Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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o Pafe Two THE CLINTON CHRONICLE To Cfilisten New Watermelon Clemson — South Carolina's beautiful Miriam Stevenson, re cently crowned "Miss Universe,” will officially name a new South ern watermelon here next Thurs day during Farm and Home Week. The watermelon "christening” will take place in the Clemson Outdoor Theater; or the college chapel in case of rain, at noon, August 19, as part of a U. S. De partment of Agriculture program to be presented to Farm and Home Week visitors by Dr. Frank Teuton of Washington, D. Miss Stevenson has been invit ed to appear at Clemson as a guest of Clemson college and of the USDA’s Agricultural Re search Service. "She was chosen to name the fine new watermelon developed by Southern research workers, not only because of her interna tionally recognized beauty, but also because she is a South Caro lina farm girl and former 4-H club member," Dr. M. D. Farrar, Clemson dean of agriculture, stated. “We’re sure the farm folks of this state will be glad to see her at Clemson’s Farm and Home Week,” he added. BABSON ... Discusses New Tax Laws GAS APPLIANCES Call us for your Gas Appliance Needs. We carry a Complete Line. INSTALLATION AT REASONABLE RATES By Experienced Workmen PROMPT, COURTEOUS SERVICE CALL US FOR FREE ESTIMATES Phone 927 104 W. Pitts St. Anderson Co. Appliance JACK W. ANDERSON JACK RED WgjjglgK \VVM£ r 7' , 5f * Thursday and Friday McCfiEA mmm Saturday (One Day) August 14 SARACEN BLADE (Technicolor Adventure) With Ricardo Montalban, Betta St. John, Rick Jason COMEDY CARTOON Starts Monday For 4 Days August 16-19 The store of a i woman’s need for a man that will become j| one of the 4SB e f reat emotional thrills of your lifetime! jjlt JpT KOh'f f JANE WYMAN ROCK HUDSON BARBARA RUSH AGNES MOOREHEAO • OTTO KRUGER • GREGG PALMER Program starts daily 3 P.M. Admission—10c - 50c By ROGER W. BABSON Babson Park, Mass., Aug. 12—The new tax law will help everybody. It is the first complete revision of all the Federal tax. laws which has taken place for many years. , Hard Luck and Baby Billing Favored One of the first things recognized is that we all should get easier tax treatment for misfortune. This includes everything from sickness and acci dent to business losses. Not only are allowances made for this year’s bad luck, but we are also allowed to charge these losses against a greater number of previous years’ gains. Limited child care expenses for low-income parents are exempt ed. You may deduct medical expenses above 3 per cent of income, instead of 5 per cent as at present. But, you must remember that from now on you may only deduct sums spent for drugs and medi cine above 1 per cent of your income. Mothers, or widowers, who must work to support children un der 12 or other dependents, and any woman whose husband is incapacitated, or working couples with combined family income of less than $4,60© may deduct up to $600 spent for child care. If you miss work because of an illness or an injury, you are entitled to tax exemption on payments made to you by your employer up to $100 a week. The exemption does not apply in the first seven days of an illness, unless you are hospitalized. Relief For Dividend end Retirement Money If you are a stockholder, you won’t have to pay any tax at all on the first $50 income in divi dends. Furthermore, you can take 4 per cent of any dividend income above $50 and deduct that from your tax payment. Although the double taxation of dividends is wrong and dishonest, I do not feel so badly that the President’s request was not fully granted, especially in the case of young people!. Older people who cannot work and are wholly dependent upon dividends should have to tal relief, but not everyone. In fact, the discrimi nation should perhaps be by ages, rather than by the total dividends received, except when they are reinvested in the stock of the same company. You won’t have the basic 20 per cent tax rate on the first $1,200 of retirement income received after you pass 65. If you are a retired Government em ployee such as a teacher, fireman, or policeman, you can get the benefit even though you’re under 65. If you have a child who is under 19 or is in college end who has a job which pays him more than $600 a year, you can continue to list him as a dependent with a $600 exemption on your re turn if you pay half of his support. If your hus-' band or wife dies, you may continue for two years to get the full benefit of income splitting by a joint return. Help For Businessmen If you are a businessman or a farmer, you may use the new double declining-balance method of quick depreciation on a plant or piece of equip ment. This means that in the first years of life, you can write off twice the amount for deprecia tion now allowed; thus you can concentrate most of the write-off in the early years of use of the item. A corporation may get other relief, includ ing: More liberal treatment for research expendi tures; greater freedom to set aside