Dear Editor
DEAR EDITOR Opposes Tax Reduction As Spur to Prosperity Since The New Leader's general level of courage, integrity and sincerity is much higher than that of most other newspapers or magazines,...
...This means a tax loss of 30 million times $180, or $5.4 billion...
...Andrew Green Praises Recent Issue As 'Balanced, Timely' I am not given to writing letters to editors in praise of their publications...
...Do not treat an opponent of a policy as if he were therefore a personal enemy or an enemy of the country or a concealed enemy of democracy...
...Let us apply this principle to all controversies, including those involving Bricker, McCarthy, the Taft-Hartley Law, Jenner, Velde, Cohn, Schine, etc...
...an unlikely assumption...
...If the above figures are roughly valid, your proposal means a revenue loss of approximately $10.2 billion...
...Tobacco is an enemy of the human race, and it should not be made, sold, advertised or used...
...Upper Montclair, N.J...
...However, there are some 60-odd million employed in the United States...
...I suppose it should be called "fuller employment...
...I think not...
...Hence, the Bricker Amendment is needed...
...Dauphin, Pa...
...The argument assumes that there is a state of the economy which is substantially more productive than the economy in a period of full employment...
...You recommend: (1) raising the minimum taxable income from $600 to "at least $1,500," and (2) raising the exemption for each dependent from $600 to "at least $1,000...
...Milwaukee John M. Work Supports Elder La Follette On Neutrality in World War I "Fighting Bob" La Follette's vehement opposition to America's entry into World War I was "a mistake," according to reviewer Donald Robinson in the February 8 New Leader...
...There are approximately 160 million people in the United States...
...Its content is exceptionally well balanced, timely, and covers a wide ground...
...Robinson's judgment is very much open to question...
...You then ask if this would "deprive the Government of substantial tax revenues," and answer casually: "We doubt it...
...Most publications lack the courage to tell the truth on this subject...
...DEAR EDITOR Opposes Tax Reduction As Spur to Prosperity Since The New Leader's general level of courage, integrity and sincerity is much higher than that of most other newspapers or magazines, your occasional lapses into irresponsibility (at the best) or humbuggery (at the worst) are painful...
...or approximately 5 per cent of the initial revenue loss...
...for 60 million dependents, the tax loss is 60 million times $80, or $4.8 billion...
...Bohn will probably be getting some backlash from the misinformed and the ideologically opposed, so I want him to know that there are many who appreciated his column...
...Let us arbitrarily assume that some 30 million are making too little to be appreciably affected by the increased exemption, because they are already paying so little (again, an unlikely assumption...
...But suppose Professor Forkosch is right...
...Frank Sherry Denounces Tobacco as 'Enemy of Human Race' Allow me to congratulate you on James Rorty's article, "Do Cigarettes Cause Lung Cancer...
...Your article outdoes the evils of McCarthyism so frequently condemned by you...
...Clearwater, Fla...
...mum income-tax rate, who likewise state (highly misleadingly) that such tax reductions...
...Tax reductions in period of substantial unemployment are a somewhat different matter...
...However, I cannot refrain from complimenting you on the February 8 issue of The New Leader...
...For space reasons, however, we prefer letters under 300 words...
...In the case of the other 30 million, the added $900 exemption means a minimum tax reduction of $180...
...Because lower-income tax savings would almost entirely go into consumer spending (as the savings of large corporations would not, in the present climate), they would act quickly to halt retrenchment and stimulate production and employment...
...by increasing the volume of business...
...I trust that The New Leader will continue on the same high level...
...Your dragging in of Merwin K. Hart and three supporting organizations, alleged to be undesirable, as evidence that the amendment is vicious constitutes not only befogging the issue and smearing the sponsor and all those who believe in the legislation, but an attempt to muzzle favorable public opinion...
