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University Daily Kansan
Page 2
Thursday, Feb. 4, 1954
Budget Balancing-A Big Headache for The GOP
Perhaps it was because of campaign promises, but the Republican Administration, under President Eisenhower, is faced with reducing the national budget to a place where it is not continually exceeding the amount of taxes taken in during each fiscal year.
President Eisenhower, in his State of the Union address last month, outlined several taxation measures which he figures will stimulate spending. They are:
Revise the tax system to eliminate "inequities" and encourage enterprise.
Extend the 52 per cent corporation-income tax rate one year beyond its limit, or beyond April 1, 1934.
Extend the present excise-tax rules.
Cancel the half-cent cut in federal gasoline tax, a move which was scheduled for April 1.
Extend unemployment protection to about 8.5 million persons, including civilian federal employees not covered.
Improve and extend to 10 million more persons Social Security Old Age and Survivors Insurance.
The chief reason for the tax proposals is that revenue-raising acts which went into effect after the beginning of the Korean war will be out of existence by July 1, when the fiscal year 1955 begins.
Those tax bills which are scheduled to be stopped this year include:
uled to be stopped this year include:
The individual income tax incurs a $12.5 billion tax on Dec 31, 1993. The expiration of this tax means a loss of $3 billion.
The corporation income tax cut of 5 per cent of the 30 per cent tax on corporation profit, which is scheduled to go into effect April 1.
This cut means a $2 million loss.
The excess-profit-tax—30 per cent on corporation excess profits, which was scheduled to become ineffective June 31, but which was given six months more to run, until Dec. 31, 1954. When this tax is removed it will mean a loss of $2 billion.
Excise taxes on spirits, trucks, cars, cigarettes, gas and sporting goods, which is scheduled to be removed March 31. Loss of this tax will mean a loss of $1 billion.
The 1954 budget, which is not affected by the above tax laws, shows expected receipts of $68.3 billion and expenditures of $72.1 billion, or a $3.8 billion deficit. The cash budget picture, which includes separate workers' aid, Social Security, and other benefits, shows receipts from a trust fund of $9.4 billion, while expenses show payments of $6.6 billion, which totaled with the above, shows a total deficit of $500 million
However, the main problem of the administration is to figure some efficient means of obtaining money from the land which will go out of effect this year.
Russell B. Long (D-La.), a member of the finance committee which has been studying tax proposals since early fall, very well sums up the rest of the committee's wishes by saying that he will "support moves" to "cut expenses and balance the budget."
The idea of a sales tax has been offered as one of the chief means to get needed revenue, in replacement of existing selective excises. Some of the proposals which the finance committee has studied are:
A. Broad base manufacturers excise tax on all items except food, shelter, and medicine.
B. A federal sales tax at the retail level of between 10-and-25 per cent, with no exceptions.
C. A general sales tax with exemptions for persons below certain income levels, and exemptions for persons in the lower income brackets.
D. The repeal of all existing excises and substitution of a 1 per cent tax on the manufacturers' sale price of all manufactured items, or 15 per cent of personal services, or 25 per cent duty on all in-coming foreign goods.
E. A removal of all individual income taxes on incomes below $6,000, substituting instead a federal sales tax at the consumer level.
The National Association of Manufacturers has suggested a flat rate
of 4½-5 per cent on all finished goods at the manufacturers level except on food and food products—alcohol and tobacco having separate taxes.
The chief arguments against the proposals by the finance committee are that the sales tax would be too expensive to administrate, the manufacturer's tax would not produce enough revenue, that the manufacturer would be able to profit by a markup on the tax itself, that the consumer would bear the full load with the low-income groups bearing more of it, and that the sales tax would cause a drop of consumer demand.
These arguments are all feasible. It just seems to be a question of which proposal is better. Much will depend on Congress and the kind of leadership President Eisenhower exhibits when the proposals are voted on. The administration is in a tight spot, and for the betterment of the country, we hope that Mr. Eisenhower can show the type of leadership he is supposed to have.
-Ed Howard.
Private Industry May Get Into Atomic Development
The McMahon act, passed in June of 1946 to control atomic energy, will come up before Congress during this session to be changed or amended. Now private industry would like to get into the nuclear power field.
Industry has shied away from atomic developments in the past because of high costs and the doubtful returns.
Private companies took a gloomy view of sinking their own money into developments that might be dumped into the public domain. As the mean power was concerned, the biggest deterrent was dollars and cents.
Now the Detroit Edison company wants to build and expects to own a nuclear reactor soon. It has been planning it with the Dow Chemical company. Both seem to be unworried about the economic aspects. Apparently the only obstacle is the McMahon act.
This act forbids private companies to build or own nuclear reactors. Consequently, the law's stringent security restrictions are hampering commercial development of atomic power.
The law restricts ownership of fissionable materials and lays down rules governing what patents can be issued to private companies in the nuclear field.
