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About La Grande observer. (La Grande, Or.) 1959-1968 | View Entire Issue (Dec. 28, 1959)
"Tftink If d Bsft if We Got Bdiind and Pushed?" v EDITORIAL PAGE i - - .... LA GRANDE OBSERVER I Monday, December 28, 1959 "Without or with friend or foe, we print your dally world as it goes" Byron. : RILEY ALLEN, publisher ; . : . - - Grady Pannell, managing editor 1 George Cnallis, advertising director Tom Humes, circulation manager And About Time, Too Income tax reviaon is in the air. At least there i increasing of the need for reviewing the income tax structure and ' sei'injr if its complicated machinery ' cannot bi made to apply more fairly without depriving the government of v needed revenues. All of us can look hopefully at these reports, for most must feel that there is something unfair about his particular income tax or it wouldn't be so high. The National Chamber of Commerce has endorsed the liaker-llcrlong Bill. Under its terms all individual tax payers would be jriven a rate reduction of not , less than 23 per cent over a five year period. The lop bracket would be lowered from 91 per cent to 47 per cent and the lowest bracket from 2 to 15 per cent. Corporate :. tax rates would drop one per cent per year for five years, until a floor of 37 ; per cent was reached. The bill also deals , with depreciation allowances, capital ' gains, state and gift taxes deductions. I'.ut how, one may ask, can every- , body's rates be reduced without making a comparable reduction in the govern- . ment's services which these tax moneys ' are used to pay for? The U.S. Chamber offers this explana tion: "Our tax history since the 1920s shows that within a year or two after k most reduction laws have gone into ef fect, revenues have exceeded those under the old rates. The stimulus of tax relief generates greater economic activity. This offsets any immediate los caused by low er rates." The assumption here 1s that the addi tional money placed in the hands of the consumers when their taxes were cut would so stimulate business that the amount of tax money the government re ceives would be little if any diminished. The Tax Foundation, another Inde pendent group, is beginning to do Imttlc again for tax revision. In a current 32-pago study, the .Foundation points out that while tax rates today are nearly the same as in 1952, and the taxable income brackets are exactly the same as they were 17 years ago, the impact of the tax struc ture is heavier now because of infla tion. "For example." says the Foundation, "while a married person with an Income of ?3,000 paid a tax of $269 in 1912, a married person with the same income in 1959 adjusted for changes in consumer prices over 1912 ($5,310), would pay a tax of $716. While consumer prices in creased by 77 per cent, this person's in come tax would have increased by 166 per cent." The foundation also stresses the point that the present tax structure reflects depression days' efforts to redistribute the income and the war time objective of controlling income. The Foundation repeats what needs to be repeated until some heed is given that it is morally wrong to confiscate in Come on the assumption that there is such a thing as a person having too much income. Present taxes take as much as 91 per cent of every dollar a person earns alxve a certain figure, if he is foolish enough to let his earnings go that high. No one wants to be work ing for the government to that extent, and such confiscatory rates discourage enterprise and initiative and therefore do harm to the objective of expanding business and thereby increasing tax in come. . All serious efforts to remove some of the inequities of the income tax struc ture have failed in recent congressional sessions, mainly because of ever heavier federal spending, and because of fear Of office holders that tax revision will be interpreted as helping the rich at the expense of the poor. lint at least the Subject is a live cn'ie, more alive than usual and, for the long suffering tax payer, where there is life there is hoiu. Sounds Like Real Team Work a fir,..niliro intoirrntion experiment in Winston-Salem, N.C., has beon recom mended for permanent stature. As the result of a recent annexation that community assigned a fire-police patrol to the annexed area on an ex perimental basis. Fourteen men were assigned to the company with four men on duty at a time. Two of the four are on duty at the area's new fire station and the other two are patrolling assigned areas in a passenger vehicle. Of the fourteen tnen, six work the shift of regular firemen and the other eight work the same shift as the police department. MemlK'i-g of the fire-police patrol are pnder the immediate supervision of the captain of the fire company and have the same authority as regular police officers. They take the same oath of office and are subject to the same disci pline. . , 1 The Winston-Salem city manager re cently told the American Municipal Assn. that the firc-police patrol has produced a fire-fighting team as efficient as a station-based company and h unit capable of performing almost as much police work as a two-man police car restricted to a given area. ' The police chief slated that the fire police patrol is affording letter fire and polico protection in the area covered and at a lower cost than is possibla under the conventional system, ' starts Monday, Dec. 28 Hundreds of Pairs Of Shoes For Every Member Of The Family! ALL SHOES DISPLAYED ON OPEN RACKS FOR EASY SELF SELECTION! It Will Pay You To Drive 50 Miles For This Sale! Bring The Family . . . Multiply Your Savings! Not Jus! A Few Odd Pairs - LITER ALLY HUNDREDS OF PAIRS OF NATIONALLY ADVER TISED BRANDS AT REAL SAVINGS! Below are just a few representative listings . . . .... FOR WOMEN Group 1 6 Paradise Kittens o Heydays REGULARLY $14.95 $099 Group 3 Casuals FlaSs Sports Regularly To $9.95 Sg99 ' MM Flats AUP vdT A Spor,s ,M'W - t A Regularly To $9.95 ( Step &5 $C99 v Jolene & FOR CHILDREN FOR MEN Group l- Dress Styles For lien and Yonn5J!?0 $000 Group 1 Weatherbird and Others Were To $7.95 S199 Group' 2 Happy Hiker and Others WERE TO $5.95 $099 - p Group 3 BOOTS Wedge, Logger, Regular Heels WERE TO $22.95 Group Bostonian And Others WERE TO 2150 ' $11100 . SPECIAL ITEMS All Children's COWBOY BOOTS ... '3 Off No Charges And No Layaways No Exchanges ... No Refunds ... No Returns .t. .; Every Sale Cash Every Sale Final! - LA GRANDE SHOE STORI 1214 Adams Avenue