Ke Alakai o Hawaii, Volume IX, Number 26, 8 October 1936 — GREAT LIBERAL EXPLAINS WHY HE IS SUPPORTING ROOSEVELT RE-ELECTION [ARTICLE]

GREAT LIBERAL EXPLAINS WHY HE IS SUPPORTING ROOSEVELT RE-ELECTION

"It is because I feel very deeply that the defeat of President Roosevelt would bring dlsastrous consquenees that I am moved as never before to plead with my fellow citizens to give honest, careful conslderation to the questions involved in this eontest," said Senator George W. Norris of Nebraska in a radio address f "and to earnestly urge that they take no step that imght plunge us into anarchy and despair.

"In the course of the campaign I shall discuss in detail the causes that led to the crisis in th^ life of the country when President Roosevelt took the helm of the Ship of State.

"Laws passed in opposition to monopolies and vast eom'oinations of weaith have bjrc|ught down oti his head the condemimtion of the mjOst powerful finaneial group that ever existed in the history of the wprld. By false innuendo, by misleading pro false innuenao, by misieading propaganda they have been trying to prove that the New Deal is an evil thing.

"The convention whieh nominated Gov. Landon did not have the courage to denounce any specific measure, and with two exceptions, to whieh I shall refer, Mr. Landon thus far has confined his criticism to meaningless generalities. He has laeked either the candor vV the courage to take up these measui-es whieh constitute the New Deal and tell the people wherein they are wrong and what he would put in plaee of them.

"One of the !nequalities of our Govcrnment under laws exlsting prior to the Roosevelt Adminlstration was that men of great wealth were escaping payment of thelr just share of ineome taxes. They had found a loophole and fairly tumbied over one another to take advantage of it, If rich men, with incomes so large they were paying ineome taxes under the higher brackets of say 80 per eenl, could plaee a ' iarge portion of their property in corporations thus having to pay ineome of only 15 per cent, they could by this simple operation save many mil!ions in taxes, provided of course the dividends of thc corporations were not distributed to stockholders. Thus, by refusing to distribute the ineome of corporations, the Treasury of the United States was being robbed of vast amounts. Moreover, this method was un- : fair to smali stockholders, many ; of whom depended for their living upon corporation eamings that shouid be distributed. The ineome of thousands of these was so smali they were paying ineome taxes in the lower brackets and indeed many of them, not havmg incomes large enough to pay any ineome tax, when their dividends were retained in the corporation were taxed at the corporation tax rate, in many cases at a higher rate, This unjust 3egal loop-hole had the etfect of increasing the taxes of the poor men and women who paid taxes in the lower bracbete ®id at the same time decreasing the taxes of the rich.

"Prpf;ldent Roosevelt proposed that amend this law and provide that undistrib\jted dividends of corporat!ons be taxed at a higher rat«, so that men of freat wealth would not be ab!e to eseape payment of their just shāre of tax'es through this technieality. And this law simply carrles out the prineiple of the ineome tax !aw, whieh is that irv*ome tax should be graduukxi aecording to the si?e of the ineoiW. It !s one o'f the tairest laws ever enacted, "This is one law Mr, I.,andon has assailed as 'the most COCKEYED pieee of tax legislatlon ever imposed in a modem eoun-

try/ and declared he would 'recommend the repeal of this Yicious method of taxation/

"So Mr. Landon \vants this loophole kept open in orde)r that greedy milJSonaircs may avoid payment of their share of taxes.

This puts the issue squarely before the American people. I am not because Mr. Landon takes this stand, but I want the epople to know whose servant he is.

"In 'a fairly recent letter to the Illinois Bankers' Association, Mr. Landon denounced any and L every form of security of bank deposists. He was outspoken in his dehunclatidn of such law and I take it the Federal Deposit Insurance A"ct is," in his opinion, another 'COCKEYED' pieee of legislation. There is no donbt that this important me'asure is accountable for mueh of the money now on deposit in our banks, the largest in the history of the national banking systenx.

"I hope Mr, Landon will be as explicit as to other features of the New Deal. He owes it to the country, He should not forget that his fellow citizens did not have the honor of ān acquaintanee with him until he was abruptly selected by Mr. Hearst to be the nominee of a great political pafty. I would like to have him tell the country whether the Holding Company Act is 'COCKKY£d.' Wili he tell the farmers that the Farm Credit Administration is 'COCKEYBD?' If he would continue relief to agrictulture, will he tell the American people where he would get the money?

"In the only two cases cited by Mr. Landon, it is plain that the judgment of every honest, patriotic citizen must be opposed to his position. The bogus cries of 'bolshevism' and 'dietatorship* are not merely unfounded—they are foolish. A dictatorship eannot be set up unless the ground for it has been made fertile by despotic schemes of organized and> concentrated financial selfishness."