The Wyandotte news-herald., January 24, 1946, Page PAGE FOUR, Image 4

About The Wyandotte news-herald. (Wyandotte, Mich.) 1943-1963

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PAGE FOUR
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Published Semi-Weekly by THE WYANDOTTE NEWS COMPANY
3042 Fust Street, Wyandotte, Michigan Phones Wyandotte 1166 - 1167 - 1168
Politically Independent Owned and Printed in Wyandotte
Member National Editorial Association
STRAUSS GANTZ Managing Editor
E. RAYMOND SAGE Advertising VIRGINIA ELEMENT Society Editor
KENNETH BRETHEN Advertising PEGGY MARIETTA Classified Advertising
ELISABETH BROWN News Editor ALMA BOWERS Trenton Correspondent
ERNIE EPPS Sports Editor
Politician's
Plight
It’s just possible that, although they cer
tainly weren't in Japan at the time, Ameri
can political bosses of both major parties
may have been among the victims of the
atomic bombs that fell on Hiroshima and
Nagasaki.
A The existence of political bosses has ai
rways been made easier by clear-cut issues
one party from another. High
tariff versus low tariff, and so on. Such
tissues have made politics easy. All a poli
tician had to do was to find an issue to
which a majority of the people seemed sym
pathetic and then find a candidate to spear
head it.
Unfortunately, since that atomically-lit
high noon in Hiroshima, no issue has so
consistently and completely occupied Amer
icans’ thinking as saving Buffalo and New
Orleans, Takoma and Jacksonville, from a
similar fate. All the evidence suggests that
a Republican is just as afraid of being vapor
ized as a Democrat, and that a Democrat
can be atomically annihilated just as instan
taneously as a Republican, which means
that the first likely-looking bit of Presi
dential timber who comes out with an in
telligent and forthright plan for saving the
world from destruction is going to cut across
party lines so fast and so thoroughly as to
catch the politicians with their issues down.
Something like that happened recently when
Captain Stasscn of the U. S. Navy said, in
effect: “Lets forget this nonsense about
keeping the atomic bomb a secret. It isn't
one. Let's stop talking futilelv about out
lawing it as a weapon. Any desperate na
tion is likely to use it. Let's not pretend that
the United* Nations Organization, as now
constituted, can possibly prevent atomic
warfare. Let’s realistically face the fact that
nothing short of a world government can
possibly exist in an atomic age.” Now ex-
Governor Stassen is. theoretically, a Repub
lican; that that kind of talk doesn't sound
like anything other Republicans have been
saying. And it certainly doesn't sound like
anything Democrats are voicing. Asa mat
ter of fact, it sounds rather like what a
lot of plain American citizens have been
trying to say. A man who talks like that
belong to no party; he belongs to the people.
Europe's Death
March Continues
When the survivors of Bataan’s death
march came out of their Japanese prison
camps, nothing was too good for them. The
emaciated skeletons who had been heroes
in defeat were the object of a nation's care.
If they had needed our sacrifices to give
them food to rebuild their strength, the
Hood of red points would have buried the
Capitol.
But if those men had been cut off from
cur aid and become dependent upon our
allies for their food, we would have ex
pected them to get the best —well, anyway,
as good as our allies give their own soldiers.
If our allies had done less, inter-allied friend
ship could hardly have stood the strain.
The United States is doing less, much
less, for the heroes of Europe's death march.
Millions of men and women and children
who have survived a terror equally hor
rible and twice as long as that which the
men of Bataan went through must look to
the United States for the food to rebuild
their emaciated bodies:
Faced with that responsibility, there ought
to be no question of talk. There should not
have to be as much talk as is taken up
by this editorial. There should only be food
and lots of it and fast.
Think Or Die
We Americans are good fighters all right.
By winning a war we have proven that we
can fight our way out of a difficulty. But
now, wdth the atom bomb and other marvels
of science, we are confronted with another
and even greater difficulty: how to pre
vent another war which, if and when it
comes, will probably blow most of us to
kingdom come.
We can’t fight our way out of this dif
ficulty; we have to think our w r ay out. and
the next few years will show whether we
are as good thinkers as w'e are fighters. A
group of eminent citizens recently met in
New Hampshire and issued a declaration
that the only way out is world government
—a world government with the power to
make law's and force obedience to them by
everyone everywhere.
