Image provided by: Morrow County Museum; Heppner, OR
About Heppner gazette-times. (Heppner, Or.) 1925-current | View Entire Issue (June 16, 1932)
HEPPNER GAZETTE TIMES, HEPPNER, OREGON, THURSDAY, JUNE 16, 1932. PAGE THREE SAVING FACE A friend was telling me about Big Business in China. No man ever is discharged there, he said. If it becomes necessary to remove an employee the boss ar ranges to have a friend tip him off. The next morning the doomed man appears in the boss1 office. "My uncle in the most remote province of the Chung River is very ill," he explains. "It is necessary that I should go to attend him." The boss assumes an expression of distress. "Why, to reach the Chung River and minister to your uncle and then return will require more than two years," he protests. "Nevertheless, I must go." "Noble fellow," says the boss, em bracing him. "Do your duty, and though your journey keep you away for years, have no fear. Your place will be kept open for you." The next morning and every morning thereafter the two men meet on the street, but there is no embarassment, no sense of inferior ity on the part of the ex-employee. Face has been saved. I remember one of the first men for whom I worked in New York, and one of the wisest I have ever known. He called me in one day and said: "I want you to think up some way by which X can be prompted to resign." I was astonished. "After he resigns," my boss con tinued, "I think I can help him to And a more congenial place. But he's no good where he is. "I always try to be very careful in these cases," he explained. "I don't want it written on my tombstone that I ever dealt a blow to a man's self-confidence." This employer was almost as wise as the Chinese. As our civilization and our business grow older we all shall learn some of the mature wisdom of these older people. They know there are things in life more important than efficiency and pro duction and quotas and charts. They know that the human soul is more Important, and that all the operations of life should be con ducted so as to increase its dignity and self respect Said Mencius, the ancient China man: "The people are of the high est importance; the gods come sec ond: the sovereign is of lesser weight" Trying Out the Sales Tax By CALEB JOHNSON. SONS A great man's son usually has a hard time to gain recognition on his own merits. What made me think of that is the appearance in the news of three sons of former presidents. "Jimmy" Garfield is to be chair man of the Resolutions Committee at the Republican National Conven tion. Richard Cleveland will make the nominating speech in the Dem ocratic National Convention for Governor Ritchie of Maryland. And Archie Roosevelt is leading the fight to limit Government aid to veterans to those who actually suf fered disability in the service. Ar chie has a right to take that posi- tion, as he is himself a war cas ualty. Abraham Lincoln's son, Robert was president of the Pullman com pany and a successful business man. General Grant's son Freder ick had himself a distinguished mil itary record. Mr. Taft's son Char les is a successful and distinguish ed lawyer. And "Young Teddy" Roosevelt, as Governor General of the Philippines, is making a repu tation on his own. All of these, and other famous men's sons, had a hard time over coming the Idea that they were trading on their fathers' reputa tions. TELEVISION Several hundred people sat In a London theater and saw the fa mous Derby race reflected on a screen as It was run, on June 1. The figures were not much more than silhouettes, but it was actual tele vision. So far nobody can say positively when television in anything like a perfected form will be available to everybody with a radio set. Per haps never. Many engineers think the cost will always be too high for the private home, but they ad mit It may become possible to throw clear-cut images, as clear as the average motion picture, on a screen in a theater while a football game or a horse-race or what not is ac tually going on. A lot of bright young men are wnrklno- on television, trying to dis cover new means of accomplishing it- Some of them will surely hit it, in time. COLOR Human nature Is peculiar and nowhere more so than in exhibi tions of popular misbeliefs and prejudices. Just now, for example, motorists refuse to buy yellow gasoline be cause of a wide-spread belief that s It "gums up the motor." Now, pure gasoline comes from the still with a slight yellow tinge. To make it "water-white" It has to be bleached with sulphuric acid. That adds to the cost, but the motoring public pays It rather-than buy.it yellow. Red, pink, blue green, any other color of