anaheim-gazette 1933-06-01

THE ANAHEIM GAZETTE HENRY KUCHEL, Editor and Publisher ESTABLISHED 1870 ISSUED EVERY THURSDAY SUBSCRIPTION PER YEAR ... $2.00 SIX MONTHS ... $1.00 Entered at the Anaheim, California Postoffice as second-class matter. BLIND MAN'S BLUFF "The change (proposed constitutional amendment No. 30) in no way increases or decreases the amount of revenue for schools but merely transfers the burden to the state." Such is the argument advanced in one of the first pieces of propaganda sent out favoring proposition No. 30, which will be decided at the special election June 27. There is nothing particularly wrong with the statement. It simply scratches the surface of a problem as deep as government itself, leaving the impression of fairness an dinnocent. Back of it lies the hand of master lobbyists who throttled the last session of the legislature. When one delves into the real proposition, however, he finds the proposed amendment a political game of blind man's bluff. The public is blindfolded with the generous gesture promising to limit and reduce taxes on real property. Proponents claim this will be done by levying a sales tax, which will pay the mandatory school costs shifted from the county to the state. The point to remember is that this is not tax relief—it is shifting of tax collections. The only real way to get tax relief is to cut expenses. The measure contemplates no such thing. Teachers' lobbyists, who tried to pull the wool over the public's eyes last fall with proposed amendment No. 9, are trusting the public will not see through this scheme which, basically, contemplates the removal of school expenditures from all control by the public itself. This bluff underlies the whole gesture of tax relief on real property. As a matter of fact, the teachers' lobby, although it was overwhelmingly successful in defeating every proposed economy in any way affecting the schools, sees the handwriting on the wall. Public clamor for governmental economies grew to include the fixed charges written into the state constitution. Numerous bills Teachers' lobbyists, who tried to pull the wool over the public's eyes last fall with proposed amendment No. 9, are trusting the public will not see through this scheme which, basically, contemplates the removal of school expenditures from all control by the public itself. This bluff underlies the whole gesture of tax relief on real property. As a matter of fact, the teachers' lobby, although it was overwhelmingly successful in defeating every proposed economy in any way affecting the schools, sees the handwriting on the wall. Public clamor for governmental economies grew to include the fixed charges written into the state constitution. Numerous bills proposed relief in this direction. Several wanted to cut the mandatory costs of either the state or the county, or both. Even the state chamber of commerce sponsored two school bills, one proposing a uniform system of bookkeeping in order to prevent juggling of figures to make them appear to be what they are not, and one granting county boards of supervisors revisionary powers over school budgets adopted by boards of trustees. No less than 35 bills were directed at teachers' tenure. While all of these measures met defeat in the legislature, only the mast blatant and misleading propaganda in the history of the state succeeded in thwarting the true will of the people. Now the educational trust, as the teachers' lobby is becoming known, proposes to put an end once and for all to cries for economies in school expenditures. The means is simple. Remove the heavy mandatory charges of schools on counties, and place them upon the state — well fortified behind the constitution. The theory is that the taxpayer, finding no great item for school expenses on his tax bill, will forget the enormous costs of education. Under the present system, 57 per cent of the total general state budget goes for public schools. Under the proposed amendment, the state's share would be more than doubled. But the costs of education would not be cut one copper penny. With the comparatively small understandable political units of counties, the public knows more and more about school costs and expenses, especially since a law passed several years ago compels school boards to publish their budgets. Since then there has been a loud and increasing demand for lessened education burdens. From the hue and cry against expenditures, the lobby figures the public knows too much about school costs. So the lobby offers a palliative tax reduction, under the cloak of which it proposes to eliminate the small political unit insofar as it affects schools, and enlarge it into one state-wide unit. This would erect an almost insurmountable barrier between the public and control of school expenditures. But the people will not be bluffed. They saw through proposition No. 9, and they will see through proposition No. 30. GOODBYE, FOREVER Well, we must admit the Victorian age has gone forever. Even the worst depression in history has not been able to bring back the cotton stocking days. FARM VALUES AND MONEY CHANGERS Simultaneously with J. P. Morgan's dramatic focusing of public opinion upon the glaring weakness of our income tax laws, Uncle Sam's department of agriculture announces that index value per acre of farm real estate for the United States as a whole on March 1, 1933, was 73, compared with 89 in 1932, and 106 in 1931. This index is based on average values at 100 for the years 1912 to 1914. The success of better government