Vagabond Editorials

Bv JacL Dionne

John D. is dead, that good old soul, We'll never see him more; He gave away a billion bucks From out his goodly store. Good thing for those who got the dough That didn't happen in OUR day, For Uncb Sam would grab it now And.toss it merrily away.

*rt:t tk:t* r$rf*

Much discussion by Mr. Rockefeller's commentators as to the secret of his long life. That's easy. He lived to be nearly a hundred because he did business through several generations when the harassments OF business and TO business had failed as yet to enter the frenzy stage of the present. Can you imagine any business man of today living to be that old? Not on your tax-ridden soul, you can't t It might easily SEEM that long; but it couldn't BE.

He lived that long because he quit business while it was still business, and before it became merely a compiler and payer of taxes, a maker of innumerable reports, the r€cipient and receiving-end of a million harassments that he never would have dreamed of in his day. He quit before sit-down strikes had come into our industrial life; before the term "peaceful picketing" had come to mean anything from stuffed clubs to sniping at airplanes bringing food to men who wanted to work. He quit, not only before, Government in business had become an weryday affair, but before the hand of Government had begun to show in regulation of every man's business.

He made a lot of money and gave most of it away to help unfortunate humanity. And then he quit in time.

LuckY John D' t

Speaking of taxes, I've been reading receqtly in various publications, about the number of salaried people in this country who pay no income taxes. And it makes me right hot under the collar every time I read how practically F'OUR MILLION Americans pay no income taxes because they get their salaries from Government, both State and Federal, and are therefore exempt. With the tax burdens we are carrying today, is there any justification under the shining stars of heaven for exempting this huge number of income receivers? Name just one good reason why this should bel r am taking the figures: ;".: from various newspapers of excellent standing, and they are probably sound. I do not believe that the tax-paying people of this land should be burdened for a single dollar to support the dregs of other lands who have found their way here; and I would like to see every citizen of this country who earns a \rage or salary under the income tax range, pay his income tax just like the rest of us. Personally, I believe in the income tax. I believe that those who have, should pay. But I believe it should be share and share alike, and I hope to see those four million tax-eaters go to paying income taxes. It would help the budget a lot.

This huge army of people are tax-eaters; they get their money out of the taxes that all we other poor unfortunates have to pay. And they get to keep it. And, since ttre number of tax-eaters is growing steadily in this country as Governmental activities increase and boards and bureaus burgeon and bloom in ever new directions and places, this already huge army of those whom we pay but who pay nothing themselves, will continue to mount. It won't be long, at the rate we are B9ing, until the man will be carrying the horse, rather than the horse the man.

And here is another U"aa, ,tt" tidbit that I know will make the sweating taxpayer happy; there are a million and one-half aliens on the relief rolls of this country. Yes, sir, the taxes we sweat to pay not only go to the salaries of four million citizens who in turn do not have to pay their share, btrt they l,ikewise go to support in idleness another tremendous army of people who do not belong in this country at all.

*tF't

The House of Representatives, after a bitter battle, passed an appropriation bill of a billion and a half dollars for relief. The bitterness of the battle was over the question of whether the money should be ear-marked by Congress, or just handed to the boys to use with their own discretion. The "no eat-mark" contingent won out. And the House and Senate members who haven't been "voting right" and who have to run for office in 1938, tremble in

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