gasoline except yellow, is readily accepted. But because some rvWnrint tnH nnnther. who told an other, that yellow "gas" was bad for the valves, filling station ioikb will have nothing to do with It be cause they can't sell it. COLDS Colds are caused by germs. If there was any douDts or mat, me proof seems to be at hand. A med ii nnmmiuinn which has been studying colds has found several places where nobody nas a com un less some outside visitor brings it In. One of those places Is the island of Spitsbergen, in the Artie ocean. Minora nrhn umrli there sleep in damp, stuffy underground quarters and are exposed in tneir worn iu In which they sweat profusely. Everybody knows there Is no surer way to "catch cold" than to live and work under such conditions. But they never have colds! Nevertheless, as long as we live where we are exposed to cold in fctions, it is just as well to take precautions against them. PORK It looks as if people were begin ning to realize that it is bad busi ness to spend the taxpayers' money for unnecessary things just to help a local Congressman get re-elected. One of the big "pork-barrel" items of Governmental expenditures for years has been the building of ex pensive Post Office buildings in towns that didn't need them. Two towns, that I know of, and perhaps others, have notified their representatives In Washington that they don't want $70,000 Post Offices. One of them is Rawlins, Wyoming, and the other is Tuxedo, New York. Cowboys and millionaires are in agreement for once. Coquille A considerable increase in the growing of root crops is in dicated In Curry county this year as an attempt on the part of farm ers to reduce the cost of feeding dairy cows and sheep, says R. M. Knox, assistant county agent. Among the varieties being used are the Bortfleld turnip, introduced a few years ago by the Astoria branch experiment station, and which has been rapidly gaining in favor, especially among the coast farmers. Dallas Ordinary hydrated lime has given good control of the spit tle bug In the strawberry planting on the farm of Joe Brogan of the Oak Grove community, according to a report received at the office of Ceunty Agent J. R. Beck. The lime was simply thrown into the crown of the plants where the spittle bugs were working, Mr. Brogan said. A duster is usually used. Wanted Combining by the acre. You pull the machine or I will. De pression prices. Write Cecil Sar gent, lone, Ore. 13-17p I think it Is as certain as any thing in the future can be that eventually the United States will adopt a general sales tax, as a means of raising national revenue. I am sure that will come about as soon as the majority of people un derstand exactly what is meant by a sales tax, and when they have had an opportunity to observe the operation of the sales tax in the state of Mississippi. . Mississippi has gone boldly ahead and adopted a sales tax, which went into effect the first day of May this year. After a month's exper ience everybody In Mississippi at least everybody who can make his voice heard seems to like the sales tax. That goes even for those who were bitterly opposed to It Mississippi's sales tax is expect ed to yield about $4,000,000 a year. The state was up against a treas ury deficit of $12,000,000, Inherited from former administrations which made appropriations In excess of tax revenues. Something had to be done. It was generally agreed that real estate could not stand any higher taxes. I don't know what intelligent- member of the Missis sippi legislature it was who first brought in the idea of a sales tax, but whoever he was, he ought to have a medal for getting a new idea through the heads of legislator! For, after all, the main objection to the sales tax is that it is some thing new and being new, members of Congress and of legislatures are afraid of it for fear that In some way it might injure them politically to be for It People, generally, are conservative. They distrust change. But they are not nearly as conser vative as a good many politicians think they are: The theory of the sales tax Is not so .muoh that everybody pays it, as that everybody knows that he is paying it. There is no tax, of any kind imaginable, that is not paid, in the long run, by the ultimate consumer. That is something poli ticians, or some of them, under stand, but which they think the av erage man in the street does not understand. It is one of the most prevalent delusions among law makers that they can make people think they are not paying taxes when they are. And there is no way of concealing from the man who pays a tax of two percent when he buys a radio, or a bicycle, or a Panama hat, the fact