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About The commoner. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-1923 | View Entire Issue (Sept. 1, 1921)
l.i SEPTEMBER 1921 The Commoner m Plutocratic Logic ' It is doubtful whether plutocratic logic has ever been advanced so brazenly before as it is now. "Take the tax off the profiteer and thus relieve his victim" is one cry; "Reduce the tax on big incomes and the rich will invest their money and restore prosperity" is another. The logic of it is, "You might as well put ALL the taxes upon the poor at once, if you put any on the rich they will shift them to the poor or bring on a panic." The Chicago Tribune has made itself the champion of this piracy. It says editorially: "What will meet with greater opposition is the proposed reduction of surtaxes on incomes of $66,000 or more to a maximum of 32 per cent. If such reduction stimulates business suf ficiently to 'increase general prosperity and all small incomes the payers of taxes in the lower brackets cannot legitimately protest. Ordinarily the man of small income from ,$5,000 to $20, 0UU does not invest his surplus in industry. He spends most of it. Some, perhaps, he' puts into a home, some into life insurance, and some into an emergency" savings fund. The capital for in dustry, new enterprises, and the expansion of old is furnished from higher incomes. The total of such liquid capital is estimated at approximately $0,000,000,000 a year in the United States. When high surtaxes drive half of this vital flu'd of prosperity into the backwaters of tax exempt, securities, reducing the sources of trade and the streamvof industry by half it is evident tjmt many barks on that stream will go -ashore on the sand bars. . j ' ', "The new tax plan is designed to turn this an nual stream of capital again into the main cham nel of business. That would give-us all a chance to -navigate. Wise legislators will support such a purpose, regardless of demagogy and the mis representation of partisan opponents." What do you think of that?. And it is "demagogy" to advocate; justice. in taxation. My, what a multitude'bf demagogues' the Republican congressmen' wilL'have' to meet' next year. ''''; - w.nJ. BRYAN. . ,,THE. JEWS Mr. Myer Block, Talmud Society, Boston,1 Mass. My dear Mr. Block: If the charges made against the Jews were based upon deliberate and intentional misrepresentation, it would be sufficient to . expose tlie motive and prove the falsity of the. charges, but when, as in this case, they are, as I believe, based rn prejudice hon estly entertained they must be met in a spirit of candor and frankness, Wrong doing must be shown to be,INDIVIDUAL rather than racial,, and, when discovered, must be condemned and punished by all regardless" of race. A wrong doer sins against his own race more than against others because- of.- the odium he brings upon those of his blood. It is well, too, to show the high character, public spirit, patriotism and philanthropy of con spicuous members of "the race, like Brandies and Untermyer in the law, the Strausses and Rosen wald in philanthropy and Rabbis Wise and Hirsch in the pulpit. Such names should pro tect the race frbm any general indictment' based on the acts of Individuals less representative. Your truly, W. J. BRYAN. PUTS IT UP TO RETAILERS (From the- Kansas City Star.) Figures placed yesterday in the hands of Judge George E, Kimball of the county coui't . by the industrial department of the Chamber of Commerce, show that .practically every ar ticle sold at wholesale in Kansas City has de creased substantially in value from June, 1920, to June, 1921. , ; . Althqugh the schedules, were prepared solely to give the county board qf equalization an equitable rule- for appraising stocks of goods, they constitute, vin the opinion, of those who have examined tnem, a jlean bill of health for the wholesaler in the present .controversy over whether the retailer or the wholesaler is obsorb ing the lion's share of the reduction in values known to be taking place.. The schedules were compiled by the chamber with no thought of . proving any point, and merely as a conven ience for the boar, E. W, Mentel, industrial commissioner of,, the . chamber, ' directed their preparation. , , , , Striking reductions in the wholesale price of food products,. have .come ab.out.