...MELECH EPSTEIN Praises Bohn far Column On Moral Re-Armament Congratulations on William E. Bonn's detached presentation of the facts about the attacks on MRA and their refutation ["Moral Re-Armament and Its Critics," The New Leader, February 15...
...This would certainly make for a healthier economy (and, even in the short run, more revenue) than the present prospect of a receding economy characterized by increasing cutbacks and layoffs...
...Your first proposal is not too clear...
...Neil E. Falconer Mr...
...in the February 8 New Leader...
...If we assume that all of it is spent and taken in by "business," then (1) arbitrarily assuming a profit rate of 10 per cent (a very high assumption, when computed on gross volume), there would be added corporate profits of $1 billion, and (2) at the present 52-per-cent corporate-income-tax rate, we have added revenue of some $.5 billion...
...Perhaps, if at that time we had followed the advice of La Follette and William Jennings Bryan, resisted the militaristic promptings of the Anglophiles and the nascent imperialists, and remained neutral, we might today he a force for peace instead of an atomic nightmare to men of good will...
...Probably at least 80 million of these are "dependents," if we remember that wives, children and dependent aged parents fall in that class...
...will actually increase tax revenue...
...Let us assume that the added exemption would make no difference in the case of 20 million (because the person supporting them is not making enough to be taxed...
...Lafayette, Calif...
...At the present minimum Federal income-tax rate of 20 per cent, the added $400 exemption would be worth $80 in tax saving...
...It is refreshingly new...
...Konrad Kellen's penetrating glimpse into the people behind the Iron Curtain would be a feature in any serious monthly...
...New York City Nathan D. Shapiro Mr...
...Hess's article violates the standards established by Professor Hook...
...In addition, it is very debatable if tax reductions can materially affect business volume, when made in a period of practically full employment...
...An example is your editorial, "Consumer Tax Relief," in your January 18 issue...
...Democratic society cannot exist without free discussion" is the opening sentence of an article by Sidney Hook in the same issue of THE NEW LEADER...
...Your argument sounds curiously like those of the proponents of a 25-per-cent maxiTHE NEW LEADER welcomes readers' comment, regardless of point of view...
...Do we wish our Bill of Rights or our states' rights to depend upon the latest enactment of Congress...
...Hollywood, Calif...
...The main point of our proposals, however, was that employment is steadily becoming "less full" because of the widespread tendency toward retrenchment...
...Falconer's estimate of how great a proportion of lower-income tax savings would be recaptured by corporate, excise and other taxes seems unduly low, but that is, of course, a debatable point on which economists have disagreed...
...Any substantial recapture by corporation taxes is highly doubtful...
...Readers Charge Hess Doesn't Practice What Hook Preaches The article, "Behind the Bricker Amendment," by Stephen H. Hess [The New Leader, February 1], is a masterpiece of "guilt by association...
...As for Morris D. Forkosch's article in the same issue, "What the Amendment Means," Professor Forkosch is somewhat extravagant when he writes: "In other words, the latest particular treaty or law wins out...
...I wish your article could be read by everyone in the United States...
...I fear that many eminent lawyers do not so read our Constitution, and while I am not eminent, as a lawyer I share their view...
...In particular, it violates these standards: "Criticism should be directed first to policies...
...RIDGELY CUMMINGS...
...Would you justify attacks on FDR and Truman because thousands of believers in "white supremacy" and many gangsters voted for them and made large contributions to their campaign funds...
...After all, unemployed men and failing businesses pay no taxes...
...Falconer also omits our recommendation to raise the minimum wage, which would provide other new revenues...
...And I wish that individuals and decent organizations of all types would bring influence to bear upon tobacco manufacturers, retailers, newspapers, magazines, and radio and television owners to stop leading people into this harmful habit...
...The Daughters of the American Revolution, the American Legion and the American Bar Association, which are suggested as undesirable supporters, are at least as American and as well-informed as the ADA, which you support so frequently...
Vol. 37 • March 1954 • No. 9
