The Bismarck Tribune Newspaper, December 14, 1935, Page 3

| | ‘THE MARCH OF TIME ‘Tt.was an ordeal for a boy to face a camera 40 years ago. Especially ‘ boy who had just left Deadeye Dick scalping 40 Indians between the of a dime novel. made a target like this. What if he pulls a gun from under that black hood over the pitcher box. He'll shoot all five brass buttons offa my dress and muss up my nice new ribbon bow. Gosh, Ma.” But Deadeye Dick’s worshiper lived to see the frontier tough guys go east and Bismarck become a prairie city with .a gin pocketbook and a cham- pagne appetite. a figure prominent in the political and business life of the Capital City out where the east Maybe the fact the confe that he went into disposition that appears sour in this photo from the mauve decade. Or then again it may be that J. B. Smith ther ad faster in politos end benines * ther Politics and business AIN'T HE CUTE? with a smile, Yes, it's J. B. Smith, one-time purchasing agent for the state of North Dakota, former confectioner, now apartment house owner and a member of the city commission—one of Bismarck’s better-known citizens, eee CHRISTMAS IN HULA-HULA LAND A thick cut of juicy T-bone steak would look good to Buell Quain now that he is convinced that he won’t be parboiled in a big iron bucket to be Served up as Christmas turkey for a cannibal . Buell, son of Dr. and Mrs, E. P. Quain on Dec. 25 will celebrate his first Christmas in the Fiji islands, a group of South Sea ‘isles under British dominion and for many years ill-famed for cannibalism. Quain is studying the Fiji islanders as a member of a scientific ition. Because missionaries previously had made the inhabitants of the islands conscious of the meaning of Christmas, Quain perforce decided on observ- ance of the anniversary of Christ’s birth and months before the holiday planned what gifts he would present his brown-skinned friends. Instrumentality of Quain’s Christmas celebration has been his own fam- ily in Bismarck. One dozen peacock blue wool shirts—he was emphatic about the color— and 24 yards of 36-inch wool material of the same color will be his gift to the chief of the island on which he is stationed. With this unique item on her Christmas list Mrs. Quain found some difficulties, unsolved until she thought of Eaton’s in Winnipeg, Man. The wool material will.be cut into 2-yard lengths to make sulus, the native name of the skirts which the men wear with their shirts. The mode of attire is comfortable and has been adopted by the Bismarck man for wear part of the time. An axe, “the best you can find,” was ordered as the gift for the most skillful artisan on the island. French & Welch of this city filled the order, giving much detailed attention to packing for the long voyage. Models—the dime store variety—of automobiles, carts, airplanes and machines were next on the list, and Mrs. Quain found that she could fill that with dispatch. ‘Two dozen 5-inch dolls, dressed in sport costumes, party dresses and ‘wool every-day costumes went into the box and will be mothered by the little girls of the island. Quain was thinking of the men, not the women of the tribes, when he requisitioned bracelets, necklaces and earrings. The men are particularly addicted to bracelets. A large supply of heavy metal ones went into the ‘unique shipment, Cigarets for Mr. Quain’s personal consumption had to be packed in a separate carton to make opening for inspection unnecessary. He said the native tobacco has almost cured him of smoking. Shipped the first week in November, the Christmas presents will arrive first at General Post Office, Suva, Fiji, the capital. They then will travel by boat a day and will be trekked 60 miles over mountains and jungles before reaching Quain’s base. Quain has been on the islands since last summer and he will aid the natives in observing Christmas with his house serving as headquarters. He writes that the missionaries have been there and havé left with the people an idea of the significance of the day and that they are anticipating it keenly. So far as is known here, he is the only student engaged in his type of work on the Fiji islands. His method is to live with the natives and study them at first hand. * se ‘WINTER CAULIFLOWERS Hmphh! coughed the five austere justices of the North Dakota supreme court this week. “Since when did the court admit a pugilist to practice before the bar?” they inquired sotto voce as a man with ears the size of giant puff balls ad- vanced to the bar as the clerk called a case. But the inviolable practices of the bench had not been upset. The advancing man bore proper credentials. He was B. L. Wilson, Bowhbells attorney, come to argue a case after spending a night in his stalled automo- bile in sub-zero weather. He had a severe frostbite Of the ears. eee MONTANANS, NO QUAKERS Montanans are a hardy lot. The recent temblors at Helena proved that. Just how fearless a people they are is best proved by quotations from a letter received by W. J. Flannigan, North Dakota highway chief, from D. A. McKinnon, Montana state highway engineer, inviting Pat to a conference fom the earth was still shaking like a candidate for public office on elec- tion eve. “According to distorted and exaggerated reports,’ McKinnon wrote, “Helena has been shaking like a wet dog. We don’t deny that the pine trees and Sagebrush have swished around once or twice like the grass skirt on a tall hula-hula girl, but that doesn’t make Quakers out of us by a long shot. We are going to hold the fall conference. Please bear in mind that no shiv- ering scenery is going to bog this party down.” .