- , In,;the cas.e of, coffee, it is 63 per. ceVt.. Sugar,, is down 75 per cent from the June, 1920, level; beans, 44 per cent; peaches (California), 48 per cent; apri cots, 44 per cent; rice, G8 per cont; corn, 3G per cent, and tomatoes (canned in both cases), 37. The smallest reduction in that line is chocolate, si per cent. Candy was Just half its former level, and corn syrup experienced an even great er reduction, 60 per cent. Crackers and mo lasses both declined 40 per cent, and, flour 38. -Even the box containers decreased 37 per cent, and paper bags 45 in the year. Cigars and one type of steel, of all the other commodities listed, remain at the June, 1920, level. There is no change at all in cigars, al though the judge's list shows that stocks car ried over have depreciated 25 per cont In value. The steel usdd in making artificial limbs costs 3 per cent more this year than last, but other materials used in the industry have decreased 55 per cont. Next come foundry materials, with .n 18 per cent decrease. One of the most sur prising showings is that the cost of the raw ma terials used in printing has declined 60 per cont. The decrease in the heavy chemicals class is 47 fTer cent. With one exception, dry goods, the commo dities used about the -house have declined in price very close to a third. Rugs are down 37 per cent; linoleums, 28 per cent, and window shades, 43 per cent. Furniture generally is down 30 per cent, with the variation ranging from 20 points above that flguro to approximate ly tho( same degree below. , Canvas products, particularly tents and awnings, are down 34 per cent. General hardware lines -.how a decrease of 24 per cent, and what might -be called the "pat ented" appliances, washing machines,' electrical appliances, sporting goods, door hardware and the like, 26 per cent. Millinery is exactly a third . lower, but wholesale 'dry goods generally are practically half what they were 49 per cent to be exact. Steel products, by which is. meant galvanized sheeting, steel plates and sheets, and like articles, are a half cheaner. Paper js 24 per cent below the June, 1920, prices. The schedules will be used by the equilization board as a "sliding rule" to approximate the present value of stocks on hand in Kansas City establishments. Formerly a concern's assess ment jwas the result of a hit and miss lowering of 'itsrdeclared value on the part of the owner,( and a1 raise on the'part of the board. This-year it will be possible to attain a reasonable value without the "jockeying." NAMES THE U. S. DELEGATES A Washington dispatch, dated Sept. 9, says: President Harding announced officially this afternoon- the names of the four men he has ' chosen to represent the United States in the international conference for limitation of arma ments. They arp Charles E. Huches. Elihu Root, Henry Cabot Lodge and Oscar W. Underwood; Mr. Root and Senator Underwood have not been tendered places on the delegation formal ly, but the President has no doubt they will ac cept. Each of the five maio'r powers the United States; Great Britain, France, Italy and Japan will have only four delegates, under .the pres ent 'agreement, but each will bring along ad visory commissions much larger in number. The American advisory mission, as tentative ly planned, will number about twelve. On it will be women, labor and farm representa tives, army and navy experts and others. The administration stressed, however, that the per sonnel of the advisory mission would not be chosen solely because they represented groups, the President emphasizing the purpose of the administration to discourage class or group de mands, but to select representative Americans . REAL DEPRIVATION . This has been a very severe .summer in Chica go, the worst; since 1916. In 1916 there were 535 deaths in Chicago from sunstroke; this year, up to last Saturday, there have been but 23. Physicians say the decline is due to the absence of beer. That's what the eighteenth amendment has done, gentlemen; it has reached out and deprived the wbrkingman of his sun stroke. Kansas City Star. The railroads complain bitterly that the EscIit CummiriS law did not bring them the 6 per cent guarantee that it carried, because the rates de manded were so high that not enough goods were carried to earn it. Sad, of course, but- it is unlikely that the railroad managers expect the farmers who have been selling corn for 40 1 tvio nnat fhfim 80. cents to raise to Bhed many tears ovpr the condition of an Jndustigr. that didn't vmake as muclas it thought It would... Fighting Enforcement The wet3 arc now combined to prevent en forcement. They are terribly afraid "personal liberty" is going to bo violated by search and seizure. It might ease the matter some if a man who objects to search of his residence would make affidavit Uiat ho Is not concealing nny liquor unlawfully, but the wets who have liquor would promptly object to such Inquiries. To object to search of an automobile without a warrant Is to advocate unrestrained violation of the dry law; an automobile could got out of the county before a warrant could be issued. Search does not disturb the innocent and. the guilty can not woll complain. W. J. BRYAN.. . A PLAGUE OF POLITICS There aro approximately 6,000,000 unem ployed in the country today. For those men and women and to their de pendents there is one paramount issue. It is work. - But Mr. Samuel Gompers, Mr. William Jen nings Bryan, and other Democratic politiciais in House and Senate have begun a beating of the tom-toms, and the tune is an old one. The com mon people are being betrayed again, and the obvious inference is that they must turn to Mr. Bryan, Mr. Gompers, Mr. .. Kitchen, and tlie Democratic leaders to save them. If it is good sense to trust the same guides who got you-rnto a bog, to get you out, the Democrats, including, of cdurse, Mr. Bryan, Mr. Gompers, and Mr. Kitchen, should be called back at once! Mr. Gompers' organization prejudges the pro posed tax revision, which is characteristic, of Mr. Gompers' Democratic partisanlsm. It de mands on behalf of the idle workers "something . real, something constructive something that will not add to their burden while allowing the rich to escape," which seoraB to mean the retention of the excess profits tax and the present scale of higher income surtaxes. The federation views the raising of exemptions affecting the small taxpayer as "a sop thrown to the people." Mr. Gompers wants the retention of the ex cess profits tax. He pretends that to repeal it is to rel'evo the "war millionaires and great0 corporations." We think Mr. Gompers knows , better. If he does not, he ought to make an ; honest inquiry into the facts. If he will do that, not as a member of the Democratic party machine but as a real friend of the idle work ers, he will find that the excess profits tax does not work as he thinks or pretends to think it does. Fair students, of taxation, who are as sin cerely anxious for a just distribution of taxes as Mr. Gompers or ivfr. Bryan, and we think a' good deal simcerer, hold that the tax is worse than iifeffectivo, since It resulted intlie pyramid ing of prices as well as in the encouragement of extravagant expenditure. We think Mr. Gompers knows it has been a failure, and perhaps Mr. Kitchen does, too. But the temptation to make political capital of the fallacy oh which the tax was built is too great to be resisted. There is no respect for the facts shown in the A. F. of L. pronouncement nor in most of the attacks made on the tax revision prbgram in congress. The Democrats are re sponsible for the present taxation. It is human that they should try to ignore its faults, but they ought to have enough concern for the coun try, now in a serious condition of business stagnation and unemployment, to drop dema gogy arid try' to work out a revision which will relieve constructive business-and stimulate it to go forward. Mr Gompers is talking nobly about the 6, 000,000 idle workers, but he is acting. like, a small bore unscrupulous politician. His appeal is not to facts or to reason but to class prejudice and ignorance. The country In the presenfc'sit uation deserves better from him and from the other Democratic leaders who, while pretend ing to be defenders of the oppressed poor, are .trying to block the measures whidh by stimulat " ing business- confidence and enterprise should presently bring relief. Six million Americans want jobs. They are not going to get them under the guidance-of Messrs. Bryan, Gompers, and Kitchen. Chica go Tribune. ; . Congress took a recess to give the committee, that has the new tariff bill in charge further time to figure out how the United States may continue to sell foreigners large quantities of Its food products without making a market in this country for the goods that the foreigner must sell to somebody for money in order to:payv ior me -ioouscuus. ,. ? s 3 11 J ,; ,m t ;fff a ' T - T I " 1L. C' 1 it. ' .1 fi JCfk ,V. ? hil -i'l j r W i Vb to '- -. ,1 h A ),. 'S ''' W?. .i I .21 A JL' a ti ii i "; i- i) f&i&L ,,ttUi.iiaifr, j'i-'Aim&;,-'niKiAit.. : !Mfe44tt&- x3.iu:('i lxi.,:j&t- ,jt5-- ,;kjg rJL