that he him self is paying the tax. Every time one buys a pack of cigarettes or playing cards now he is reminded of the tax he pays, when he breaks the revenue stamps. As long as there is any consider able body of people who think that they do not pay taxes, that the governments revenue is derived only from the rich, there will be large bodies and groups of people trying to get money from the gov ernment on the theory that it comes out of somebody else's pockets. When any sort of a tax is so dis tributed that everybody pays it and knows that he is paying it, then there is a much better chance that everybody will take an Intelligent interest in how the tax money Is spent by legislatures and Congress. That is one of the soundest argu ments in favor of the sales tax. The best argument of all in favor of the sales tax, however, is that it is the one tax which is automatic ally distributed among the people In precise proportion to their abll ity to pay it. If there were a sales tax of two percent, let us say, on every article of commerce, then the man who spends $500 a year would pay $10 in taxes, and the man who spends $5,000 would pay $100 in taxes, and so on. The man who spent nothing would nay no sales tax; the multi-millionaire who spent half a million dollars a year would pay $10,000 in sales taxes, if the rate were uniform on all commodities. Every scheme of sales taxes ex empts from the tax certain classes of commodities, however, such as necessary food and low-priced clothing, so that people of low in comes pay proportionately less than those of high incomes. The principal outcry- against the sales tax everywhere has come from retail merchants who, in the ab sence of any exact knowledge of the subject assume that they will have to absorb the tax, that It can not be passed on to the consumer. In Mississippi, retail merchants contended that the measure would drive them into bankruptcy, but when the tax went into effect It turned out that the old adage that the consumer always pays" still holds good. On the second day of May, the day the tax went into effect, mer chants announced new prices with the two percent sales tax added and had no difficulty in passing on the tax burden. Every mercantile es tablishment in the slate,-from the smallest soft drink stand to the largest department store, reports after a month's trial the public has taken kindly to the new tax and is paying it gracefully and y, ithout serious protest This is eminently proper," says Governor Conner. "The measure was intended as a tax on consum ers, and I am confident that the merchants, after giving it a fair trial, will have no complaint to offer. "In the first place, it is not a tax on earnings, but a tax on spend- ings, and the people, realizing the measure is absolutely essential to balance the state's budget and put us on our financial feet again, will pay it cheerfully. "Mississippi is merely leading the way. I believe other states are go ing to find that the retail sales tax is the only way out and that ex perience will prove it is in reality the only suitable form of taxation. "Our state was forced to adopt it as an emergency measure. We have but two things to tax in this state, property and business. The property tax system has broken down because of economic condi tions among the farmers, and we had to take the sales tax, whether we wanted it or not." The general basis of the sales tax in Mississippi is 2 per cent, varying on only a few classes of business. It includes all business and profes sions, exempting only insurance companies, building and loan asso ciations, state and national banks, mutual savings banks, religious, charitable, scientific and education al institutions, fraternal societies and hospitals. Business men are required to keep accurate books reflecting their gross income, preserving all records relating thereto, subject to inspec tion at all times. Deductions are allowed from gross sales as follows: 1 Sale price of goods taken in ex change for new goods. 2 Credit sales by retailers and wholesalers may be reported as collected. 3 Taxes collected on gasoline and tobacco. 4 Gross receipts from sale of ag ricultural products when sold in the original state or condition of preparation for sale. 5 Sale of fertilizers, seeds, boxes and crates used in preparing ag ricultural products for market 6 Sales of schoolbooks when sold under state contract 7 Sale of cotton, seed cotton, lint cotton and baled cotton. 8 Amounts received from life in surance policies and annuity contracts up to the amount of premiums paid thereon. 