HIGHER TAXES Proposal In United

Dominion, Volume 34, Issue 179, 26 April 1941, Page 12

HIGHER TAXES Proposal In United

States COST OF DEFENCE Middle Class To Bear Brunt Of Increase

(British Offlcial Wireless and Press Assu.) (Received April 25, 9 p.m.) WASHINGTON, April 24.

The Secretary to the Treasury, Mr. Morgenthau, today testified to the House Ways and Means Committee on tax proposals calculated to produce additional revenue of 3,500,000.000 dollars. The new taxes t are designed •to fall with greatest severity oir- the middle classes. In some cases they a're six.' : times more than the current rate.'

The joint committee on internal taxation countered with a plan for lighter taxes on incomes under 25,000 dollars, with heavier taxes on upper brackets, new luxury taxes and stiffer taxes on gifts and estates. It is believed the final plan -will be a compromise between the two. - ' - • .

. The Treasury proposes ou the first 2(X)0 dollars a surtax rate of 11 per cent., making an effective rate of 16i per cent., rising iu the upper brackets to more than 50 per cent. Under the Treasury plan income of 5000 dollars pays 500 dollars tax, 20,000 pays 5000 tax, and 100,000 pays 52.000 dollars tax.

Mr. Morgenthau said: "We are faced with the greatest challenge in the Republic’s history. It calls for the greatest response. I am confident American people will respond. How much is it worth to be a free man living in a free land? They are willing to pay the price. “It would be a tragic error to assume that we can expand our defences on a colossal scale and still proceed as usual. We simply cannot carry ou business or government as usual. “There must not be excess profits. American people don’t intend that anyone shall grow rich and fat out of the country’s danger. The American taxpayer stands ready to take this lew burden in his stride. We are big. .•ich and strong economically. We are tetter able to carry this load than any >ther people in the world.”

COAL SHUTDOWN

Mediation By National Board . , . '(Received. April 25, 7 p.njj WASHINGTON, April 24; The Secretary of the .Interior, Mr. Ickes and the chief of the Mines Bureau, Mr. Sayers, reported to President Roosevelt today that the nation now has only two weeks’ supply of soft coal. The National Defence Mediation Board today summoned operators and miners to meet here on Friday.morning in au effort to end the coal shutdown. ■: This action was taken when southern operators announced that negotiations with United Mine Workers . were at a hopeless deadlock. It includes northern operators and miners, though they have accepted President Roosevelt’s.'proposals to reopen the mines immediately. ; STRIKE VOTES General Motors Plants (Received April 25, 7 p.m.) . DETROIT, April 24. The president of General Motors, Mr.. Wilson, in whose company members of 0.1.0. unions are taking strike votes, said today: “We are not giving I Bcm a closed shop.” He declared that demands for higher wages were not warranted. He said- there was a strike danger always. United Automobile Workers set midnight for the completion of membership strike votes in 61 General Motors plants throughout the country. Mean while negotiations for a new working contract are continuing. The Federal conciliator, Mr. Dewey, is participating. RISING WAGES Danger Seen In United States (Received April 25, 7 p.m.) NEW YORK, April 24. A special standing committee of the American Newspaper Publishers’ As sociation said today that rising wages, . if unchecked, would produce the same chaos which the price rise caused during the World War. Unlike that period, there were now so many checks established, so little room for speculative interest, that similar disorder could not ensue unless rising wages forced price pyramiding. “The president and departmental heads all want living costs pegged, and they» are likely to remain fairly static unless wage changes are permitted to destroy tbe balance,” said the committee. “Wage increases are assuming alarming proportions, and the rate of acceleration unquestionably will make wage increases a most serious inflationary factor if the brakes are not applied.” STEEL WORKERS On Strike In Canada MONTREAL, April 23. Steel workers affiliated to the Canadian Congress of Industrial Organizations announced that negotiations at the Peck Rolling Mill, Montreal, collapsed and that a strike will begin at 6 a.m. An official of the union said that the company had refused the union’s demands for a 10 cent, wageincrease. The decision to go on strike was taken at a meeting of the plant’s 300 employees’ union. Only maintenance men would report in the morning and a picket line would be formed.