Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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V 4 THE NEWBERRY SUN. NEWBERRY, S. C. TREASURY’S COMPLEX TAX PROBLEMS (Ed. Note—In Drew Pearson’s absence, Frcfl M. Vinson, sec retary of the treasury, contrib utes a guest column on one of the most important problems of the treasury—tax evasion.) Drew Pearson has offered me his Washington Merry-Go-Round col umn to present any subject of in terest to the treasury department and to the American people. I know of no subject of more immediate concern than the treasury’s cam paign against tax evasion. Here, in a nutshell, is the situation the treasury faces: In 1940 there were 4,999,999 in dividual taxpayers. Today there are more than 50,000,- 000. In an effort to handle the vastly increased task of processing returns and collecting taxes the personnel of the bureau of internal revenue was in creased from about 22,000 to about 50,- 000. With the manpow er shortage the bu reau could not ex pect to increase its forces propor tionately with the number of tax payers. And in many respects bu reau employees found their work increased out of proportion to the number of returns. Under the with holding program, a large part of the work formerly done by the taxpay er is now done in the bureau. The processing of wartime tax relief pro visions also threw much additional work upon the bureau. Under these conditions the normal investigative work of the bureau inevitably suf fered. The bureau has always proceed ed upon the theory that the average American is honest, and that a small but efficient force could deal with the dishonest. But millions of us are now tax payers and the honest must be pro tected against those among us who, tempted by war-swollen incomes and shortages in civilian goods and serv ices, would cheat the rest of us. No city, however small, can afford to be without a police force. And no city, which has experienced a popu lation increase of more than ten fold in a five-year period, would think of trying to get along without enlarging its law enforcement groups. That is why the treasury is build ing up its investigative forces. Our object is to recruit and train 5,000 men. This will be no Gestapo. It will be a taxpayers’ law enforcement group protecting the government’s interest in taxes, and at the same time pro tecting the honest taxpayer against the black market operator, the rack eteer and every other kind of tax evader. And it will be good busi ness, too. We expect to collect $20 for every one spent. When taxes are evaded the honest taxpayer loses, since ev ery dollar evaded increases by that much the burden borne by other taxpayers. In many cases, the honest taxpayer has espe cial reason to welcome the tax- evasion campaign. A reputable furrier or jeweler, for instance, could not continue in business if a next-door competitor should be permitted to sell furs or jew elry without collecting excise taxes. Any business firm which cheats the government by fail ing to pay for the services which government provides is engaged in dishonest competition, just as much as if it cheated the land lord out of his rent or workers out of their pay. Taxes are high, but they must be collected fair ly. And so long as any substan tial portion of the taxes due remains uncollected, it operates to defer the reduction of tax rates. Much more than expedience di rects this tax-evasion campaign. Fundamental morality is involved. The man who evades taxes picks his neighbor’s pocket. And in these times, when we are asking so much from the men in uniform, any pock et picking at their expense becomes unthinkable. As President Truman has said: “We are not fighting this war to make millionaires, and certainly we are not going to dilow 1J»e black- market operators or any other rack eteers to be in a favored class, when the men in the armed forces, and our citizens generally, are sacrific ing so heavily.” My readers may say, “All right. Tax evasion is indefensible. How bad is it? What are you doing about it?” The answers to the two questions go together. The treasury is gath ering, from many sources, informa tion that will give the entire picture of tax evasion. That same informa tion will serve as evidence to bring tax evaders to justice. The treasury is enlarging its investigating forces, as I have noted, to handle a tremen dous backlog of fraud cases, accu mulated during recent years and the rases now piling in. While Walter Winchell it away, this month, his column will ha conducted by guest columnists. By BABE RUTH (As Told to Ben Epstein, Sports Writer.) I’m for the Kids! The government, national and municipal, is throwing the kids of America a curve! Don’t get me wrong. The old Babe hasn’t fallen for one of those phony isms. I like my United States the way they started it. The guys who wrote the Constitution were no bush- ers. They won a pennant their first time out and this country has been in first place ever since. That’s class, no morning glory record. The kind that knocked off the Nazis with their hidden ball tricks and like wise sky-hiked the Japs to their an cestors. With Eisenhower, Halsey and Mac- Arthur hitting in the clean-up