Evening Post. MONDAY, MARCH 12, 1934. UNDER DOG AND TOP DOG

Evening Post, Volume CXVI, Issue 60, 12 March 1934, Page 6

Evening Post. MONDAY, MARCH 12, 1934. UNDER DOG AND TOP DOG

Under die title of "America's Biggest Tax," the "Christian Science Monitor" of January 13 quotes the "Los Angeles Times" as follows:— , Between 1921 and 1926 but 3 1-3 per cent., of all persons arrested for felonies were convicted and sentenced. Only 1500 out of 50,000 tried for crimes were found guilty. Crime costs Uncle Sam 43,000,000' dollars daily. The burden upon the taxpayer is enormous, and nothing constructive comes of it. When every man, woman, and child pays 35 cents daily each for crime, it becomes a personal matter. Even if invisible, it is our biggest single-tax item. When every child is compelled to pay 35 cents a day. out of its own pocket towards the cost of crime, the imposition has obviously, become a personal matter.even for the baby, in the cradle.. Here is an imder-dog for which the benevolent and vigilant President Roosevelt has as yet failed to provide any relief. Approximately 85 per cent, of American industry ' was reported to.; be operating under' • the codes of the.vNationft Recovery Act■ jjt the beginning of the year, but the industry !of crime is included in the exempted 15 per cent. :This wealthy and admirably organised industry is strong enough to defy an almost all-powerful President. Its operations are not limited by any of his codes. It worked in 24-hour shifts before the N.R.A. got to work, and it does so still, making up perhaps for its inability to increase them by a speeding-up in all its branches. While the general loss of, income between the years 1929 and 1932 was ' about 40 per cent.,.the profits of this privileged industry have probably increased. Without the formality of a Budget, ordinary or extraordinary, it, draws from the country about £8,000,000 a day, which is exactly the amount of the Administration's estimated expenditure for the first seven^ months of the year. ;In his capacity of universal provider.for the unparalleled distresses of a population; of 125,000,000, of whom, ' in spite of all his efforts, about 10,000,000 are still unemployed,. : President Roosevelt will be spending,>t his top speed- £1:000,000 ' a -day more than Mr. Lloyd George i was .spending: on' Britain's be- ! half, during the: World War. Let iis hope that these appalling figures j may justify1 themselves in this : casp as/they did in the other. But : while vie issue is still in doubMhe < most censorious of the President's critics will not dare to blame him if his, already almost superhuman labours prevent his grappling with a problem which, under infinitely less embarrassing conditions, completely baffled all his recent predecessors, : and of which even the armchair philosopher is unable to suggest any plausible solution. How much President Roosevelt may be able to do for the underdog within the limits of the. N.R.A. as the outcome of the conference of code authorities which he addressed on Monday last remains to be seen. lii/iis address he emphasised ■',the urgent need for increasing wages and shortening the'hours of work, and also for setting up "every safeguard against erasing small operators from the "economic scene." On neither of these-points did the President make any definite suggestion, and General Johnson who had been pressing .the first of them for a considerable time was milder than he had previously been. • Two months ago, as .reported ,by a Washington correspondent "in Uie New York "Nation^ of January 24, he had decided "to move' immediately for a national 30-liour week in industry" to replace lhe-40-hour week which is prescribed by most of the codes. Even under normal prosperity, said General Johnson, a 40-hour week would not result in the absorption of all the unemployed. Tho change must be made, and the! sooner the hotter. I realise the difficulties from the employer's standpoint. Some of the codes in force have literally raised hell in some industries. What "literally" raising hell in an industry might mean^ if the remark were literally interpreted is an interesting subject for speculation, but the i context shows that it was intended ,to express sympathy with the em- , barrassments of the employer and ■ not indignation with his wickedness. I Yet sympathy was suddenly changed to derision in the next sentence. • : Companies without cash reserves, the | [ General continued, or whoso reserves -' are frozen in. closed banks, and which are unable to borrow, will howl their J heads off..at the idea of cutting hours 5 without cutting wages. But there's ' only one way but of this depression, and that's to put people to work at I decent living wages. It will be seen that General

Johnson here touches crudely, not to say brutally, on the second of tile points submitted by the President to fhe N.R.A. Conference. Tlie "companies without cash reserves" which lie expects to "howl their heads off at the idea- of cutting hours without cutting wages" are, or include, just those very "small operators" that the President is anxious to preserve from extinction, and that, beyond question, tlie N.R.A.' on its present ' lines has been extinguishing wholesale. Big business with its ample reserves -could face the initial losses with a light heart, and might even welcome the change on account of the release from the restrictions of the antitrust legislation which was the solid inducement offered it to come in. But to many an employer working on a narrow margin and barely abje to make ends meet the code must have been a sentence of death. Many of those who scraped through may now see their ruin in General Johnson's proposal, to cut hours, without cutting wages. If • that is thenopinion, they surely have a right'to express it, and there az'e some industries in which tlie General has admitted tliat their fears would be justified. It may nevertheless be the duty of the Administration to sacrifice more of these unfortunate marginal employers in the interests of the whole nation, but it cannot be the duty or the right of any person, official or unofficial, to sneer at them when they make their perfectly'1 natural, proper, and inevitable protests as "howling their heads off." President Roosevelt does not speak in j that way; and it would be better if General Johnson followed liis exanyjle. Before tlie N.R.A. Conference General Johnson did not go beyond, the tentative suggestion that "work- J ing hours in all codes be. reduced by 10 per cent, and that this be'accompanied by a 10 per.cent.'increase in wages." On Friday a further toningdown was revealed in his statement that the Government, through legislation or otherwise, would , not immediately press for shorter, .working hours, but he hoped that such industries as could would immediately effect a 10 per cent, reduction. But neither he nor the President lias yet given us any idea of tlie relief! that, is to be offered to the small operators who are threatened with extinction. In the proceedings which j are pending against Mr. '.A.' W.-' Mellon and other alleged evaders of i taxation the President; is, however, aiming a blow at the top-dogs which j may not be highly profitable from the financial standpoint, but should have a salutary moral,effect.