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Senator "Muley" Dr"gh;:":of North Carolina, used to say the same thing, but in different words. He said: "You can SHEAR a sheep every year, but you can only SKIN HIM ONCE.''

It has long been agreed O, "r, those capable of adding two and two and getting four that the most important letters in the alphabet have becoms-"Bf." And now that taxes have soared to astronomical figures those two letters become even more important; vital, as a matter of fact. They mean-r'llsfess Taxes." {. td

Today we face another steep increase in taxes of all kinds, and income taxes in particular. The terrific "hidden" taxes will hurt, but will not impress us so consciously. But the direct income taxes-mostly payable in advance-will make the average citizen bleed at th*e nose.

Our President has ,leclared in emphatic terms that we must be taxed until it hurts. What he means is until it hurts every American except Harry Truman. The woman who gcrubs the White Ffouse floor will be taxed both directly and indirectly, and it will hurt; make no mistake about that. The colored boy who shines his shoes will be taxed on his polish and brushes, as well as on his income; but Harry will go tax-free on a huge income which the rest of the taxpayers will have to dig*deep to pay.

Yes, Junior, he will get fifty tfiousand bucks a year taxfree salary, and an additional forty thousand bucks a yearthis is all in addition to his regular huge salary-that he pays no taxes on. It is an 'txpense account," Junior.

One of the very first acts of Congress in 1950-an act that would make a bunco-steerer blush-was to give the President, the Vice President, as well as its own members, tax-free incomes in this tax-cursed land.

The boys decided, om"ii'tty "rrd egotistically, to make those just mentioned the beneficiaries of a strange bestowal, thus creating a privileged class in this land where all men are supposed to be equal before the law. They erected a barrier between Dives and Lazarus by creating these taxfree incomes. They created a new method of corraling the succulent sinecure. Now we have two classes in America; the taxed and the tax-free. Remember that, Junior, when you are making your next income tax payment; that part of that money goes to Mr. Dives. And tell me-how do you like it? *{<

With just enough gall to pass the law, and just enough guile to get away with it, they put the thing over in a whale of a hurry. Since that time the thing has been denounced. by innumerable Americans, but to no avail. You may not like it, Junior, but you'll take it. And pay it.

When I was a kid one of my favorite stories of antiquity was that of Theseus, who killed the monster in the labyrinthine cave and then found his way out because he had had the good sense to tie a string to the entrance, put the other end in his pocket, and then follow it back. The thought this gives me is that any man who leads this nation out of the labyrinth of confusion and bewilderment into which the Funny Deals have led us, will require not only a welltied ball of string to direct his returning way, but likewise an inextinguishable torch and a stout piece of chalk to mark the turns, if he ever hopes to find his way back to common sense, and security, and old-fashioned Americanism.

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wouldn't you just naturally think that an Administration demanding frightening taxation on the people, would counter that proposal with just as definite proposals for cutting out unnecessary spending here at home? Naturally. And yet not one word has been spoken, not even the semb.lance of a promise or even a suggestion. made in that direction. fnstead, many repofters on the Washington scene report that extravagance, waste, and federal payroll padding goes on at a pace never attempted before :i: ,t

Any effort to cut unnecessary spending is met with stony indifference, and sometimes with defiance. Senator Byrd, of Virginia, the nation's foremost fighter against governmental waste, has been "denounced and denied, belittled and belied" for his e'ftorts to reduce federal featherbedding. In fact, at the instigation of the White House, another Senator introduced a bill seeking to abolish Mr. Byrd's Committee on Reduction of Nonessential Federal Expenditures, which would thus haVe nullified all of the Virginia Senator's teeth. The resolution was met by a storm of catcalls for its author, so Mr. Byrd carries on.

Said Senator Byrd in his most recent public speech: "Our Federal Government is permeated with waste, inefficiency,