*e * EXCUSE IT, PLEASE Commander Eagles of the U. 8. treasury department in Washington instructed his secretary to get J. B. Woodside on the telephone. A few minutes later, the telephone in the North Dakota capitol office of D. E. Woodside, state procurement officer for the treasury department in North Dakota, rang. soeseter, “Washington is calling.” “Just & moment, please,” said the “Go ahead, Mr. Eagles,” said the operator. z It cost Commander Eagles '$8 to find out that he had the wrong number, that by a strange coincidence he had been connected with a brother of the man he had wished to. speak to in the city of Washington. one EXASPERATED ASPIRATION Exasperated were tree lovers and admirers of unmarred highways this fall to note the unconscionable chopping down of stately elm trees along Memorial highway between Bismarck and Mandan, Particularly wroth were they when they recalled the trees had been the gift of the late U. 8. Senator E. F. Ladd to the state of North Dakota when the highway bridge and the roadway were dedicated to native sons who gave their lives in the World War. Ten years of slow growth had been gashed off in a few minutes by the destructive strokes of a sharp-bitted axe. It aroused in many minds the Younger Workers and Employers Will Bear Cost of Pension Payments Through Taxes on Their Incomes After First of January _ Aim Is to Allow Elderly People to Spend Their Declining Years in Something Like the Living They Have Been Used’ to money will be apportioned, etc.—is told by Rodney Dutcher, The Bismarck Tribune correspondent, in a series of three which this is the second. By RODNEY DUTCHER (Copyright, 1935, NEA Service, Inc.) Washington, Dec. 14.—The Social Security program under- takes to do two things about the problems of old age and the destitution which so often accompanies it: ‘ 1. To encourage and financially aid the, states immedi- ately in establishing old age pensions for persons already aged and needy. That phase of the program is officially known as “Old Age Assistance.” 2. To develop a federal old age insurance system under which employers and employes will be taxed for an eventually huge fund from which annuities will be paid to employes on retirement at the age of 65. This phase is officially known as “Federal Old Age Benefits.” Old Age Benefits are the most controversial part of the whole program. The scheme is attacked because it means an eventual 6 per cent tax on payrolls, which, coupled with the fed- eral unemployment insurance tax, will total 9 per cent by 1949 and a total tax “drain” of perhaps $2,700,000,000 a year. The estimated $32,000,000,000 re- serve fund which it will have cre- ated by 1970 will exceed the pres- ent national debt. The law’s stipu- lation that this must be invested in government securities probably means an end to private ownership of these government securities. Its huge cost will be borne by younger workers, first in the tax on their incomes and second in the tax on their employers, which theoretic- ally will be passed on to them as con- sumers. This is the first time a nation has established a contributory old age in- surance scheme without charging some of its cost up to the state, with its sources of revenue from the wealthy. How Old Age Aid Works Since old age Phase No. 1 will pay off next year, let’s analyze Old Age Assistance first. The aim here is to allow old people to spend thier last years in some-) thing like dignity and comfort, out- side the poorhouse, by stimulating the} states into a federal aid scheme to) provide an income for their needy over the age of 65 or near that fig- ure. The Social Security Board is au- thorized to pay out about $50,000,000) this year in matching dollar for dol- lar such money as states provide for old age pensions. Other appropria- tions are planned for ensuing years. | To receive federal money, a state| must have an old age pension law, which meets certain minimum stan-| dards required by the Security Act and is approved by SSB. The board will match state allot- ments for these pensions up to $15 a month, which means that any old age pension above $30 will include more state than federal money. The state} may limit pensions to persons of 70, years or more until 1940, when the | Umit in all state set-ups must come } down to 65. State residence requirements may not exceed one year of immediately previous residence or more than five years’ residence.in the nine years pre- ceding application for pension. No state may impose any citizenship