They made out a good case. But most
Americans are unwilling to admit the neces
sity of such a world government, first, be
cause we are quite nationally attached emo
tionally Jo our own national sovereign state
above all others, and second, because to
think ourselves into the idea of a world
government represents probably the most
difficult mental advance the human race
_has ever had to make.
It is no belittlement of the heroes of the
batlefields to say that in a way it is harder
to think than it is to fight. Most of them
would understand that and agree to it. The/
had to fight or die. Now' all of us, the heroes
included, must either think or die.
THE WYANDOTTE NEWS - HERALD
THURSDAY, JANUARY 24, 1946
Make It A
March Os Dollars
Part of the American tradition is the aid
and cooperation fellow Americans give to
those who are afflicted and need their help.
Thousands of Americans have now volun
teered their services in behalf of a great
cause—the March of Dimes to raise funds
for polio victims by the National Founda
tion for Infantile Paralysis.
The support given by Wyandotters in past
campaigns proves that they understand the
desperate need for funds to carry on the
battle ... to assure victims that one day they
will walk . . . and play again .... relieving
the suffering in homes where the tragedy
of polio has struck . . .
Infantile Paralysis is an expensive, un
predictable disease which flares up again
and again despite the attempt of modern
medical science to stamp it out.
So once again Wyandotters are asked to
help in the fight .. . and make the March of
Dimes a march of dollars to rescue some
child from the crippler.
Veterans Beware!
The dawn of anew age finds us plagued
by the hangover of war.
Dislocations, insecurity, unrest, uncer
tainty are the dangerous by-products of vic
tory. They can be the seeds of future strife.
The preservation of the peace, as the win
ning of the war, rests largely with the
12,000,000 young Americans who, in uni
form, fought fascism.
1 heirs is still the choice of whether we
“do or die. ’ Let 12,000,000 veterans be
ware ....
We have all inhaled, as it was planned that
we inhale, the poisonous propaganda of our
conquered enemies. Such fumes are not
easily exhaled.
The native counterparts of those we met
on foreign battlefields know that our casual
ties are more than those whose sacrifice is
marked bv little white wooden crosses and
Stars of David. They know the poison of
hate we breathed in the heat of war can
still destroy our Victory. They seek to
divide the 12,000,000 into conflicting camps,
to set group against group, to set fighting
comrade against fighting comrade on bases
of religion and race and other distinctions
which the heat of war should have dissolved.
Those among us who fought against the
victory, who would now play upon war
conditioned minds to keep strife alive, know
their target for today—the 12,000,000.
V'e must never forget that the 12,000,000
strong are strong only if they know that
their welfare depends upon the welfare of
our nation. 12,000,000 veterans are not apart
from their mothers and fathers and sisters
and brothers, they are a part of the national
whole. We fought a war because man forgot
that he is his brother’s keeper, forgot that
security is indivisible. Let the veterans be
ware of those who would separate them
from their families and from their
comrades.
Flank Attack
The House Committee on Un-American
Activities, sired by Representative John E.
Rankin of Mississippi and dominated by
him, has carried out an indirect, but very
effective attack against eight radio com
mentators. The committee accused the men
of nothing. It simply requested that the
radio stations and networks which employ
them furnish the manuscripts these men
used for their broadcasts over a tw'o-month
period. That and nothing more—except that
the names of the men were printed in the
press as persons “under investigation” by a
Congressional group concerned with “Un-
American” activities.
We submit that that action is of deep con
cern to all of us in the United States. Two
of the commentators have already been
taken off the air; a third remains only be
cause he refused to accept his (sponsor's offer
to be “released” from his contract; whether
the sponsors of the five others contemplate
polite ‘ releases” w’hen their contracts ex
pire, is something of which of course they
would not speak now. The fact is that every
radio commentator in the country has been
given notice; he has received unspoken, in
direct, but unmistakable warning that mere
announcement of an interest com
mentaries by the Rankin committee could
cause him to lose his sponsor, lose his job,
be cut off the air, be denied his Constitu
tional guarantee of freedom of expression.
That is w'hy, aside from the natural sym
pathy all Americans have for any man per
secuted by unfair methods, w'e are con
cerned.
Freedom of expression is one of the sacred
things for which Mrs. Brown’s boy lost his
life on the Rhine and Mrs. Jones’ husband
lost a leg at Okinawa. We don’t think that
the survivors of the one or the family of
the second should be denied any of the
freedoms that cost so dearly. And we want
those freedoms for ourselves too. We recom
mend that Mr. Rankin and his colleagues in
Congress take care not to attempt to deprive
us of them without due process of law
What Can YouSpare?