eternal vigilance ours, if we are to only way, as the our government to interest in it. He dates will support his rights be consolidated expenditures like a tax-eating monster. In other words problem of making sibilities to govern Well, we must admit the Victorian age has gone forever. Even the worst depression in history has not been able to bring back the cotton stocking days. FARM VALUES AND MONEY CHANGERS Simultaneously with J. P. Morgan's dramatic focusing of public opinion upon the glaring weakness of our income tax laws, Uncle Sam's department of agriculture announces that index value per acre of farm real estate for the United States as a whole on March 1, 1933, was 73, compared with 89 in 1932, and 106 in 1931. This index is based on average values at 100 for the years 1912 to 1914. Although these two subjects—money changing in the high places and values of farm real estate—appear as far apart as the poles, actually they have a direct bearing upon each other. One of the two big reasons why farm land values dropped from the index value of 170 in 1920 to 73 in 1933 is because taxes on real property increased steadily. The other factor was decreasing prices on farm products, but the fixed and constantly-growing tax levies on farms forced tens of thousands of otherwise solvent farmers into bankruptcy. Contrast this with financial wizardy which permits J. P. Morgan, who controls what perhaps is the world's greatest bank, to escape taxation entirely in the United States for the years 1931 and 1932, while paying a substantial income tax to England during the same period. Morgan, to show how direct a relation farm values bear to high finance, simply represents the rich people of this country. The honest element of our wealthy citizens naturally took advantage of laws which permit loss deductions when figuring income taxes. The fact that some abused this privilege adds to the injustice of our tax burden, emphasizing the necessity of making people pay for support of government in proportion to their ability to pay. The farmer has lost heavily year after year. Who ever heard of letting him deduct his losses from his tax bill. The first reaction of the public to Morgan's disclosures, and the shady revelations of Banker William Mitchell, is to put the shoe on the other foot—make the rich hear the entire burden of taxation regardless of their losses on the stock market, while the property of the farmer go free of burdensome levies. That simply would be retaliation. We sympathize with the natural reaction for vengeance, although we do not approve of such a move. In a sense, much as we resent the unfair advantage the rich have taken of the farmer and other real property-owners throughout the nation, we must admit the advantages were secured by attention of the wealthy to municipal, county, state and national government. The wealthy hired men to watch out for their interests; to raise the roof, if necessary, when certain tax measures... Every Way We Turn — By Albert T. Reid COME ACROSS OR ELSE OW SOME KIND OF RACKET OF BUSINESS MOST EVERY KIND OF BUSINESS Albert T. Reid OBSERVATIONS WE MUST HAVE A TABIEE ures would deprive them of too much wealth; to work for just such loopholes in tax laws as deduction of losses when making out income taxes. In other words, the rich fear the growing burden of government, because they realize the relation taxation bears to wealth; they appreciate fully that the power to tax is the power to confiscate. The success of the wealthy in evading taxes points the way to better government because it brings to light the necessity of eternal vigilence on the part of every person in a republic such as ours, if we are to enjoy equitable burdens, and equal rights. The only way, as the Gazette has pointed out innumerable times, for our government to survive is for every citizen to take a personal interest in it. He must make it his duty to learn whether candidates will support his or others’ interests, to constantly insist his rights be considered in all legislation, to watch government expenditures like a hawk, realizing that excessive costs create the tax-eating monster our government has become. In other words, the problem of democratic government is the problem of making every individual assume his proper responsibilities to government. THIS IS WORTH REPEATING The comment of Senator Fess of Ohio on President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s plea for world disarmament bears repeating: “I am in favor of the President’s efforts for disarmament but I am opposed to the United States joining in and sanctions to enforce a non-aggression pact.” MAUDLIN SYMPATHY How far the formerly dignified office of governor of California has degenerated into one controlled by maudlin sympathy is illustrated in a true story from Marysville, where the Native Sons of the Golden West recently held their grand parlor. When Governor James Rolph, whose constant attendance at conventions and celebrations confirms the general impression that his most violent exercise is hosting tea cups, passed the city jail at Marysville he looked in and saw two prisoners. “Sunny Jim’s” sympathy could not be restrained. He grabbed a piece of yellow paper and wrote impromptu pardons. Much as the men behind the bars might have liked to use the pardons granted them, they could not. They merely were being held pending trial on liquor charges. The attorney general ruled that pardons granted before prisoners are found guilty are invalid. So Rolph’s sympathy went astray on at least