re-; quirement which excludes any Amer- ican citizen from pensions. Few States Are Ready Fewer than half the states are ex- pected to be immediately eligible for old age pension money when Congress appropriates it, probably in January. The Ameri ican Association for Old Age Security says the only states) which now meet federal requirements | are Alabama, California, Connecticut, ' Eleven ‘states have no old age pen- sion laws at all — » Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, New Mexico, their legislatures next year. Florida, Mlinois, Maine, Nevada, ulation (estimated by 1970) instead of 6 per cent, as now. Tax Rates Will Rise Effective in January, 1937, the gov- ernment will begin collecting current- ly @ tax from an estimated 26,000,000 workers and their employers—in equal Percentages of wages earned and pail —which will be paid into a Federal Old Age Reserve Fund in the treas- ury. This tax applies only to the first $3,000 of the employe’s income or to the entire income if it is no greater than that. It will be at the rate of 1 per cent for both employer and employe in 1937 and gradually will rise to 3 per cent in 1949 and thereafter. The Bureau of Internal Revenue hasn’t yet figured out the best way to col- lect it (The law permits the postmas- ter-general to issue certain stamps which may be purchased from the postoffices and used to pay the tax.) Beginning in 1942, the Treasury will begin to pay out monthly benefit checks to all those affected by the plan who. have reached the age of 65, and have received $2000 or more in total wages since 193¢—provided wages were received on at least one day in each year. Minimum Set at $10 Minimum monthly benefit which can be paid is $10 and maximum $85. Examples of the way it works out: A man who has averaged $50 a month salary since 1936 will receive monthly checks of $17.50 if he becomes 65 in 1947, $22.50 if he becomes 65 in 1957, $27.50 in 1967, and $32.50 in 1977Jafter 40 years of employment and taxpay- ing under the plan.: Or if his average salary is the tax- ing top of $3,000 a year, he will re- ceive $37.50 after 10 years of employ- ment, $56.25 after 20 years, $68.75 after 30 years, and $81.25 after 40 years— assuming he is 65 by the end of such periods, Those figures, you will observe, mean that young men and women af- fected by the plan for a long time will receive much less in proportion to their total contributions than work- ers now within shooting distance of 65. This comes about through a pro- vision which says monthly benefits shall be paid on total wages received THE BISMARCK TRIBUNE, SATURDAY, DECEMBER 14, 1935 fins, fACTS na fancies] |U. S. Fund of Billions for Old Age Help Is Planned in Huge Federal Security Plan 15 states have old age Pension laws meeting ted eral requirements. 11 states have no old age pension laws. Z * for laws to take effect. 6 states have set no dates 16 states have taws which ‘do not meet federal re- quirements. Frank B. Bane- Executive director of the Social Security Board rate of one-half of 1 per cent for the first $3,000 ($15 a month), one-twelfth ‘of 1 per cent for the next $42,000 and one-twenty-fourth of 1 per cent for all over $45,000. Youth to Carry Burden It was felt by somebody, with the approval of President Roosevelt, that it would be cheaper for taxpayers and better for older workers who could come under the plan for relatively brief periods before reaching 65 if younger workers, contributing for 30 years or more, were made to bear & large part of the burden of retiring their elders on annuities as well as carrying expense of providing for their own old age. | Some bitter complaints have been made against this policy. Contrary to most impressions, the Federal Old Age Reserve Fund will be paying off by the end of 1937. Not in annuities, but in small lunp sums which the law provides for those who have contributed and have reached 65 or died before they have worked five years under the plan and become eligible for benefits. In case of death before 65, the in- dividual’s estate will receive an amount equal to 3% per cent of total after 1936 and prior to age 65, at the: wages received after 1936 and in case PRE-COLUMBUS CITY. Montana Man Returns to U. 8, With Evidence Picked Up After Forced Landing grass, “There's not # single trail of death after 65 his estate will re- ceive a like percentage less the sum of benefits paid to him during his life- time. Probably: 300,000 small lump sum payments will be made in 1937 be- cause of death or arrival at 65—and others in each year thereafter. Many Outside of Scope Other things to remember about Old Age Benefits are that no employe or employer contributions are made by or for anyone after he or she reaches 65 and that no one will receive any benefit money from the fund at 65 or over until he or she stops working. No benefits are subject to assign- ;ment or other legal process. The SSB jwill keep the accounts for everybody and tell the Treasury just who is due to get checks. In contrast to the 26,000,000 prob- ably affected by the plan, it