spots, the World Series is a cinch. That’s why you and I are proud of our 48 States setup. Three hundred plus hit ters from top to bottom supported by a double play combo, sound catching and fast outfield that knows how to handle sneak attacks. I’m no military expert but in war, as in baseball, you must be strong down the middle. What has all this got to do with the Government taking a potshot, perhaps innocently, at the kids? Simply this: It has completely for gotten them. * Yep, I know the diamonds are still there and nobody is bothering the kids. That’s the trouble. No one is bothered over the fact that they are playing with broom sticks and balls made out of a synthetic somethvig. This is the situation in New York and, no doubt, the same in other cities. It’s both depressing and alarming. Not only to the future of baseball and other sports, but more important the moral and physical welfare of our future citizens. SAWDUST FILLED BASEBALLS I know materials that ordinarily go into the making of sports athletic equipment were necessary for guns, ships, planes, etc. I say they could be made without let up and take heat off the kids. It’s up to the law makers. How? Simply by freezing the many so-called “essentials.” It seems to me that some of the manu facturers continue to make useless gadgets for the grown-ups who “understand.” Personally, I would sacrifice my shoes if I thought it meant the elimination of sawdust now stuffing what is now called a baseball. If it’s one thing I know, it’s the make-up of the average kid. I’ve buddied with thousands of ’em {rom coast to coast, but let’s keep home runs out of the column. Their lan guage is playing games -with equipment made out of durable stuff. With such baseballs, gloves and bladders unavailable, he gradu ally drifts to the comers where he figures it’s more interesting. Have you noticed the rise in juvenile de linquency lately? Right now, the only playable base balls, good for an inning or more, are being manufactured for the pro fessionals. I suppose that Organized Baseball is doing the best it can. All balls fouled into the stands are donated to members of the armed forces. I endorse that idea. Certain ly the soldiers and sailors need rec reation. But t .at brings me right back to where I started: What about the kids? What about the kids and future of baseball? The kids, mind you, are the life blood of the game. And if the game doesn’t come to the aid of the kids, baseball will strangle it self with its own hands. Today, ma jor league competition is a Class D standard. The majority of players who return from the service will be passe. Comebacks for them is a rough as signment. The gap is big. Hank Greenberg is gamely trying to bea* the rap and you can see from his batting average the going is tough— almost too tough. But gritty service guys like Hank should make it. Night play, which I tagged as an out-and-out mockery of baseball in this same space last year, just about rubs out the lid for keeps. Sensible parents will put him to bed where he belongs but won’t improve his base ball education. Meanwdiile the own ers are favoring fatter schedules un der the arcs, which also makes CENTS. Occasional games under the lights, say, between 7 and 14 per sea son, is okay for the sake of novelty. If the owners play every night ex cept Sunday — how are they going to replenish when the present crop of Class Ds run out? The reason I grabbed a chance to manage the Eastern teams in the Esquire all-American boys game is because I will be able to be with them for a week—seven days with a gang of kids. I plan to cram in as much teaching as I can. You’d be surprised how little some of them know about inside baseball. For ex ample. At a baseball school in Flor ida some Springs ago I thought I had discovered another second baseman on the order of Charley Gehringer. That is, I did until I realized he didn’t know he was sup posed to cover second base. Fred Vinson Jap Leads Marine Air Attack The Ladder of Fame From the waist of a marine Mitchell bomber, Japanese Lieutenant Mino u Wada leads one of the last raids on Japanese installments prior to signing of peace. A prisoner of war, he offered his services to direct American pilots over the Japanese mainland. United Nations girls, all prize win ners of war bond campaigns, see New York from a ladder atop the roof of their hotel. They visited Washington and New York, having won a four-day trip for their meri torious services in war work and bond sales. Purple Heart Heroes Play Ball Pvt. Leo Qualiotto is safe at home in a softball game played at the Percy Jones hospital during a Purple Heart field day sponsored by the 'Detroit hospital as part of the army’s rehabilitation program. *■ Doolittle’s Raiders Released The first four members of Lt. Gen. Jimmy Doolittle’s Tokyo raiders liberated by American paratroopers, before the surrender of Japan be came official. As shown they are: upper left, Dean E. Hallmark of Dallas; upper right, Robert L. Hite of Earth, Texas; lower left, Robert J. Meder, Columbus, Ohio; and lower right, William Glove Farrow, Wash ington, D. C. Ride 1,200 Miles on Horses Photo shows Virginia Conradson and Eileen Holt, who