2 THE NOME NUGGET Wednesday, December 8, 1948
THE NOME NUGGET
Published Monday. Wednesday and Friday bv the
NOME PUBLISHING CO.
NOME, ALASKA
Telephone: Main 125 p. o. Box 618
$1.50 PER MONTH $16.00 A YEAR
VV. A. Boucher.. ..Owner-Publisher
Emily Boucher .Local Editor
Entered as second class matter October 14, 1943, at .he postoffice
at Nome, Alaska, under the Act of March 3, 1879.
Nome, Alaska, Wednesday, December 8, 1948
“PEOPLE” PAY TAXES
(Daily Alaska Empire)
The Wall Street Journal says that a lot of people are
kidding themselves about taxes—including some re
putedly intelligent and observant economists. No mat
ter which way you slice it taxes are paid by people—
and nobody else. This financial paper notes that Presi
dent Truman recently suggested that the tax load be
taken off “people” and put on corporations and that a
labor economist has suggested that the government tax
“wealth” and use to money to pay a subsidy to cut the
cost of food for “people.”
This, the Wall Street Journal concludes, is pure bunk.
The Commerce Department has just reported that
that the total tax take of Federal, State and local gov
ernments in the past fiscal year amounted to $52,000,
000,000 or $362 for every man, woman and child in the
country. For a family of four that, if equally divided,
would mean $1,448. The average worker looking at his
last year’s tax bill will realize that he isn’t paying near
ly that much and will conclude that the balance of his
share is being paid by other people and by “things”
(corporations and real estate).
This is fallacious reasoning of the first water, and
high government officials and so-called responsible
economists are rendering no public service when they
skip over the real import of “hidden” taxes. Who can
figure out how much taxes add to the cost of a suit of
clothes, a pair of shoes or a bottle of milk? Or the rent
of a four-room bungalow? What difference does a few
more billions for social security make so long as the ex
tra is paid for by corporation levies and not by people?
No matter how you cover it up or try to hide it, it’s
“people” who'pay taxes and not “things.” The taxes
that the little man does not pay directly (in income
tax, sales tax, cigarette taxes, etc.) ,he pays indirectly
on every item of food and merchandise he buys—on
every streetcar ride he takes, on every public utility he
uses. It’s “people” and nobody else who pay for every
penny they let their government spend.
The Wall Street Journal notes in its comment on this
erroneous reasoning about taxes that the sale of aspirin
is increasing and concludes with the observation: “You
can buy a lot of headache for $362.”
CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTIONS: 1787 - 1948
(By T. Willard Hunter)
Amid the Soviet’s attempt to split Berlin into two
separate cities and disagreements of the Western pow
ers over the control program for the Ruhr, a conference
has been going on that may well decide the destiny of
democracy in Germany.
For the past few months at Bonn, a university town
on the Rhine, 70 German leaders from all 3 zones of
Western Germany have been drawing up a Constitu
tion for the new Germany. They expect to have the
Constitution completed this month, when it will be sub
mitted to the occupation authorities for approval and
then voted on by the German people in a popular refer
endum.
One of the major issues at Bonn is the “proportional
representation” election system, popular in Europe but
little used in America outside of New York City. In the
ory the system is designed to make every vote count—
each political party receiving a proportional number of
representatives t othe proportion of the vote it receives.
In practice it encourages the mushrooming of small
-AND SAT, AND SAT, AND SAT
parties and makes it easy for a militant minority to grab
control of the coat-tails of a coalition government. That
is why the communists have backed the suggestion of
this system from the beginning. In a recent election in
Essen, for example, the vote polled by the Communists
dropped from 50,000 in the previous election to 25,000,
but they increased their number of seats on the City
Council from two to six.
%
So far this decision hangs in the balance at Bohn. But
even more important than choosing the right electoral
system is the restoration of confidence of the German
people in the spirit of inspired democracy. This is where
the 70 at Bonn may make their greatest contribution.
Several members of the assembly—including Dr.
