditionally the largest bite
in household spending-is now far Outstrip-
ped by taxes.
In 1860, the country's tax bill was SIP
billiOn-cOmpared to a food bill of S7512
billion. This reverses the situation of 1889,
when the foodbill was $15.7 billion and the
tax bill came to only $12.4 billion-a fig
ure which seems almost unbelievable today
Now the tax bill is at least SO per cent great
er than the food bill, and the difference is
growing wider.
Tax collectors take at least one dollar
out of every five you fork over at the groc
cry market The buck goes for variety of
taxes-necessarily included in the end price.
And to lis all these taxes fully, GINA says,
it would take a price tag the size of the
barn door!
YOU'RE THE POOR FISH!
Neaos Item: House of Representatives.
vOtes $50 million to build neU aquarium for
the District of Columbia.
Now, let it be understood that we aren't
against fish. And we're not against aquar-
iums either. In ordinary times it might be
a dandy idea for the residents of Washing
ton to have finelnew aquarium.
But these aren't ordinary times. Our
nation is fighting cold war; government
spending is astronomical and growing more
so every day. Every hour of the day the
Federal government is spending 81 million
more than it takes in. A $40 billion deficit
is on prospect.
With the government spending that kind
of money, one might ask whats wrong
with mere $40 million for a badly needed
aquarium Again, we say aquariums are
fine-we like to look at fish, too-and for
all we know $40 million might not be an un-
reasonable figure.
But it is unreasonable we believe, to
spend milliOns-either a few millions or
many millions-for non-essentials, for un-
necessary luxuries, in an era when the in
terest on the public debt alone costs us tax
payers SO billion year.
Yes, we taxpayers are the poor fish and
that aquarium at the nations capital would
be just a symbol to remind us of it. We
have enough reminders already-high tax
es, extravagant spending, waste and ineffi-
cheney, undue federal regulations unwanted
federal welfare programs, creeping social
isn-an endless list.
~00<I>C +
AN NTI-COMPETITIVE" LAW
A proposed federal law would prohibit
"below-cost sales" 1t is vigorously opposed
by the National Association of Food Chains,
on sweeping grounds-that it is unneces-
sary, vague, anti-competitive, in violation
of the intent of existing antitrust legisla-
tion, and in opposition to the public inter-
est
The Association has developed a strong
case. 10 begin with, pricing policies which
are destructive Of free competitive enter
prise" already are illegal under the long
established RObinson-Patman Act and ad-
ditional legislation of this nature is not
needed. On practical grounds, the definition
OF ''unreasonably low COST in the proposed
bill is so vague as to make compliance al
most impossible in view of the fact that
overhead costs vary substantially among
the 5000 items handled by typical super
market Moreover, overhead may vary sub
stantially from one market to another
AS the Association points out, pricing
in the retail food industry today is tre-
mendOusly complex operation. The indus
try traditiOnally operates on a philosophy
of large volume, rapid turnover, and low
margins. But retailing is not an exact sci
ence-sO if a retailer in establishing a price
for an item underestimates either volume
or turnover he may find himself winding
up with loss instead of profit. In all
probability, if the proposed law was pass
ed there would be increases in prices, and
a lessening Of competition-at, of course,
the expense Of the consumer. And what is
true of foods, is true Of all the other major
lines of retail trade.
$1,000
LET'S FACE THE FACTS
Unpleasant facts don't go away just be-
cause we refuse to think about them. It's
much more effective to face up to them and
take decisive action.
Today we Americans are confronted with
an unpleasant fact of gigantic proportions
Eadoral Sraandincr -hocod rarocont ra,.o,aoc