rode from Los Angeles to Stoneham, Colo. They traveled the 1,200 miles at the rate of 30 to 35 mile" a day, sleeping by the roadside at night in bedrolls. Their horses wore out four sets of “unrationed” shoes, and were fed breakfast oats during a large part of the trip through Arizona. Heads West Point Maj. Gen. Maxwell D. Taylor, for mer commander of the 101st air borne division, has been selected as superintendent of the U. S. military academy at West Point. He flew from Washington to be with his men when they were reported cut off be hind German lines. Petain’s Final Exit Henri Philippe Petain, who was chief of state of France during the Vichy regime, is shown as he was escorted from the courtroom by guards after his recent conviction. Reconversion Plow As far as President Harry S. Tru man is concerned, the war is over and the tasks of peace now have his priority. The gun that was on his desk has been replaced with a model of a plow A SHORT time back we opened a discussion on the importance of concentration and other mental aids on the side of winning competition. This piece seems to have developed a number of reper cussions and dis agreements in the scattered belief that physical skill and physical superiority are the dor’inating points. This doesn’t hap pen to be true. The mental or concen- trative side is still more important than the physical side. What good is a pitcher with blinding speed who can’t locate the plate, who has no change of pace, who doesn’t know the weakness of opposing batters? When Lefty Grove first came along with the Athletics, I recall watching him strike out six of the first nine Yankees who faced him, and then have his West Virginia ears pinned back by the fifth inning as he headed for the cooling shower. Grove only became a great pitcher when he learned how to pitch. Such students of golf as Bobby Jones, Walter Hagen, Tommy Ar mour and others have all told me that they rate the mental or emo tional side of golf at 70 per cent— the physical side at 30 per cent. Many years ago on a knoll at Oak- mont, one of the great courses when not spoiled by plow share traps and ice greens. I happened to be standing with Bill Fownes, an able critic of what it takes to win a big tournament. There were nine sur vivors left, with only nine holes to play in this particular National Open. They were all in a seething mass. Blowing Up on Last Hole “This should be a great scram ble,” I said to Fownes. “I don’t think so,” Fownes said. “There are only two men from the nine left who can concentrate through 18 holes. They are Tommy Armour and Harry Cooper.” They ran 1-2. The others blew up com pletely. If Sammy Snead had only had the ability to concentrate on his play as Jones, Hagen and Nelson have done, he would have been a sensa tion. I’ve seen Sammy in his prime throw away a U. S. Open and $3,500 in cash in a Los Angeles Open by taking two 8’s on two final holes where a ten handicap player would have had two 5’s. The brain was still the major factor. After all, it was the brain or many brains that developed the atomic bomb. Brains in sport have nothing to do with any intellectual trend. Fine lawyers, able writers, smart bank ers, leading physicians can be ex tremely dumb on the competitive side of sport. Clowns or illiter ates, such as Rube Waddell and Joe Jackson, can be and have heen smart baseball people. Rube Waddell was completely dumb until you handed him a glove and a baseball. Then he became baseball smart. Joe Jackson could neither read nor write, but he was a different human being when you handed him a bat—“the big black bat his brave song sang”—or sent him to the outfield with a glove. ‘Only One Play to Make’ I asked Larry Lajoie once if he had ever pulled a boner in a ball game. “How can you pull a boner,” he said. “There’s always only one place to throw a ball—always only one play to make.” Fred Merkle of the Giants was known as “Bonehead Merkle,” but intellectually he was far and away the smartest member of McGraw’s old squad, and this included Christy Mathewson. Merkle was a keen stu dent of Kant, Schopenhauer, Plato, pragmatic, and unpragmatic philos ophers, but his competitive reflexes were slow and out of line. Smart competitors in sport can be very dumb people in other lines of living. They can be among the dumbest. Just consider the millions prize fighters have made, only to finish broke and hungry and forgot ten in their poverty. There are those who are only equipped to make a living out of professional sport. They are taking the hard way. For one simple reason—the time they have is short. On a general average they are fad ing out at 30. They are about through at 35. They are gone at 40. Then, at what is supposed to be the prime of life, they are through. Only a few smart ones have mapped out an extended trail on beyond. • • • What the Public Wants Attendance figures prove again that baseball’s big public is more interested in a close scramble, in keener, closer competition than it is in looking at stars. The quality of baseball played has been a rather deep dip from other years. But the quality of competi tion has been far higher. 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