is esti- mated’ that about 23,000,000 other | Wage earners will be outside its scope. Those exempted by law include farm workers, domestic servants, casual em- ployes, employes of federal, state, and lesser governments, employes of non- profit religious, charjtable, scientific. literary, and educational institutions, railroad workers, ship officers and crews and those in business for them- selves. Otherwise, every employe comes junder this compulsory scheme, re- Gardless of the number of men his employer may be employing. Pri- vate company old age plans, now cov- \ering about @ million persons, will be liquidated. Huge Fund to Pile Up The most breath-taking part of this great scheme is in the huge propor- tions to which the Federal Old Age Reserve Fund will grow within a few decades. Various estimates place it at $10,000,000,000 by 1948, $15,000,000,000 by 1950, $32,000,000,000 by 1970, and $50,000,000,000 by 1980, Even some of the most active cru- saders for old age security declare that the freezing of so much purchasing bower will be very dangerous, that Partial inflation might wipe out some of the fund and cause havoc, that pol- iticlans sflouldn’t be entrusted with care of such a fund, and that it will be impossible to invest it. The law calls for investment in gov- ernment or government-guaranteed securities, which seems to mean the government will take over its own debt. By some this is regarded as a cure for the tax-exempt security evil, but others say that it’s a dangerous thing to let a government get where is doesn’t have to worry about @ mar- ket for its bonds—or about its credit. NEXT: Unemployment Com- pensation, Social Security, and the Courts. N. D. Tax System Is Branded ‘Arbitrary’ Dec. 14—(AP)—The Washington, Great Norther: North Dakota’s valuation methods for taxing were “irrational and arbitrary” in a brief filed Friday with the su- preme court. Oral arguments are expected to be heard by the court within a week on the railroad: Protest against more than $1,500,000 taxes for 1933, which lower courts approved, The highest court was told that the $79,000,000 valuation placed on the railroad’s North Dakota property in- cluded “$30,000,000 of obsolete values and $20,000,000” of property located outside the state. BOND ISSUES VOTED Jamestown, N. D., Dec. 14—()— Jamestown Friday voted in favor of a bond issue for a water softening plant, 909 to 427. REMEMBER We'll have Christmas tree lights for you, regardless of how great the demand is for them in Bis- marck this year. We feature the NOMA Christmas Tree Decorative Lighting Outfit with MAZDA Lamps MELVILLE ELECTRIC SHOP Under Finney’s on Broadway Telephone 179 railroad contended} ing it,” he said, “and it’s all surrounded by swamp.” Dr. Herman of the Tulane University Department of Middle Amerivan research, a au-- thority on the Maya Indian, said Sat- urday the jar was unquestionably pre- Columbian, or of the era before the arrival of Columbus. bandit late Friday Adams, ticket seller at the Hennepin- Orpheum theater, to hand over about $100. Special Sunday DINNER Roast Tom Turkey with cranberry sauce Roast Young Duckling with Spiced Crab Apples, 5c Steaks and Chops........ Served from 11:30 a. m. till 8:30 p. m. at the G.P. Restaurant thought, “Why doesn’t the state do something about this? The desecration of memorial trees should be no more permitted than the profanation of statues or other tributes to the dead.” Which recalls to mind, Ogden Nash's poem, “The Song of the Open “I think that I shall never see Till never - a tree at all.” -* BOTTLES WITH THE WANDERLUST grounded recently near Point Bonita, a few miles north of San Francisco. Florida, Kentucky, Nevada, Utah, and West Virginia have laws optional with counties, whereas the federal act says they must be state-wide and manda- tory. Eleven states require from 10 to 20 Eight hundred miles north-northwest of Honolulu en route to Yoko- hama, Japan, Bert Dunn, 100 Thayer Ave. west, Bismarck, radio operator on the liner, set the bottel adrift about six months ago. It was the first of scores of bottles released by Dunn to be reported found. It was picked up Oct. 8 by L. Dias of Sausalito, Calif. In a letter to Dunn, he writes: “Hello, North Dakota. \The next time you toss a bottle overboard, have a heart and leave us a drink. Merry Christmas.’ Family. ‘ Dunn declares it is the custom of ship's officers to set bottles adrift be- tween the Hawatian islands and ports of call in Ja) and China.in order to study the vagaries of the Japanese current wi almost straight across the Pacific to beaches of Washington state, sometimes far down the coast to Central and South America. ‘ In two instances, Dunn knows of, bottles released in the Pacific hat “Produced 4 This Month ” It was signed L. Dias and sometimes carries the | eno) It's 409 Broadway Walter W for eae Maroon | - - Dealer - - Typewriter “Silent” With “Touch Selector” Black o Terms: $5.00 Down—A Year to Pay McMahon Corona Standard, Sterling and “Silent” Portable Typewriters Bismarck, N. Dak. ee ce ie ie re oe oe Te i Green