Congress is concerned not only with security but with the question how much private industry should own and profit from nuclear developments.
The initial research has been carried on at federal expense. If regular patent laws were applied, private industry could make a few changes in existing methods and patent them. The patentee would be making a nice thing out of a mere refinement of a basic procedure developed with public money.
A special committee was set up in October 1945 under the late Sen. Brien McMahon (D.-Conn.) and the committee report resulted in the Atomic Energy act of 1946, passed by a voice vote with little debate.
The law puts complete control of the development and use of atomic energy into the hands of the Atomic Energy Commission comprising five civilians appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate
A military liaison committee can advise but has no affirmative or veto power.
The commission is the sole owner and purchaser of fissionable materials and directs all research and production. No patents are granted for military use. A patent can be issued for the work being licensed by the commission is mandatory, with royalties decided by that agency.
The act permits complete freedom of research but penalties are set up for disclosure of any secrets with which the United States or help a foreign nation.
—Elizabeth Wohlgemuth
MIZ GROIN'CHUCK HIRED ME TO BABYSIT THE TAD ANT I TNST COUNTIN' ON SPLITTIN' NOTHIN' WITH YOU 'CEPTIN' MEBBE A SAMWICH IF YOU GOO ONE,
It's the home stretch for the class of '54 but just another 16 weeks of book-pounding for the underclassmen. Some have fallen by the wayside, the Jayhawkers have been booted out of the conference lead, and the no-study honeymoon has come to a halt. It's February 5—and time for a brand new semester.
And with the passing of the old semester comes a new editorial staff—one which we hope will meet with your approval. We'll probably harp on a wide range of subjects during the eight weeks to follow and, inevitably, we'll probably let ourselves be wide open for criticism. If you think we're throwbacks from the yellow journalism era or fanatical anarchists, just drop us a line. We're glad to receive your comments. As long as they are in good taste, we'll print every letter you send in. Names will be withheld on request.
So, unless there are further objections, we'll rest on our laurels. May the spring semester bring you a 3 point or M.r.s. degree. And lets June be back in that in a week or two—that's where they belong.
Little Man On Campus and Pogo will, of course, be retained. We couldn't get along without them.
You'll find some changes will be made during our brief reign. The book reviews will be cut down to one a month and the "Flashbacks in Daily Kansan History" column will appear once each two weeks. With tongue in cheek, we feel the campus exchange feature and the Friday newsletter have sufficient reader interest to warrant their weekly ap-
Chuck Morelock.
UNIVERSITY DAILY Hansan
University of Kansas Student Newspaper News Room KU 251 Ad Room KU 376 Member of the Kansas Press Ass. Named Assistant Assn., Associated Collegiate Press Assn. Represented by the National Advertising Service, 420 Madison Avenue, N.Y. City, $4.50 a year (add $1 a semester if in Lawrence). Published in Lawrence, Kan., and in Missouri, year except Saturdays and Sundays. University holidays and examination periods. Entered second class matter Sept. 17, 1910 at Lawrence, Kan., Post Office under act
EDITORIAL STAFF
Editorial editor
Assistants
Chuck Morelock
Sam Teaford. Don Tice
Mt. Oread Speed Checks To Slow Young Oldfields
The budding young Barney Oldfields will have to confine their racing to the country instead of the Mr. Oread campus thanks to a series of speed checks being set up by the campus police.
The checks—which will be conducted at certain strategic points where the accident danger is the greatest and violations the most numerous—should give the pedestrian's confidence a shot in the arm. Soon, he will be able to cross the street without fear of being run over, knocked to the sidewalk, or wrapped around a fender.
Warnings have been given to drivers who have broken the campus 20 mph regulation since last week. Now, the guilty parties will be arrested.
To an outside observer, the mounting traffic problem on the Hill must have seemed like a game. A small mob would assemble on one side of the street, pause, then run for its life to the Union or to another classroom. He must have felt that the
driver was bound to be disappointed if he couldn't clip somebody or at lease smash into another bumper.
The situation wasn't quite that bad, of course. But the problem was becoming increasingly worse because of the ever-expanding car population coupled with the growth of student enrollment.
If a friend howls because he was nabbed doing 30 on Jayhawk Drive, don't lend him your handkerchief. He's getting what he deserves.
The checks aren't sadistic devices employed by the KU. police to "catch" as many drivers as possible. They merely are intended to give the pedestrian a break—to give him a chance to cross the street in safety.
—Chuck Morelock
Short Ones
Now that they've had a brief vacation, wonder if the ASC has made any new expansion plans? Don't be surprised if it takes over the bookstore and the Hawk's Nest to go along with its triumph in the Rock Chalk Revue case.
Marriage and Family has a big enrollment this semester. Students must be getting ready for the annual spring love season, which isn't too far off.
"Call 'Visual Aids' and see if they have a movie they can show my class—I just don't feel like lecturing today."