Economy
Taxation and Democratic Values
The use of taxing power to achieve a redistribution of income has been increasing over time in a marked way. Popular support of this doctrine has also tended to increase, though with much ebb and flow. The 1972 presidential campaign represented something of a check, though it was perhaps the first time the issue had been made a major one in that context and the ineptness of the presentation was surely a significant factor in McGovern’s defeat. READ MORE >>
Profits by the Billion
War profits—after deduction of war taxes—have been the greatest in history. The government virtually guaranteed contractors against loss by paying for their investments in war equipment. Now business is guaranteed against loss in resuming civilian production. By congressional enactment, the Treasury must pay back excess-profits taxes to businesses which in 1946 suffer certain reduction to income. READ MORE >>
On the Labor Front
With the exception of one amendment, the Wagner labor-disputes bill, as finally enacted by Congress, does not differ much from the measure in its original form. But that amendment may be a joker and turn the entire Act into a company-union charter. It has to do with Section 9b, which governs the choice of the appropriate unit for collective bargaining. READ MORE >>
The Good Giant and the A.A.A.
Public opinion, which once upon a time was only a symbolic figure in cartoons, has become a valuable commercial property. The banners and buttons of World War propaganda showed, as one writer has explained, “the possibilities of molding public opinion toward an objective. Its success convinced leaders how vital it is to gauge public reaction to ideas or products; how necessary it is to get public support.” And big business, having learned the technique of selling its products, is now trying to sell itself. READ MORE >>
Self-Help for the Unemployed
Mr. Upton Sinclair, in his open letter to President Roosevelt published in a recent issue of The New Republic, again raises a question that has received much consideration in various quarters—the possibility of instituting a program of self-help for the unemployed. Dramatized by Mr. Sinclair in his Epic campaign, this method of relief has won many supporters but, despite the various discussions of the subject, it has seldom been noted that such a program has already been adopted by the federal government and that it has been functioning in forty-five different states. READ MORE >>
Should the Budget Be Balanced?
Mr. Churchill on the War
The World Crisis, 1916-1918 By Winston Churchill (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. Two vols. 625 pages. $10) READ MORE >>
One of Wells’s Worlds
The Murderous Motor
Complete figures dealing with automobile accidents in 1925 have recently been made public. They reveal that safety on the highway, or the present lack of it, may now fairly be reckoned as one of the major problems of the day. Last year more than 22,000 persons were killed in or by automobiles, and something like three quarters of a million injured. The number of dead is almost half as large as the list of fatalities during the nineteen months of America’s participation in the Great War. In 60 percent of the cases, the person killed was a pedestrian struck by a car. READ MORE >>
