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Your article in the Oct. 26 issue of TIME, describing the dilemma of Economic Czar James F. Byrnes in attempting to balance his budget, is the best example I have seen of the necessity of immediately adopting the proposed Ruml "pay as you go" income-tax plan.
Faithful James F. Byrnes should have set aside, out of his $20,000 salary, while he was receiving it, funds with which to pay his income tax, so that he would not now be faced with the problem of paying the tax on a $20,000 income out of a $10,000, or even $15,000 salary.
How can an average human being be expected to budget his expenditures out of current income so as to have funds to meet tax liabilities, when even an "economic czar" apparently has been unable to do so? Also, how would the Government have collected Mr. Byrnes's tax, if it had not increased his salary ?
LLOYD H. MCDOUGALL Duluth
Dog's Life for a General
Sirs:
Just read your article concerning General Vandegrift (TIME, Nov. 2).
I was an engineering officer (Sr. 2nd Lieut.) on the transport that took General Vandegrift to the South Pacific.
Let me be one, also, to praise the modest General. I saw him many times on the 20-day trip.
At the usual high jinks that attend crossing the Equator, the General was not above being initiated into the royal order of the deep. For that matter, all of the officers were grand fellows and "good sports."
At its best, a transport is a cattle boat and the discomfort is sickening, especially when it is blistering hot for days at a time. Water is strictly rationed, and the troops must stand up to eat or sit on the deck any place there is room to sit. . . .
Those marines are a great crowd and I'm proud that I had a part in getting them down there. Next I want to take them to Tokyo!!
LOWELL FLOYD U.S. Merchant Marine Los Angeles, Calif.
Undignified
Sirs:
The caption of the photograph of the present Supreme Court [TIME, Oct. 26] is not quite up to par. Paraphrasing the old hymn, it might well have been—"Change and decay in all around I see," or with the addition of a few banjos and a very little black face the old minstrel show salutation—"Gentlemen, be seated" might be in order. . . .
W. W. TAYLOR Houston
Sirs:
Shocking to say the least was the photograph of the U.S. Supreme Court. The Supreme Court is a most august body, or should be. As individuals they are human and may behave informally as other men, yet even then have some consideration for the great offices they hold. But as a body they should never appear in any manner that might lower the very high degree of respect with which they should be honored by their fellow citizens. Chief Justice Stone looks down the line with evident disapproval.
W. F. BARBER Lawton, Okla.
War Songs
Sirs :
The music of Der Fuehrer's Face [TIME, Nov. 2] sounds to me like the song my German-born in-laws sang in the old country:
Einen Talmi Ring den hab ich ihr geschenkt,
Dass ihr Herze Feuer faengt,
Eine Brosche die beinah zwei Mark an Wert,
Dock das alles, alles hat sie nicht begehrtl Meaning in American:
A near-gold ring I bought my Heart's Desire,
To set her heart on fire,