one occasion. JUST A MATTER OF CONTROL If Secretary Wallace, under the new farm law, orders a reduction of twenty-five per cent in the output of hogs, just think how many jobs that will afford — teaching birth control to mother pigs. OBSERVATIONS WE MUST HAVE A TARIFF One of the major ills that beset this country is the fact that millions of dollars of cheaply made goods of foreign countries are sold here. Those countries pay off with depreciated currency, and in return get Uncle Sam’s good 100 per cent money. SAY, PARD, GOT A MATCH; THANKS! PUFF! PUFF! It is said the tax paid into the government by smokers is quite a tidy sum. It is said a guy who smokes a package of cigars a day must work four and a half days a year at 4 bucks a day to pay his tobacco tax. PEOPLE HOLDING THE SACK When you send several hundred men to a high legislative hall to run things, and if they just mill around and do not grind out any grist, the folks out on the firing lines fail to get a car in the garage or a chicken in the pot. WIND JAMMERS DE LUXE What a wonderful thing it would be if men in high places where they do things could co-operate with each other and work for something that would help everybody, instead of chewing the rag until it is all frazzled out at the edges. THAR'S WISDOM IN THEM WORDS A man who knows his financial onions says: "Nothing is quite so destructive to the efforts to restore prices here as the presence in our home markets of foreign merchandise produced at low prices abroad, and thus brought into competition to American made goods." This is what causes unemployment here. UNCLE SAM IS SANTA CLAUS! Foreign countries that went off the gold standard have loads of what is called depreciated currency. And those same countries flood this country with their cheaply made goods. That should be stopped prunto! Going off the gold standard by a nation is a good deal like an individual going through bankruptcy. When those foreign countries, with that depreciated currency and cheap labor, get on their feet again by getting our good honest to goodness money for their cheap made wares, CHICHE Chic Gains are Vincible Height a Defeat A reprehensible Plain noted by the solace Fir their suppressed bills gatlon strenge growth which Bu ed. b Minis Much as the men behind the bars might have liked to use the pardons granted them, they could not. They merely were being held pending trial on liquor charges. The attorney general ruled that pardons granted before prisoners are found guilty are invalid. So Rolph's sympathy went astray on at least one occasion. JUST A MATTER OF CONTROL If Secretary Wallace, under the new farm law, orders a reduction of twenty-five per cent in the output of hogs, just think how many jobs that will afford — teaching birth control to mother pigs. DUAL PURPOSE RELIEF Cleaning up and strengthening of the Santa Ana river dyke east of Anaheim constitutes one of the most useful projects on which Reconstruction Finance Corporation unemployment relief money has been spent in the county. The three miles of trash which had accumulated over a period of 20 years or more at the rate of about 20 tons a day proved an eyesore to the whole district. Now that it has been cleaned up, the top of the dyke leveled, the inflammable material removed and burned and the non-combustible trash anchored as breakers for the main dyke, the city feels more secure and comfortable. Constant threat of fire destroying the dyke has been lessened; security of the city is increased. We are glad to commend those in charge of expending R. F. C. unemployment funds for their choice of projects to be furthered in Anaheim township. Besides giving 555 men employment, a distinct service was rendered the whole area. IT WILL BE FULL, ANYWAY If we get too much inflation, instead of having a chicken in every pot we may find a toy balloon in every safety deposit box. COUNTER CLAIMS A Missouri exchange suggests that the Democrats of that state who cannot get up to the pie counter can find consolation at the beer counter. But some of the boys tell us it is a little difficult to find consolation even there, so long as they hold it down to 3.2 per cent. CLEAR THE ROAD OF NAILS The price of automobile tires has just increased. Naturally, the pneumatic tire should be the first thing to respond to inflation. UNCLE SAM IS SANTA CLAUS! Foreign countries that went off the gold standard have loads of what is called depreciated currency. And those same countries flood this country with their cheaply made goods. That should be stopped prunto! Going off the gold standard by a nation is a good deal like an individual going through bankruptcy. When those foreign countries, with that depreciated currency and cheap labor, get on their feet again by getting our good honest to goodness money for their cheap made wares, why, then they will crow lustily about it, and in all probability would get back on the gold standard with a smile and do business again with fatter purses just as though nothing had ever happened; with your uncle holding the sack. BUILD TARIFF WALLS HIGHER Every day some one bobs up with a new remedy to cure the ills that beset this country. But believe it or not, so long as this government allows foreign countries to ship stuff in here that we can produce ourselves, why, we are going to have trouble. COME AND GET IT In a southern state farmers maintain a want and bargain establishment where they swap this and that and what have you. One man traded some potatoes for a suit of clothes, another turned in his