supluses; the right to offset a loss against profits of two prior years instead of .one as now; greatly expanded depletion allowances for mining companies; a cut off date of April 1, 1955, for the 52 per cent cor poration tax rate, when it automatically drops to 47 per cent. If you are a fanner putting a lot of money into soil building, you may deduct these outlays up to 25 per cent of your gross business income. Installment Buying ’ * To help business, installment buying is being encouraged by allowing you to deduct the carry ing charges on all such purchases. To help church es, hospitals, and colleges, we can deduct, as tax- exempt income, 30 per cent of our contributions to such, instead of the former 20 per cent. The main purpose of these new tax laws is to help struggling parents and struggling businessmen. Big business and the rich are benefited very little. The date when we must file our returns is ex tended from March 15 to April 15. Furthermore, married couples filing joint returns and who have a family annual income of less than $10,000 (most of it subject to withholding) no longer need to file an advance estimate of their tax. This simplifies filing for millions of people. For these changes we can thank both the Republcans and Demo crats. EXPERTS ESTIMATE 10,000,000 TO PAY REDUCED INCOME TAXES NEXT SPRING By Charles F. Barrett Washington—A tax cut hailed chiefly as a boon to corporations actually will benefit more in dividual taxpayers than any other one part of the new tax revision law. Experts estimate almost 10 million persons will pay reduced income taxes next spring be cause of much faster deductions for wear and tear on new equip ment or buildings. A farmer can benefit if he gets a new tractor or barn; a grocer or other shopowner can benefit if he buys a new display coun ter; a lawyer can benefit on books for his law library; a doctor gets a tax cut on new medical equipment; a landlord benefits on permanent improve-,, ments to his property; even a writer can benefit if he buys a new typewriter Altogether, individual tax payers are expected to get tax reductions from this provision amounting to 73 million dollars the first year, much more later. The same provision will cut taxes on an estimated 600,000 corporations by about 291 mil lion dollars the first year. You can claim depreciation de ductions on buildings or equip ment which are used in produc ing income and which have a useful life of three years or more. You can’t deduct, for example, on a home or car not used in business. If the useful life is less than three years, you deduct the cost of the item as a regular business expense but not as de preciation. Depreciation deductions are spread over the years of useful life of an item. They add up eventually to the total cost of the item. They are deducted from your income, before you apply the tax rate. The new law permits much bigger deductions on new equip ment or buildings in the first years of useful life. That means smaller deductions toward the end of the period of useful life. For millions of taxpayers, it means substantially lower taxes over the next few years. And you can wind up with a big over-all tax cut if you sell the item before its useful life is over—after taking the big de ductions in the early years. The more liberal treatment ap plies to new equipment bought after last Dec. 31, or to construc tion started after Dec. 31. If con struction was started before then but completed later, the more liberal allowances apply only to that part of the construction cost after Dec. 3L The new deduc tions may be claimed in 1954 tax returns due next April 15. Note: You can’t claim the new deductions if you buy used equipment. The old rules still apply in that case. Under the old law, generally you figured the useful life of the new item and deducted the cost in equal annual installments over that period. Thus a $10,000 item with 10 years of life would mean a $1,000 deduction each year for 10 years. This is called the “straight-line” method. Under the new rules, you are given severs! possible new me thods of figuring deductions. The most important are called the “declining balance” method and the “sum of the years' digits” method. They sound frightfully complicated, hut they aren’t so difficult when you sit down to work them out. Under the declining balance, first you figure the percentage deduction allowed each year under the old law. In the ex ample above, that would be 10 per cent. Then you double the percentage. In this example, you get 20 per cent. Now, for the first year, you deduct that percentage from the total cost. Thus the first year you get a deduction of $2,000 in stead of $1,000. And each suc ceeding year, you apply that same 20 per cent to the remain ing balance of the cost—not to the entire cost. You have al ready . deducted $2,000, so in the second year you would deduct 20 per cent of $8,000, of $1,600. The third year you would de duct 30 per cent of $6,400, or $1,280. In the first three years under the declining balance method, you would deduct $4,880 instead of a $3,000 under the old law. At a 25 per cent tax rate, that would be an actual tax cut of $470 the first three years. Under the “sum of the year’s digits” plan, the rate of deduc tions is a fraction. The denomin ator of the fraction is constant— the sum of all the numbers in he useful life. In the example above that would be 1 plus 2 plus 3 and so forth up to 10. That gives you a denominator of 55. The numberator of the fraction starts with the number of useful years, or 10. It declines by one number each year. Each year you apply this fraction to your total cost, to figure the de duction. Thus the first year your de duction in this example would be 10-55ths of $10,000, or $1,818. The second year it would be 9-55ths of $10,000, of $1,636. The third year it would be 8-55ths, or $1,454; and so forth until the tenth year your deduction would be l-55th, or only $182. In this case, your deductions the first three years would total $4,908. This compares with $3,000 under the old straight-line method—an additional deduc tion of $1,908. If you’re in a 25 per cent tax bracket, that would be an actual tax cut of $477 the first three years. Still other methods are allow ed, but none of the others may exceed the declining balance rate at any one point during the first two-thirds of useful life. You can use the declining bal ance method for part of the period, and then shift at any time to the straight-line method of deducting your remaining balance of cost. Birth Announcements WINSLOW Mr. and Mrs. Donald Winslow of Martinsville, Ind., announce the birth of a son, Donald Rex- ford, on August 4. Mrs. Wins low is the former Misp Frances Doyle Thomason, daughter -of Mr. and Mrs. C. T. Thomason of this city. JONES Mr. and Mrs. Leaman D. Jones anounce the birth of a daughter, Florence Byrd, on August 9 at Blalock clinic. Mrs. Jones is the former Miss Ann McMillian. COBB Mr. and Mrs. Robert C. Cobb announce the birth of a daugh ter, Doris Elizabeth, on August 5. Before marriage Mrs. Cobb was Miss Elizabeth Mildred Em ery. WITH THE SICK Friends of Mrs. R. W. Phillips will be 1 interested to know she has returned home after a few days stay at Hays hospital. Mrs. Harold Rollins is a pa tient at the Blalock clinic. The following who nave been patients at Hays hospital for several days, returned to their homes this week: John Dees, Mrs. Jimmy Turner, Mrs. L. B. Trammell, Mrs. Fannie Casey, and Mrs. Katherine Heaton. Mrs. Guynell Knighton has re turned to her home in Laurens from Blalock clinic where sho was a patient several days. Patients at Hays hospital in clude C. L. Snipes, Dan Penland, Mrs. Edith Hancock and W. H. Spoon. Miss Edna Woods was a pa tient at the Blalock clinic sev eral days this week. Steve Tucker has returned home after a few daya stay at Blalock clinic. DEMOCRATS FAIL TO GRASP REAL US ECONOMIC PICTURE By JOHN FRJUfKUN CARTER The Democratc opposition to the Eisenhower administration fails to grasp the point of the na tional economic pictur' Last winter and spring, th*/ . were eager to acclaim what they hop ed was a major business depres sion.. Such a depression, in, 1932, enabled them to come to power at Washington for 20 years. Now that the depression has failed to materialize this year at any rate, they are hunting around for other “issues” which would be issues in the presence of the depression that is not here to help them win office with out doing anything to earn it. Such , an issue was presented by the Atomic Energy Commis sion contract for construction of a private power plant at Blast Memphis, Arkansas. Here the Power Trust was to be the whip ping boy, but it is a matter of record that the Power Trust did not materialize as a political is sue until after the Insull utili ties crash and the other shenani gans of the panic and depression. TVA itself was possible only in the presence of an almost total absence of private capital seek ing investment in large scale power developments. Now the Democrats think they have detected another issue in the new tax reform bill which abates some of the double taxa tion involved in corporate divi dends. The profits of a business corporation are taxed heavily under a corporate income tax schedule that runs over 50 per cent Then, when the remaining profits are distributed to the shareholders in the form of divi dends they are taxed again as personal income, with rates run ning over 70 per cent in the case of large incomes. A little arith metic shows that this means, for such indGmes, payment of taxes close to 90 per cent of the earn ings on an investment. The administration propoes to permit a 4 per cent abatement of personal income taxes on these dividends and this offers to the Democrats a hope that the anti business revulsion of the bitter 1930’s will linger on in the boom ing 1950’s. Here again they forget that the political resentment against cor porate wealth stemmed from de pression, unemployment, bank ruptcy, foreclosures and the col lapse of the banking system. In the New Deal period, anything which policed or punished the