By STAN LYNN

ne been known that
bligh “SS Would like to
T on ome new guide-
 £0vernment tax poli-
CW guidelines would
effect on you.

a
eg goumer you would be
yoy pcs taxes. As a
‘the pe ould be forced to
Coste ta! weight of wel-
Mer, As an urban home-
lon’s gpowld pay by far
inal ity for essential
ition, ~~ VICES, as well as

‘4 hig

ae

ne the Tepresentatives
Your oN flippant about
Mletoye i vXeS, they’re full
} in ideas on how to

iq Wn. For example,
ate fe Corporation tax-
com nye half, or abol-
Ompletely,

WwW é
dusted also eliminate

highe _income tax in
bigp, Mcome brackets
Ser percentage of

£

,
" the WALTER HOLMES

—itish Daily Worker)

Dey Prompted by the
broeg t Lord Beaver-
4 lean death, rummaged
. Printed by the
tte On April 24, 1942.
Hp POO
4 New at the Waldorf
the » ork, and broad-
Sao. <2" people on
alls) 4
Opene Was the urgency
‘ ong © from the West,
, ig Whi front against the
Were W€ the Soviet ar-
 Tesisting them in

Verh oe:
ently ok and his Press
hile tha pported that po-
Ofic, "© Cabinet and the
arked time.

Wor :
@ e Bae now to re-

1S arguments.

Sletragq ..

the dl to the heavy los-
e .itish Army after
uae, May, 1940, and
te OSt eon from Dunkirk.
Saye Vverything we pos-
Vetbrooy our soldiers,”

a
bd
an

Now is the story of the
Th alms day has come
ain th Ost every quarter
ttack © cry goes up, ‘at-
. 11 support of Rus-

; * kno
“ore 2 that the Russians
aly the mans every day

© Allies put to-

Sin

oo My journey to

in poet last (1941) I
favor of a second

Nh eae ie

at American supply

at time provided

@ speech made by —

BUSINESS PLANS: ~

taxes. They would like to see
John Doe, with a taxable in-
come of $1,000, paying the
same percentage of his income
in taxes as Jonathan Q. Dough,
whose taxable income is $25,000.

Big business outlined its
views on taxation to federal
government and provincial com-
missions on taxation earlier
this year.

The line on “make the peo-
ple pay”. was outlined succinc-
tly by the Canadian Chamber
of Commerce. Last January this
group told the Royal Commis-
sion on Taxation that the fede-
ral government could reduce its
revenue by some $500 million.
These frontline defenders of
private enterprise would lower
corporation taxes by 40 to 50
percent.

The money could be re-
couped, said the Chamber,
through taxes on credit unions,
cooperatives, publicly - owned
corporations and a general
broadening of the sales tax con-

| . y
we Beavers
‘Nest moment

LORD BEAVERBROOK

our ally with aircraft and tanks.
Some shortsighted people com-
plained that we did wrong to

put weapons into the hands of
the Communists,

Page of history

“I don’t understand the com-
plaint . . . Communism has pro-
duced the best generals in this
war. And I am no Communist,
remember. I am a Capitalist,
thank God.”

Beaverbrook went on to ad-
vocate the adoption of attack
as the best form of defense. “I
believe,” he said, “that Britain

should adopt it by setting up, .

somewhere along the 2,000 miles
of coastline now held by the
Germans, a second: front in
Western Europe.”

Thus argued. Beaverbrook,
and so did many others in Bri-
tain who spoke, wrote and
worked for that aim.

It is now a page of history.
But if it had been written soon-
er, how many lives and how
much destruction would have
been spared.

nn

cept to include taxes on a wide
range of services.

Another business spokesman,
Frank S. Capon, vice-president
of Dupont of Canada, was ap-
parently not satisfied with the
half-measures of the Chamber
of Commerce. He went whole
hog. ;

The VP of the Canadian sub-
sidiary of a billionaire U.S. cor-
poration told the Ontario Com-
mittee on Taxation that the
corporation tax should be scrap-
ped altogether. The alternative,
a direct tax, he said, would act
as a reminder and as a curb on
“the natural tendencies of poli-
ticians to spend the people’s
money at the expense of the
people.”

Capon believes in using a
gentle lash on the working peo-
ple. He is saying they’re wel-
come to enjoy education, hos-
pital services, unemployment
insurance, public transporta-
tion, parks and recreation, as
long as they’re willing to pay
for them — and don’t ask big
business to share the cost.