used car for several settings of eggs, and an editor took corn cobs for subscriptions. THE COCK-EYED WORLD Human nature sometimes seems sort of queer. For instance, one group of men will do one thing and then another group will razz them to beat the band for doing so. And yet again, perhaps, what either group did, didn't amount to much. GUMS UP THE WORKS What this country needs, and has needed for years, is confidence among the people. For instance, when people with a little jack hide it in tin cans and old mattresses, that hurts business. And, you know those receptacles are not good interest producers. THIS WEEK IN WASHINGTON One of the first things which Mr. Roosevelt wants to do is to start his great program of public works to give men employment and stimulate business. To do this will take, it is estimated, about three billion three hundred million dollars. To get that much money the Government will have to borrow it from the investing public. It is a lot of money, but there is no doubt about the Government's ability to borrow it provided the lenders have some assurance as to where the money is coming from to pay the interest on it. It will take about 220 million dollars a year to pay interest and service charges on a $3,300,000,000 bond issue. A sales tax calculated to raise that much is now for the first time since inauguration being discussed seriously. Congressional opposition, however, may result in the new tax taking some other form, such as a "breakfast-table" tax on coffee, tea, sugar, spices and chocolate. Whatever the tax is levied upon, it will be spoken of as a "re-employment tax." Bernard M. Baruch, who was chairman of the War Industries Board in President Wilson's administration, is said to be the man picked to head up the new industrial control board. The law has not yet been passed to set up the Government's control of business and industry. The draft of the bill had not been presented to Congress as this is written. Yet so smoothly does the machinery here operate that it is only necessary for the President to say that he is going to submit a bill, when it is taken for granted that the bill will become a law in short order, and the picking out of the personnel to administer it begins at once! Nothing of the sort has been seen here since war times. Whether Mr. Baruch actually heads the control board, he certainly pulls a strong oar in Administration affairs. Mr. Peck, who heads the farm control board, is his protege. Industrial Control Plan domestic market can absorb, it may easily result in making the United States a completely self-contained nation, such as the European nations are striving to become. We shall always have to import such things as coffee, rubber and tea, and probably will always have a market in other countries for such of our products as they cannot produce, but it seems clearly in the minds of those in control now that America must work out its own salvation; in harmony with the rest of the world, if possible, but if the other nations won't play, then we must be in a position where we can go it alone and not be dependent for our livelihood on the goodwill. Farm Program Delay There probably will be some delay in starting the new agricultural program because of the effort toward international cooperation for price raising which will come to head at the World Economic Conference in London. The President's proposal of tariff truce until the end of the conference stops the Secretary of Agriculture from undertaking the acreage-reduction program and the processing tax. For an essential part of that program is the application of an equalization tax or tariff on imports, and until the end of the tariff truce that cannot be done without breaking the national faith pledged to the other nations in the conference. This will not interfere with other phases of the farm relief measure. Conferences with the interests involved, in order to bring about marketing agreements for controlled distribution and plans for acreage reduction and the leasing of lands held out of cultivation have already begun; but a large part of the year's crop of corn, cotton, tobacco and other products is already in the ground, and before the complete machinery could be set up, in any event, it would be too late to do much about 1933 production. Reports from Geneva are that there is an excellent chance that the four MACHINERY HERE OPERATE THAT IT IS ONLY NECESSARY FOR THE PRESIDENT TO SAY THAT HE IS GOING TO SUBMIT A BILL, WHEN IT IS TAKEN FOR GRANTED THAT THE BILL WILL BECOME A LAW IN SHORT ORDER, AND THE PICKING OUT OF THE PERSONNEL TO ADMINISTER IT BEGINS AT ONCE! NOTHING OF THE SORT HAS BEEN SEEN HERE SINCE WAR TIMES. Whether Mr. Baruch actually heads the control board, he certainly pulls a strong oar in Administration affairs. Mr. Peck, who heads the farm control board, is his protege. INDUSTRIAL CONTROL PLAN The scheme of industrial control is beginning to appear more clearly. Each trade or industry will be required to organize itself into a trade association, and agree within itself on trade practices, prices, hours of labor and wages. The number of automobiles or typewriters or what not that can be manufactured in a given year will be determined by agreement, as well as the price at which they are to be sold and the conditions under which they are to be made. After the trade association has come to an agreement it must submit its agreement to the Government, which either ratifies it or demands a revision. If no agreement can be reached by the men in the industry, the Government is to step in and decide for them on the disputed points. Those who have gone deepest into what is in the Administration's mind believe that this is the beginning of a new Nationalistic era. Taken with the control of agriculture and the effort to restrict farm production to what our final statement of the cost of three years of price-pegging. The initial estimate places the loss at around $165,000,000.