JANUARY, 1921 THE VALVE WORLD The most encouraging sign just now is the effort being put forth by organized labor in the United States and other lands to rid itself of the taint of Russian Communism. Here and there throughout Europe organized Socialism has failed to take the final step of complete alliance with the Moscow International, and the American Federation of Labor is said to have taken a decided stand against radicalism within its own ranks. These are encouraging indications and favor the belief that the sound common sense of the American workman is reasserting itself. We still have a deal to do before we may look upon radicalism of the red variety as no longer something to cause us disquiet, but once hard-headed Americanism gets in the saddle and leads in the charge, we may expect to see the red wave receding further and further from our own shores; and that means eventually from all other shores, for unless the Russian Communists can sweep the world, they are doomed to defeat. Twentieth Annual Cash Distribution THIS HIS is the twentieth year since Crane Co. adopted the plan of making an annual cash distribution among its co-workers. The distribution is made during the Christmas holidays, and for the month just past, covering the year 1920, the total was approximately $2,300,000. This makes a grand total of more than $14,300,000 for the twenty years. The basis of distribution-as for the last eighteen years-was ten per cent of the year's earnings. for each worker. About 16,000 Crane co-workers shared in this distribution throughout the offices and works in Chicago, Bridgeport, and Montreal, and the offices, salesrooms, warehouses, etc., in ninety-two other cities in the United States, Canada, Great Britain and Australasia. A cordial Christmas greeting from the Company accompanied each gift. What Bolshevism Has Done for Petrograd A Paris dispatch to the New York Tribune gives a graphic description by an eye-witness of the fearful conditions existing in Petrograd as the result of Bolshevic rule. The conditions are set down in startling detail in an appeal from the Finnish Red Cross to the Red Cross societies of the world. The appeal is accompanied by documents prepared by Professor Zeidler, formerly head of the Petrograd Red Cross, but now a refugee in Finland. The documents tell the story of a dying city. Petrograd's present population, based on the food cards, is 500,000 to 600,000 and the one-time capital of the czars is described as having shrunk to one-fourth of its pre-war size. The following paragraphs are taken from the report.-Editor's note. D EATH stalks on every side waiting for winter to aid in the grim work of mowing down the silent, hungry, sick and dying thousands. With streets and houses choked with filth that is already spreading spotted and intermittent typhus, the cold weather will finish the task with pneumonia and abdominal typhus. The fuel situation was never so bad. Wooden houses have been torn down for fuel. The material is distributed equally among the population, but during the nights the more energetic citizens steal the quota of wood from the others. The woodyards have been nationalized. One of them has been given up entirely to the manufacturers of 30,000 coffins monthly. But even this number is insufficient. People have not time to bury the dead, and the bodies take their turn, waiting several days. Only one important tramway line is in operation and that runs to the suburb. Attempts to repair the streets, which are full of holes owing to bursting water pipes, have failed because the wood blocks for pavement have been stolen for fuel. Lighting is allowed only two half-hours each day. Kerosene costs 450 rubles a pound. There are no candles. Most homes are in darkness. There is no means of transporting things by waterway, because the barges were long since demolished for fuel. The railway transportation is devoted almost exclusively to the distribution of flour. Only 200 people are permitted to leave Petrograd daily by passenger train. Workmen receive half a pound of bread daily, and sometimes other food is given. The prices of foodstuffs continue to rise to incredible heights. Many products have almost completely disappeared from the markets. The mortality has reached a startling rate owing to the lack of food and un sanitary conditions of houses and streets. Fat has left the majority of the population long ago. At present the muscular tissue is consumed. The faces of people have taken on a waxlike color. In order to fill their stomachs with something they drink different substitutes for tea and coffee, or great quantities of plain water, resulting in puffiness and dropsy, which change the expression of the face so that old acquaintances are unrecognizable. The decay of property is aided not only by the colossal prices of materials and wages the slightest repair work costs. not under 100,000 rubles-but also by the fact that house porters are abolished, partly as a bourgeois system and partly because the porters are needed for wood cutting. At present houses are looked after by beggars and committees composed of indigent Communists. Indescribable dirt and filth is on every side within