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(Dr men for Victory Clothing Collection for Overteat Relief by Paul O
Bat ten field, Chicago Timet,)
Michigan Mirror
by ne allcman
Wanted in Michigan: A master
• plan of taxation.
The present scramble of govern
mental units in Michigan for a
share of the promised $27,000,000
surplus in the state treasury on
July 1. 1947 serves only to re-em
phasize the need for inter-govern
mental distribution of tax revenues.
It certainly does not justify the im
position of new and added taxes.
When the state legislature con
venes Monday, Feb. 4, the tug-of
war will begin.
Already legislative committees are
at work hearing appeals for part
of the stat:'s kitty at Lansing. Sen
timent to date among the house and
senate finance committees is said
to favor expending two-thirds of
the surplus for state educational
institutions and asylums, leaving
one-third or approximately $9.-
000.000 to be spent for other wor
thy needs.
• • •
Finding a solution to Michigan's
tax problems is like looking for a
'needle in a haystack. It might be
accomplished, but the chances ap
pear to be slim.
In November. 1944. just ahead of
the 1945 general session of the leg
islature. a special tax study advis
ory committee released a recommen
dation, following months of exhaust
ive study, whereby the productive
3 per cent state sales tax would
be reduced to 2‘i per cent for pur
pose of state revenue with the spec
ific authorization that any city
might impose a supplemental rate
of *4 of 1 per cent for local revenue
purposes.
Cities which elected to operate on
the 3 per cent basis would receive
one-sixth of the tax revenues col
lected monthly.
• • •
The goose that lays the golden egg
is the state sales tax.
Here is the most productive, pain
less and easy-to-collcct tax yet con
ceived.
The little three cents on each dol
lar of retail sales brought approxi
mately 51 millions Into the state
treasury during the 1938-39 fiscal
year, a year in which the state’s
expenditures EXCEEDED its rev
enues by a substantial margin
Those were the years of deficits and
red ink at Lansing. Deficits, in fact,
prevailed at Lansing during the fol
lowing depression years: 1932, 1933.
1938 and 1939.
The first two years 1932 and
1933 refl cted the tailspin of the
stock market, bursting of the pros
perity bubble, and the Michigan
bank holiday. The last two years
1938 and 1939 marked the per
iod ts industrial unrest and unem
ployment, featured by the historic
UAW sit-down strike in 1937 under
the Murphy administration.
From a 51 million revenue point
in 1938-39, while the treasury was
running a deficit, the golden state
tax has mounted annually. For the
1943-44 year it yielded 91 millions,
and in 1944-45 it rose to 99.3 mil
lions. The current year, ending June
3. 1946, will see a Turther rise to
around 108 millions.
It is easy to see that the state
sales tax has DOUBLED revenue in
15 years, and the end is not yet in
sight.
• • *
Unfortunately there is no unani
mity of opinion on just how taxes
should be levied and by whom.
Mi-higan voters have rejected a
state income tax over and over
again.
Experts go Into huddles, now
commissions are appointed, and still
the answer is far from being found.
The certainty that the federal
deficit, already of staggering pro
portions, must continue at a high
peak for many years to come, with
an inevitable price of interest an
nually, is none too re-assuring to
thrift-minded taxpayers. The cost
of running ths federal government
will continue higher than ever be
fore. Higher wages of federal em
ployees, retirement pensions, veter
ans' benefits and larger expendi
tures for military requirements all
contribute to the postwar picture
of high taxes.
• • •
Amid all the feverish rush to get
a slice of the state melon at Lan
sing, the following observations are
in order:
A return of unemployment, such
as was experienced in 1932 and 1933
and again in 1938 and 1939, would
probably bring a return of deficits
in the state treasury. Hence the 3
per cent sales tax, now in the “plus"
bracket as to actual needs, may be
a life-saver again when human
wants come to the fore.
Local governments state,- coun
ty. school and municipalities
might well re-examine their tax
structures and put their house to
order duringg the boom years.
Michigan is one of four states
with a sales tax as high as 3 per
cent ou* of a total of 23 sales tax
states. Illinois has cut its tax from
3 to 2 per cent; California from 3
to 2’ 2 per cent. Hence there appears
to be some justification for a def
inite program in Michigan of fi
nancial assistance to distressed lo
cal governments.
“That’s the house for us”
...and here’s the way to finance it:
A low-cost mortgage at our bank
9
with payments that will fit
♦
each purchaser's budget.