—Philadelphia Public Ledger. EDITORIAL HIGHLIGHTS CHURCHES BEAT DEPRESSION Churches are beating the depression. Gains in membership and attendance are practical proofs of it. More convincing still is the testimony of a heightened interest in church work and a definite gain in spiritual values. A survey of the depression status of representative Protestant churches conducted by the church editor of the Plain Dealer, verifies what many have noted—a disposition of many harried by the blows of depression to see the solace of religion. Financially the churches are having their troubles. Subscriptions for the support of the church vie with doctors' bills in slow payment. Those congregations which built costly homes on the strength of probable trends in suburban growth are meeting the same obstacles which harass secular investors. Budgets generally have been curtailed, but most of them are balanced. Ministers' salaries are down, and freeway infrastructure that it is only necessary for the President to say that he is going to submit a bill, when it is taken for granted that the bill will become a law in short order, and the picking out of the personnel to administer it begins at once! Nothing of the sort has been seen here since war times. Reports from Geneva are that there is an excellent chance that the four great wheat-growing nations and the four great wheat-importing nations may get together on a program for control of the export wheat trade on the basis of prices profitable to the growers. Plans for the Federal refinancing of farm mortgages, under the new law, are chasing up rapidly, beginning with the calling into conference of the larger holders of farm mortgages by Henry Morgenthau, Jr. Chairman of the Farm Board. Congress is moving rapidly toward the enactment of the securities bill for the protection of investors, the Glass banking reform bill and the home mortgage refinancing act. The bills to regulate the railroad systems and to develop Tennessee Valley with Muscle Shoals as the center are scheduled for early passage. There is little likelihood that Congress will adjourn before June 10, and many believe it will be nearer the first of July. MARITIME EYES LOOK TO PACIFIC Norway, among other nations ranking high in world commerce, is commissioning ships to augment its operations in the Pacific. One Norwegian company, Westfal-Larsen, within the last three years has built eight liners for this special trade; these out of a thirty-ship fleet. All told, the line operates fifteen units on Pacific routes. When Great Britain, France, Germany and Italy are following similar policies for the building up of their Pacific connections, with faster and larger vessels, and with increased refrigeration space for the handling of perishable products from California, Oregon and Washington, there is rea- SANTA CLAUS! that went off the loads of what is currency. And those in this country with goods. That should go off the gold coin is a good deal through bank- foreign countries, used currency and their feet again by honest to goodness cheap made wares, a crow lustily about capability would get standard with a smile again with fatter nothing had your uncle holding. WALLS HIGHER one bobs up with a man traded some clothes, another bear for several set editor took corn mills. ED WORLD sometimes seems sortance, one group of men to beat the band yet again, perhaps, did didn't amount to HE WORKS any needs, and has confidence among distance, when people hide it in tin cans that hurts busi- new those receptacles producers. MASSACHUSETTS WILL REPORT NEXT Michigan papers have charged that their legislature this year is the worst on record. Well, on that matter, we're from Missouri.—Kansas City Star. The fellow who has nothing to boast about but his ancestors better get busy or his posterity won't have anything to brag about.—Belvidere, N. J., Apollo. OUT AT LAST The government finally is out of the wheat business. With the sale of 1,100,000 bushels in Chicago on Saturday, the Federal Farm Board and its subsidiary, the Grain Stabilization Corporation, cleared their bins and prepared for a BEER AND BOOTLEGGER And to think anybody was credulous enough to imagine that legal beer would cause the bootlegger and highjacker to resign.—Los Angeles Times. AFFAIRS ARE 80 MIXED! These days are so full of contrasts! The United States will pour millions of dollars into Muscle Shoals to manufacture nitrates so that the farmer can spread 'em on his land and raise bigger crops. And, likewise, the United States says instead of raising bigger crops he must raise smaller crops. And the brewers say that beer lends zest to the appetite and cheer to the heart and awakens the better nature in man. But the Nazis fill themselves full of beer and then go out and kick the pants off the Jews and Socialists. Oh, well, things are just naturally hard to understand right now'—Chicago Tribune. AWARDED THE WEAPON In granting a woman a divorce a judge recently awarded her the custody of the family rolling pin. She's probably one of those old-fashioned wives who haven't learned to handle a gun—Dayton Daily News.