corporate institutions which had failed to meet the tests of eco nomic stringency was good poli tics. So many investors had lost their life savings in the depres sion that there was a spirit of vengeance. But conditions have changed 20 years later. Business is pros perous and profitable, employ ment is at an all-time high, the national income is large, and taxes have become one of the chief props of high prices rather than a means of redistribution of the wealth. Under'these conditions there is no great reservoir of public in dignation to support the Demo cratic argument that dividends are an evil to be policed rather than the normal working of the capitalistic system. The admin istration’s policy is designed to encourage savings and invest ment so as to relieve the taxpay ers of the necessity to have the government finance major indus trial development. It’s hard to see masses of voters rising in their might against the national administration on this particular issue. 'ii first week of August During the first half of the month, Mercury is a good morning star in the east during dawn. Jupiter is climb ing ever higher in the east as dawn begins. The famous red star, Antares, is fairly low on the southwest horizon and bright star Arcturus is declining in the west. The con stellation Caniopeu, on me op posite side of Polaris to the Big Dipper, is now occupying a posi- $ lion in the northeast Brilliant Man is at its highest point in the sky during evening twilight and sets about midnight. Scattered meteors, or "shoot ing stars,” will be seen in many parts of the sky the entire month. However, the Perseid meteor shower, usually one of the best with maximum number of meteors that might be seen on August 12, will be marred this year by the' bright moon which A is full on August 14. FRENCH TALK ACTION Paris — Premier Pierre Mendes-France turned today to the task of forging and setting his policy on German raaima- ment to France’s neighbors. Informed sources said Mendes- France, who won two more con- findence votes from the National Assembly Tuesday night, was expected to summon his cabinet for afternoon talks on the delay-' ed European army plan. Three sources said ministers ^ would gen an opportunity to ex change views on the formula Mendes-France will hand pro posed fellow members of the army at the six-nation Bnusell.- Conference opening August 19. Mendes-France won firm ap proval of his North African and economic programs in twin votes that tied the Communist party line in a knot and brought stronger enemies into his camp. Set Your Sights on the FUTURE with In life there is an open rood That leads to greater wealth: Buy what you will — —' But not until You first have paid yourself. t% INTEREST PAID ON SAVINGS ACCOUNTS SEMI-ANNUALLY m. s. mm & seiidg-f. CASUAL AND SURPLUS $400,000.00 MEMSER - EBOERAL DEPOSIT INSURANCE CORPORATION HOW TO RELIEVE SKIN ITCH. IN IS MINUTES If no* pleased, your 40c back at any drug store. ITCH-ME-NOT has mild anesthetic to ease itch in min litas* has keralolytic. anti septic action that sloughs off out er skin to Kfl-l. GERMS AND FUNGUS ON CONTACT. line for i-sti"? ringworm, foot itch, other surface rashee.. Today at Young's Pharmack. M-4c J. R. Crawford SURVEYING CLINTON, 8. C. S49S Pgftg vktiM tmi Mp NOW! ifflsasa MARCH OF DUB AUGUST 14 TO ST. Personal Mention Mr. and Mrs. Bob Black and children, Ame Lou and Betty, returned Tuesday from a trip to Daytona Beach, Fla. Mrs. Marshall Lanter and small daughter, Marcia Ann, of Fort Benning, Ga., are spending some time with the former’s par ents, Mr. and Mrs. Frank Fowler, while Lt. Lanter is attending the National Rifle and Pistol Match es at Camp Perry, Ohio. Mr. and Mrs. Raymond John son of Chicago, HL, are visiting relatives and friends here. Many Heavenly Bodies Will Be ^ Seen This Month One of the finest sights in the heavens during the summer is the right triangle formed by three bright stars, Vega, Deneb, and Altair, according to Charles F. Martin, professor of astrono my at the University of South Carolina. The star at the right angle is Vega, which will be about over head on August 15 at 9 p. m. The other two stars forming the tri angle are Deneb, which will be to the northeast high up in the sky, and Altair, which win be high up and to the southeast They are both stars of the first magnitude. During August the planet Ve nus, generally referred to as the evening star, is constantly grow ing more brilliant and rising higher in the west after sunset Saturn is also in the western sky as darkness comes on and it sets well before midnight The young moon helps in mak ing a striking picture in the west during the early evenings of the 8LUI WU DIAMONDS Dollar Day Specials All-Metal Watch Bands Price 2 PLUS TAX ODD LOT OF POPULAR MAKE Crystal Was $3.00 Now 1.25 Each ICE TEAS - GOBLETS JUICES - DESSERTS 2 Pcs. Baby Set 1847 ROGERS 1.75 SPOON AND FORK SPECIAL 10K Baby Rings 38c BUY SEVERAL FOR LATSR GIFTS Sterling Baby Cups 3.60 And 5.00 ASSORTED SIZES Jewelry GOLD FILLED SPECIAL FOR DOLLAR DATS 540ff Blue Nile Diamonds f'