9 $1,200 each year, to be deducted from total gross Income and or gross proceeds of sale. A feature of the sales tax is that it makes practically every person engaged in business a tax collector serving for the state without com pensation, keeping a record and making monthly returns without being even allowed postage on the remittance. All businesses collecting more than $10 a month must make monthly reports. Smaller concerns report quarterly. Some classes of manufacturing concerns are also included, soft drink establishments being requir ed to pay 1 per cent, and cotton seed oil mills and ice factories one quarter of one per cent The danger in the sales tax as in any other new form of taxation is, of course, likelihood that it will en courage tax spenders to new ex travagances. If adopted merely as an added burden upon the tax pay ing public, it will fail of its purpose. If adopted by states as means of re ducing the burdensome taxes which fall upon owners of real estate, it certainly is to be highly commend ed. And, as I pointed out In the beginning, one of the great things to be hoped for from the sales tax is, that, by making everybody who spends a dollar tax conscious, it may in time make everybody who spends money for anything realize that he is a part of the state, and that it is his money which the law makers are appropriating. For Rent 402 acres summer grazing land known as South Jones prairie, Mrs. Henry Jones, 399 E. 16th St. N., Portland, Ore. 6tf . Geographical Portfolio To Go to South America As a part of the Junior Red Cross work in which trrey have taken an active interest pupils of the Davis school near lone under the tutelage of Miss Audrey Beymer of this city, recently completed a new geo graphical portfolio which will be sent to South America, in an ex change with pupils of a school there. The portfolio neatly por trays products, industries and ac tivities and descriptive articles by the children. Taken from the work is the following poem by David Cantwell, sixth grade pupil: I've seen fires in many places, But never such awful sights As the tired and weary faces Of the men that have to fight The forest fire, the raging beast. That burns the trees so fair, Takes many men to make it cease But the ruins, we can't repair. 80 head of pigs to sell at $1 each if taken at once. Frank Swaggart, Lena, Ore. 6-tf. TAX FREE TIR SALE OUR COMPLETE STOCK OF WORLD'S LARGEST SELLING TIRES At The Lowest: Prices In History BUY NOW AT THIS SALE SAVE the TAX Our complete stock of new, fresh, lifetime guaranteed Goodyear Tires. All recently purchased, shipped direct from factory, before the tax becomes effective. Here's a chance for local motorists to save money on THE leading tire. Buy now ! Don't take chances on blowouts, accidents, delay and trouble on old, worn, dangerous tires. Buy new Goodycars now save the tax. HEPPNER GARAGE Vaughn 6 Goodman Heppner, Oregon FORD TRUCK W Get the facts about new transportation economy This is an opportunity to see how the transportation needs of a new business era have been met with new economy, performance, and reli ability in the new Ford trucks. Your Ford dealer is ready to give you the complete story. a Body types to fit every hauling need. 50-horsepower 4-cylinder engine. New freely shackled semi-elliptic rear springs distribute load stresses. Wide, deep, strong frame gives substantial support for bodies. floating type rear axle for heavy service. 4-speed transmission. Tubular steel coupling shaft with heavy duty universals at each end. New bi-partible coupling and removable main dross member permit easy servicing of clutch, transmission, and coupling shaft. New comfort and safety for the driver. These features and many others will convince you that the New Ford Trucks can save you money and give you added performance. LATOURELL AUTO CO. FORD TRUCK WEEK JUNE 18 to 25 INCLUSIVE MacMarr stores, inc. we Deliver Tomatoes Fancy solid pack, large 2 size. 8 tins 98c PER CASE .. $2.79 PEAS Fancy No. 3 sieve. Just de licious, 8 Tins ... 95c PRICES EFFECTIVE FRI.-SAT.-MON., June 17-18-20 Pure lard in celophane cartons Fresh stock. CORN MEAL 9-lb. Sk. 29c Eastern white or yellow MAYONNAISE Qt. 49c Best Foods always best BAKING POWDER S l.09 $l.65 LARD 4 lbs 39c Calumet the double acting baking powder SOAP HARMONY LAUNDRY, THE BEST IN THE WEST. LARGE BARS. IT FLOATS. 20 bars 75c Candy Bars SHORTENING Fresh itock always. Note the saving-. 4 Lbs 35c MILK Maximum or Federal brand. Tall tins. PER TIN ... 6c COFFEE MAC MARR Strictly fresh roasted and ground. 3 lbs 89c AIRWAY, .. 3 LBS. 59c Fresh bars from our own sunshine Large I factory and JUST IMAGINE.... J Bars.. IVC SYRUP f;ib: 65c :l.25 Maximum cane and maple PACAKE FLOUR 53c Mac Marr quality