Konrad Adenauer, the deeply respected chairman—saw
a dramatization of inspired democracy at showings of
the ideological revue, “The Good Road,” in Western
Germany last month. In one of the scenes, Benjamin
Franklin speaks of another constitutional convention
not unlike the Bonn Conference. At Philadelphia in
1787 a bitter deadlock over representation in Congress
was resolved when the delegates heed the wise old
Pennsylvanian’s admonition to appeal “to the Father of
Lights to illumine our understanding.”
“I have lived, sir, a long time,” Franklin concluded,
“and the longer I live the more convincing proofs I see
of this truth, that God governs in the affairs of men.
And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without His
notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without
His aid?”
I
11
USEFUL ROOFS
(Washington Post)
The National Association of Housing Officials pre
dicts that GI housing will outlast the GI population of
American colleges and universities.
Some 474 of the institutions of higher learning, it
seems, have applied for full ownership of government
housing, erected on their campuses. In accordance with
recent Federal legislation, these colleges and universi
ties will receive without charge 727 housing projects
accommodating 88,000 students and their families. The
schools provide the sites and utilities for the structures
—which were moved to the campuses from army camps
and defense workers, housing settlements.
This “temporary” housing has served a real purpose
in relieving local housing shortages and in making
possible college training for veterans who otherwise
would have been unable to attend school. The buildings
will not last indefinitely, but they should remain useful
for some time to come.
It is one thing to pray during a crisis. It is another
thing to live so that crisis can’t happen again.
international News
At A Glance —
(Continued from Rage One
were reported, without confirma
tion, to have broken through the
communist encirclement of *hf last
two weeks. They were sam to
have made contact with other of
Chiang Kai-Shek’s troops trying
to form a defense line of the Hwai
River, 100 miles from the capital.
The fate of Nanking seemed to
depend on the 350,000 trapped
troops. The odds strongly favored
the communists. They had greater
numbers, better morale, better
leadership and doubtless better
equipment Chiang, however,
seemed to have a better air force
and the weather was clearing to
permit raids.
Another scarcely noticed '.nreat
developed in North China where
government troops were pushed
back within 25 miles of Peiping.
Shanghai was frantic and jit
erv. The city had many rumors
hat U. S. marines would land and
preserve order there, but the U. S.
Consul said it wasn’t so. The Chi
nese government extended martial
law to .he Wuhan area of central
China including the big cities of
Hankow, Wuhan and Hanyang.
Mme. Chiang Kai-Shek, who llew
from China to seek greater Amer
ican aid, awaited an interview
Friday with President Truman.
Russia demanded in the United
Nations that the U. N. Korean
commission be ended. The ccmmis
ion, which was barred from North
Korea which Russia occupies, was
called a “tool of American mper
iaiism.’’ The Russians appea. ed to
be filibustering to bloc action on
a resolution calling for recogni
tion of the government ot South
Korea and empowering the com
mission to work for a reunion of
North and South Korea.
President Syngman Rhee of .he
American-sponsored South Korean
republic authorized that nation to
apply for full U. N. membership—
something Russia doubtles- would
veto.
The communist rump govern
ment of Berlin called for remak
ing Berlin’s economy in line with
the iwo-year plan for the Soviet
zone of Germany. A postal block
ade froze exchange of mail in the
divided city.
The U. N., driving for week-end
adjournment, put off action on the
future o; t ie Italian colonies until
the general assembly meets again
in New York April 1. The security
council’s Palestine commi 11 e e
called up a report by mediator
Ralph Bunche about the council’s
order for troop withdrawals from
' the Negev desert of Southern Pal
■ estine.
i
Hitoshi Ashida, premier of Jap
an until Oct. 6, went to jail on
bribery charges.
The Russian news agency Tass
asserted American agents were
more active in Iranian Azerbaijan
which borders Russia.
Julian Huxley, the British sci
entist retiring as director general
of the United Nations educational,
scientific and cultural organiza
tion, said the growth of the world’s
population is a greater threat than
war to civilization. The world had
a billion people last century, will
have two billion this century and
three billion next century, Huxley
said, adding:
“The final and inescapable fact^
is that resources are limited.'*
In an hour and a quarter, the
present day American steel indus
try can equal total output in the
year 1860.