Communications (State and city officials)—Continued Lincoln Park, Mich., resolution of __ Little Rock, Ark., letter from Mayor Sam M. Wassell_. Page 976 960 Louisiana, telegram from Bolivar E. Kemp, Jr., attorney general. Lowell, Mass. resolution of 983 974 Maine, wire sent by Gov. Frederick G. Payne to congressional delega- Michigan, letter from Frank G. Millard, attorney general, transmitting statement_ 994 Milwaukee, Wis., resolution of 948 Minneapolis, Minn., letter from Al. Hansen, city comptroller.. 1127 993 Letter from M. E. Henderson, president, Municipal League....... W. T. Mathews, attorney general.. New Britain, Conn., letter from William H. Judd, chairman, board of Tiffany, Gordon M., attorney general, transmitting brief. 983, 992 1151 983 North Carolina, letter from Gov. W. Kerr Scott_ 987 Ohio cities (statements from Cleveland, Norwood, Marietta, Dayton, 978 Oregon, telegrams and letter from Gov. Douglas McKay- Paducah, Ky., letter from Mayor Stuart Johnston, transmitting Paterson, N. J., letter from Howard L. Bristow, administrative as- Pasadena, Calif., letter from Don C. McMillan, city manager, and 1146 954 Pensacola, Fla., letters from Oliver J. Semmes, Jr., city manager. 971, 972 985 955 Philadelphia, Pa., telegram from Mayor Bernard Samuel. 947 970 947 Communications (State and city officials)—Continued Schenectady, N. Y., letter from Christian X. Kouray, city manager.. Devin, Mayor William F., letter from_. Harlin, Robert H., president, city council, telegram from... - Dwiggins, Homer, president, Municipal League, letter from___ 1147 Langlie, Gov. Arthur B., telegrams from. McCauley, John, secretary, Public Utility Commissioners Asso- Westchester County, N. Y., resolution of board of supervisors- Westfield, Mass., letter from Mayor Raymond H. Cowing. Winston-Salem, N. C., telegram from Mayor Marshall C. Kurfees. REVENUE REVISION OF 1951 TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 1951 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, The committee met at 10 a. m., pursuant to recess, Hon. Robert L. Doughton (chairman), presiding. The CHAIRMAN. The committee will be in order. The first witness on the calendar this morning is Mr. George J. Burger, vice president of the National Federation of Independent Business, Washington, D. C. Mr. Burger, will you please qualify by giving your name and address and the capacity in which you appear before the committee for the benefit of the record. STATEMENT of George J. BURGER, VICE PRESIDENT, NATIONAL FEDERATION OF INDEPENDENT BUSINESS, WASHINGTON, D. C. Mr. BURGER. My name is George J. Burger of the Washington office of the National Federation of Independent Business, 714 Bond Building, Washington, D. C. In his Economic Report to Congress this year, President Truman said: In a defense emergency, all those on the home front should serve, to the limit of their ability, in the kind of work for which they are best fitted. The 98 percent of all our businessmen who own and operate small and independent firms are ready and eager for this service. In World War II, when they were permitted to use only a fraction of their potential, they provided almost 27 percent of the value of all war production. Today they are accounting for 24 percent of a much smaller defense production total. As our Nation goes further into the defense program, more and more of these small and independent businessmen will be called on. Many of them will be required to expand their facilities. Their service, and constant readiness to serve, will provide our Nation with a great safety factor, as England learned in World War II after its centers of concentrated, giant production had been bombed out, and that nation forced to turn to its thousands of small and independent factors for needed defense production. But, as matters stand today, many of these small and independent businessmen may be unavailable when the need for them arises. Their decentralized plant may be in disrepair, their pool of skilled 553 labor dispersed, their magnificent productive potential completely lost. For today literally thousands of these independents, some of them likely right in your own congressional districts, are rushing down the road to ruin. Not because of their own ineptness or mistakes. Rather because they are being squeezed to death between operation cut-backs caused by materials shortages and rapidly increasing costs, of which mounting taxes are part cause. Let us illustrate by quotes from four of the hundreds of letters. received from small and independent members of our federation within the past 30 days. Hear what these businessmen have to say. A small and independent plumbing manufacturer writes: The owners of this company contribute substantially to the United States Treasury in the payment of taxes. However, due to its inability to obtain steel, copper, lead, and zinc, this contribution is about to cease unless materials for essential products are made available. We are holding urgent orders from jobbers requiring more than 40 tons of metals, which we cannot obtain. Military orders are being held, due to refusal of extendible ratings. A small and independent plastics manufacturer writes: We have a new plastics factory * * completed late in 1948. It is equipped with one of the largest injection presses in the Middle West. We have floor space and modern, up-to-date equipment and could handle a prime contract for the mobilization program. Our inability to secure plastic molding materials is very perturbing to us as we have thousands of dollars in molds and other materials, and unless we can secure Government work or get materials for our items for the civilian market, we will have to close our $150,000 plant. A small and independent farm implement manufacturer writes: The usual sources of steel supply for the small manufacturer completely dried up by middle September, and the gray market operators moved in to market the available supply-at a price. By late December, this price had risen to 20 cents per pound for certain steel items such as sheets, effectively closing the door on this, our last source of supply for sheet and strip steel. We could not hope to meet this price level. Our products simply would not sell for that kind of money. It is obvious that we cannot long remain in our present static position and simply mark time. If we are not soon able to obtain sufficient materials to maintain our manufacture the only alternative is complete and permanent closure of our plant. A small and independent tire retreader writes: We have been under the impression from news releases and bulletins that the rubber manufacturers have been instructed by our Government to channel a greater portion of their production to camelback. From the manner in which orders are being received in tread plants, it appears that there has been a considerable reduction rather than an increase. We have been unable to secure any camelback whatsoever for 30 days. No operator can keep open and save valuable tires on such a basis. Some of these businessmen are individual proprietors or partnerships, others are incorporated. Consider that the unincorporated businessmen were the last to receive tax relief after World War II, that they have already taken one tax increase, and are facing a second in the President's proposed tax program. At the same time, the incorporated firms who were, 1 year ago, paying 21 percent on the first $5,000, 23 percent on the next $15,000, and 25 percent on the next $5,000, are all paying 25 percent today, and are being asked to pay 33 percent in the President's proposed tax program. More than this, the so-called tax "speed-up" adopted in the last Congress is causing them to pay, temporarily, relatively greater amounts of taxes in relatively shorter periods of time. |