No wonder Du Pont was
tossed out of Cuba!

Private enterprise views on
taxation were also outlined to
the Royal Commission on Tax-
ation by the chartered banks. It

may be recalled that the banks’ .
-claim to notoriety was their re-

quest before another royal com-
mission — the one on banking
and finance — to be allowed to
share the wealth of higher in-
terest rates on small loans.

The Canadian Bankers Asso-
ciation told the taxation com-
mission that it favored a flat
rate of 16 percent income tax
on all taxable income in all
brackets. The flat rate would
abolish the graduated income
tax which now ranges from 11
percent of income in low-in-
come brackets to 80 percent in
the high brackets.

But the banks had ideas go-
ing even further. They propos-
ed a study of the possibility of
putting some parts of the fede-
ral welfare program “on a sefl-
sustaining basis with the re-
quired contributions . . . by
those. who would normally ex-
pect to be beneficiaries . . .”

Bankers and businessmen
would not normally expect to
be welfare beneficiaries, there-
fore they wouldn’t contribute.
Workers, and especially low-in-
come groups, would have to
pay the total costs involved.

When the report of the Royal
Commission on Banking was is-
sued a couple of months ago,
the banks were dismayed by
their own money-grabbing im-
age, the result of their desire
to get in on higher interest
rates.

Who would give a plugged
nickel for their image if their
proposals on welfare ever get

‘into the recommendations of

the Royal Commission on Tax-
ation?

Almost all the big business
interests favor bigger and bet-

ire YOU ready to pay more taxes:

ter sales taxes, which put the
burden right on the backs of
low wage earners. Just how far

_private enterprisers will go is

illustrated by two _ business
groups hurt by the sales tax —
the Canadian Construction As-
sociation and the Retail Coun-
cil of Canada. Do they want to
eliminate sales taxes? Not on
your life!

When it was rumored early
this spring that Ontario might
raise its sales tax Thomas A.
Sommerville of the construc-
tion association urged that any
such increase should exempt
capital investment firms. Raise
the tax; but not on us!

The Retail Council of Can-

ada, on the other hand, would:

spread the tax around. The
council told the Ontario Com-
mittee on Taxation that sales
taxes should be extended to
haircuts, film processing, dry
cleaning, service-station servic-
es, repairs on taxable property,
and over-night hotel and motel
accommodation. °

Big business resents any sug-
gestion that it should pay a
larger share of municipal ser-
vices such as education and
welfare. J. B. Fraser of British
American Oil Co. said on be-
half of the Petroleum Associa-
tion of Ontario that his group
is alarmed at the way many
municipal councils are. under-
taking local improvements with-
out the opinion of those who
will pay.

He asked the Ontario tax
committee for less ‘“discrimina-
tion” against business in mu-
nicipal taxes, then criticized
the Municipal Unconditional
Grants Act and the Residential

P

Farm School Tax Assistance
Act, which he said required
commercial properties to as-
sume an “unfair” and ever-
increasing share of the cost of
education and municipal ser-
vices.

The guiding philosophy be-
hind business proposals on tax-
ation pretends to be that tax
cuts spur investment and lead
to economic growth. Mainly,
however, tax cuts would lead
to bigger profits.

When there is a high demand
for consumer goods, there is
business activity. This was re-
recognized by a member of the
federal taxation commission
who said: “No force on earth
can stop the free enterprise
system from meeting demand
if it develops — not even
taxes.”

Another commission member
suggested that economic dol-
drums are due to a falling off
of demand. In other words,
when purchasing power is high,
demand is high and business ig
active; and vice versa.

In spite of wide recognition
of this principle, taxation in
Canada is still increasingly
tailored to desires of big busi-
ness. Today the overwhelming
tax share comes from sources
other than profit.

While only 20 cents out of
every government revenue
dollar this. year comes out of
corporation taxes, 56 cents ©
comes out of income and sales
taxes and taxes on drinks and ©
smokes. In other words, the
burden of taxes is levied not
on business but on the wage
earner.

Civic officials asleep at the switch

E MAYOR of Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island,

is walking around with a red face these days. Clear-

ly stamped on the souvenir medallions being given
away by the city to mark the birth of Canada are the
letters USA. Ten thousand of the souvenirs were made
and are now in circulation. Although the letters are small
it would be hard to find a bigger blunder.

July 3, 1964—PACIFIC TRIBUNE—Page 5