WtMDITTK SHIMS Bilk
WYANDOTTE, MICHIGAN
Continuous Banking Service Sitwe 1871
MAIN OFFICE
Middle Avenue and Elm Street
BRANCHES
Oak and Tenth Streets Biddle and Daria Streets
Member of Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation
Member Federal Reserve System
Letter Box
To The Editor
News-Herald
Dear Sir:
We, the A Capelia choir, wish to
extend our deepest appreciation for
the recognition accorded us in your
paper. Thank you very much.
A Capelia Choir
“BETTER THAN A GIFT
FROM HOME”
To The Editor
News-Herald
Dear Sir:
This is Pfc. L. Guinn again. I
thought I would drop you a few
lines to let you know what a swell
job you did with that article I
sent about the ships being used to
take POWs home.
The article was sent to me by my
folks and when the fellows over
here saw it, they felt better than
if they had received a package from
their folks.
It seems to me that no matter
what angle a person finds to work
on against the way the army does
things the government always finds
a loop-hole.
. . . I’ll close now ... I want
to thank you again and with that
“thanks" goes a million more from
all the boys who feel the same
way.
When a fellow sees an article like
you printed in the Wyandotte
News-Herald he begins to believe
there is such a thing as freedom of
speech and freedom of the press.
Leonard Guinn
PROTECT SCHOOL CHILDREN
To the Editor
News-Herald
Dear Sir:
I'm writing this letter to you in
hopes that you may be able to do
something for us taxpayers.
The red light here at Eureka and
Twelfth has been out of commission
for a month now. The people around
here all have phoned the police
about it. All they tell its is that
they are waiting for parts.
If they are waiting for parts to
fix it, why don’t they put a cop
out here during the time that our
children go and come from school?
TAXPAYER
Quotes Os
The Week
“Unless we get production quick
ly we’re either going to have a bad
deflation or a real, extreme infla
tion.”—U. S. Senator Homer Cape
hart, Ind.
“It’s an attempt to rob men of
their freedom.” Pres. William
Green. AFL, on proposed fact-find
ing law.
“There's not 30 cents’ worth ol
cotton in a $3 shirt.”—Rep. A. S
Camp, Ga, protesting proposed
OPA price ceiling on cotton.
S'Xfc.
One of the vital things about
taxation, in the opinion of Assist
ant Secretary of the Treasury Roy
Blough, is that it concerns so many
people with different occupations
and points of view.
Blough prefers to take a con
structive view about taxes—a sub
ject which most of us find easy to
gripe about—and he is convinced
that Individuals and business in
general are in a healthier financial
condition than ever before. In fact,
ho anticipates business will be so
good within the next few years that
the nation will have a surplus in
the Treasury and will be able to
retire its huge public debt.
Get Out Bugs
As Director of Tax Research for
the Treasury Department, Blough
knows Federal taxation from the
inside and is quick to admit that
the tax system needs smoothing
TIKE EIRE
of ijouriclj
Sometimes a motorist who takes good care
of his car forgets to take care of himself.
Then he is in trouble, gets sued, loses a lot
of his money, gets stranded, stuck with no
one to help him, maybe loses his license.
The best and most popular way for the
motorist to take care of himself is to join
t he Auto Club and insure with this Exchange.
Nearly a quarter of a million fellow motorist*
in Michigan, members of the Club, will tell
\ou that.
Detroit Automobile
Inter-Insurance Exchange
Attorney s-in -fact: Ralph Thomas
Chas. B» Van Duscn Roy M. Hood
John J. Ramsey , General Manager
at Automobile Club of Michigan
Open 2913 BIDDLE AVE. Open
Evenings Wyandoite. Mich. Evening*
A. D. Olmstead, Mgr.
Call at the Division Office 1472*3 4
For More Information
out. There are bugs In the tax law
which do not interest the mass of
people very much but which must
bi gotten rid of if business is going
to be stimulated.
A native of Pittsburgh, Blough
got interested in tax matters after
some time spent in teaching at
Manchester College, where he won
hi?- AB. He has been in charge
oi tax research for the Treasur\
since 1938. He makes his home 1;
Arlington, Va.
His first public job was as statis
tician for the Wisconsin Tax Com
mission, and after three years h*
was appointed chief statistician
In the middle 1930s he served a*
assistant director of research ant
statistics for the Federal Enter
gcncy Relief Administration ant
as consultant for the Social Se
curity Board.
7m