Thursday 25 Jan, 1945

Brisbane

My dearest Sweetheart,

This is another letter that I am writing somewhat belatedly after arriving in New Guinea. The same will also apply to the letters for the following two days. The reason I didn’t write them on schedule was that the typewriter was missing from the shop. The sergeant in charge has taken it home so his wife can do some typing on it, and I am left wordless. And before he brought it back, I had received orders to go back to New Guinea, and had no time thereafter to write any letters.

Frankly, I have almost forgotten what I did last Thursday. Too much has happened since then. Wasn’t I talking about a book I was reading called The Real Cost of the War? Since then I have finished the book. I was quite pleased with it, as it bore out practically all the ideas I had on the subject. Isn’t it funny how being agreed with makes a person feel so good. Now if I had been obliged to revamp all my ideas on the subject I wouldn’t have liked the book so well.

But you will wonder just what all this has to do with us. I look at it like this; we are paying for the war now, the debt is only a bit of financial juggling to put more of the burden on some people than on others. After the war playing the debt will not necessarily involve a reduction in the national income; but it will involve a redistribution of that income which will be essentially unfair to the soldiers. For it will be obviously unfair to tax these who served in the war to pay back those who only worked, lived a nearly normal life, and were able to save money while doing it. So anything the American Legion or any other soldier’s organization can do to prevent being taxed in such manner or to nullify the results of any tax which may be levied is entirely justifiable, in my opinion. Doubtless those organizations, even if they do not realize the logic in this reasoning, will do their utmost to get all they can out of it.

I regret not the method using to finance the war in a financial sense, but I do regret the inefficiency of it. Think of all the wasted effort involved in the multiplicity of taxes and the war loan campaigns. This effort would all be unnecessary if there were only one tax, say an income tax, which would be ruthless enough to pay all the costs of the war as we go.

The book made some interesting studies as to just how ruthless such a tax would have to be, from the British standpoint. Of course their income is a good deal less per person than ours, as evidenced by the much greater hardships they have had to bear to fight the war than we have. If such a tax were put in force here, a lot of people would feel very bad indeed. You see the author figure that if all incomes above 250 pounds a year were confiscated outright, it would still not be enough. This would correspond roughly to confiscation of all incomes over about 1200 dollars per annum in the US. Wouldn’t the people howl if they were taxed to that extent! Perhaps it is better to do it the way we are and let them think it is not costing them as much as it really is. Most on this subject tomorrow- hope it interests you.

Lots of love,

Ken