High Taxes Can Kill off Business

Hello, Folks! A bit of philosophy that I like goes something like this: It is not the heights you reach that counts. It is the distance you have to travel and the obsacles you must overcome to reach your goal.

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A customer complained that the new barber was driving him crazy with his incessant chatter. The propietor observed mildly, "According to the Constituion of the U. S. he's got a right to talk.'' "That may be," admitted the customer, "but the U. S. has a constitution that can stand it. Mine can't."

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According to the Continental Can Co, Minnesota's real estate tax rate is the highest of any sate in which they have factories. It is $40.70 per $1,000 investment. This compares with $40.25 for California, $38.31 for Florida, $16.90 for Ohio, $23.39 for Texas, $14.50 for Indiana, $17.28 for Washington. The personal property tax rate also is high.

Minesota 26.7, Indiana 9.19, California 15.36, Florida 7.15, Ohio 12.37, Washington 9.1, Texas 10.25.

Thirty - one states have a sales tax which very likely accounts for their lowered property tax rate. The supporters of the sales tax say that the high property tax rate is driving business from the state leaving less people and property to carry the load. The sales tax seems to be working satisfactory in those states. At least I haven't heard of any moves to do away with it. If that is the reason why Minnesota is losing it's population we might well consider ways of adjusting the situation. People have to live where there is employment and employment is where the in-dustries are,

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One thing we can do which I think will do a tremendous amount of good — is work such as Jobs, Inc. is doing — investing in buildings that will be ready for industries to move into. If our community is to grow as it should we must have such expansion. These industrial buildings have been a good thing in the past and will surely continue to be an asset. Any of your farmers who have some money to invest, why hot invest it in Jobs, Inc.? You will be do-ing yourself and your community a service.

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The little one room country school is on its way out in Minnesota. This whether we like it or not. It is going the way of the work horse and hand milking. The school districts surrounding Oakland are considering joining with the Austin school district. I myself held out a long while. I was brought up with a great respect for the neighborhood school. There are a lot of fond memories to be cherished by it, However the change in educational methods and need for higher education make the changes necessary.

I am very fond of horses and if it had been financially profitable to continue using them I would still be using horses. I got a thrill out of taking a colt and taming and training him into a valuable and useful animal. The fact still remains that if we want powerful autos, good roads, television and all the modern conveniences we have to be efficient and with efficiency comes changes.

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The secret of living is to learn to stand on our own feet without walking on someone else's toes.

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Indications are that young farmers starting out are better off renting thean owning their farms. The reasoning is that a man with limited capital can invest it most effectively in livestock and equipment used directly in producing an income: thus concentrating his investment in assets that bring quick I returns.

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We have four former Secretaries of Agriculture. They are Henry Wallace, Clinton Anderson, Claude Wickard and Charles Brannon. These four men, all democrats, are evenly divided on the issue of price supports. Wallace and Anderson are for flexible and the latter two for rigid. The interesting part of the fact is how they reason their views. Wallace and Anderson explain the details of their plan and base it on proven facts. The other two do not give the full picture of the consequences of their program and they do not base their beliefs upon proven facts. For instance, they don't say how production would be cont rolled, who would say how many cows you could milk, how many hogs to raise, who could start farming and who could not. Let's listen to the ones who know what they are talking about.

Happy are all free peoples, too strong to be dispossessed; But blessed are those among nations who dare to be strong for the rest. Elizabeth Barret Browning. With America's greatest patriotic holiday with us (July 4), let us reminisce and consider what it really means to us and how we can best preserve the hard fought liberties for which many gave their lives

No More Milk Support, Please

HELLO FOLKS. Back in Grandpa's time they had the ideal prescription for sound sleep. They called it hard work. We will never build patriotism in our youth by discouraging within them the very things that made this nation strong, thrift, frugality, hard work, etc.

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MILK PRICES have started upward. It is about time that they do so. This might not seem like good news to the consumers, but the dairymen have been taking it on the chin long enough.

I have nothing but admiration for the man who has for these many years worked long and difficult hours milking a bunch of cows for as low an income as he has been getting.

Milking has to be done 14 times a week whether the dairyman is well or ill. Whether it is stormy or fair. Whether he wants to go on a vacation or lot. If he is unable to do it himself he has to find someone who will take over until he is back in the swing of it again. It is nearly impossible to hire anyone to do that work and break even doing it.

The average dairyman in Minnesota has been making about a dollar an hour for his time. The better dairymen who have their production well over -00 pounds of butterfat per cow have done better but have still not been getting a return anywhere in proportion to their skills.

I have been in dairying enough to know that it takes more talent and determination to keep a herd in high and profitable production than it does in most occupations. I suspect that anyone who would be as persistent as the dairyman has to be, would do well in most other fields too.

I mentioned in my year-end report that milk prices would on rise to $4 per hundred and that I would not be too surprised to see them go to $5. However the politicians, Republican and Democrat alike, are in there ready to spoil it.

They are doing it by crying for increased government support prices. This would tend to encourage too much and less efficient production and thereby lower total profits.

Would a substantial increase in milk prices hurt the consumser? An increase of 50 cents per hundred for milk would raise the price of milk 1 cent a quart. If the average worker earns $3 an hour and if he buys an average of three quarts of milk a day he would have to work less than one minute a day longer to pay for the extra price.

This for the most nutritious food on earth for which he has been paying bargain prices for these many years. This 50 cent increase in price would not give the dairyman a high income but would give him enough to be able to stay in business. I believe that he should have more than the 50 cent increase. A dollar would be more equitable.

Should the politicians get their way and raise the support price of milk substantially the dairyman is apt to be cut in his milk prices by 50 cents a hundred. This because it would stimulate production unnecessarily.