the houses. When plumbing gets out of order it remains unrepaired. Whole houses become filthy from top to bottom and it becomes impossible to live in them. These houses are then barred, and tenants move into other houses, which are neglected in the same manner. There is no fuel, no hot water or baths, no janitor, doorkeeper or servants for cleaning yards, streets, buildings or for the removal of garbage. The coal deposit at Lampman, Sask., Canada, is believed to be one of the best of its kind in the world, and one of the greatest assets of the province, according to the investigators who recently made an examination of the location. They estimated that there are 32,000,000 tons of coal in the two and three-quarter sections of land in which the coal is located. General view, above, of the Georgia School of Technology, Atlanta. Below, view of the New Power Plant, equipped with Crane material furnished by the Atlanta Branch of Crane Co. The School has "standardized" on Crane goods, after exhaustive tests and comparisons. This is the largest technical school south of the Mason and Dixon Line. Successful Operation of the Tax on Sales Plan B Y the time these lines reach our readers Congress will have been in session for about a month. It is scarcely probable that in that time any definite plan will have been decided upon for a readjustment of our taxing methods that will more equitably apportion the burden of taxation that the war placed upon the American people. And no such plan is likely to be adopted at the present short session of Congress unless the people who bear the burden impress it upon Congress that this is one of the most vitally pressing of our domestic issues. Any reader of THE VALVE WORLD, who has been giving thought to this important question and is persuaded that the Tax on Sales, or Turn-over Tax plan which we have mentioned in previous issues, is at least worthy of trial, ought to write directly to his representative in Congress giving his views and urging prompt action. As we have explained before, the Tax on Sales plan proposes a small tax, say one per cent, on the volume of sales throughout the country, the tax to be paid at the time of the sale and as a part of the transaction. As the consumer pays the taxes in any event and under any system we may devise, he is less likely to be taxed unjustly or inequitably under the proposed plan than under the present system which embraces the indefensible excess profits tax and the not entirely satisfactory or systematic income tax. The Experience of Canada That the Tax on Sales plan is something more than a theory, and is even passing beyond the experimental stage, may be seen by turning to our neighbor across the northern border. Both Premier Meighen and the Finance Minister of Canada recently have spoken enthusiastically of the success achieved in the short time the plan has been in operation in the Dominion. On the subject the Prime Minister is quoted thus by a Toronto newspaper: "Seldom, if ever, has a financial measure so quickly justified itself. The Sales Tax is a path untrodden by any other country in the world. Canada is the pioneer in this form of taxation. What was regarded by some as a dangerous experiment has been an enormous success as a revenue producer; and, better still, it has provoked no sense of grievance or hardship in the general public. That success having been incontestable even in the brief period since it was first applied, the question naturally arises whether it would not be well to simplify our manifold systems of taxation by making the Sales Tax our basic source of revenue, apart from that provided by the tariff. "Apart from its power to produce the indispensible requisite of money, the excellence of the system is demonstrated by the fact that of all war taxes it is the one most honestly met by the general public. In this respect it differs materially from the Excess Profits Tax and the Income Tax The spirit and purpose of both the latter systems have been grotesquely violated by Canadians at large. The Income Tax is practically a dead letter in rural communities by those individuals whose yearly revenue is not easily ascertainable. Almost the only individual who is paying his full dues under this branch of taxation is the salaried man with a known income, who would face criminal proceedings should he attempt concealment. Might Become the Basic System "The working out of our fiscal policies points to a recognition of the Sales Tax as the paramount source of revenue, as the goal to be arrived at. Simplification of taxing methods would have this distinct advantage: It would attract capital to Canada." Indicating the trend of opinion in the United States on this question by those best qualified to speak on such matters, we quote the following from the publication of a well known New York firm dealing in investment securities, as the view of George M. Reynolds, president of the Continental and Commercial National Bank, Chicago: "As nearly as I can gather through what appears in the press, the trend of public sentiment is in favor of the abolition of the Excess Profits Tax and a reduction in the Income Tax. Coupled with this and closely |