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4 • NEW CASTLE NEWS, FRIDAY, APRIL 6, 1951 \£et us not say it cant be done. Let's do it.' Issued every Friday at Chappaqua, N. Y. Telephone CHappaqua 1-0443 Leverett S. Gleason Publisher Louis A. Brennan Editor Charles English Business Manager Printed by Lev Gleason Printing Service, Inc. Single copies 10c. Subscription rates: 1 year $3.50—2 years $5 NATIONAL a EDITORjAL AS |bclhJT0N A (' T I V t Entered as second class matter at the Chappaqua, N. Y., Post Office under the Act of March 3, 1879 Vol. 6 No. 24 Friday, April 6, 1951 LINE UP FOR THE KICK-OFF The average American, if you were able to involve him in one of those word association games and ask him what word came first to mind when \politics\ is mentioned, would very likely say, as of this month, \corruption\. And if you asked him for an associative word for \policy\, he would be very apt io say \insurance\. Only one in a million, and he would be a pedant, despite the two words' syllabic similiarity, would say that the first word summons up the second and vice versa. But-it is not the fault of us ordinary citizens that we do not correlate these words of common root. The practice of politic os in seeking and achieving office has too often been the avoidance of any policy but chicanery and corruption, which we had rather call by their specific names, and the true nature of politics, which is the competition in the practical field of elections and legisla ture of opposing policies on concerns of public welfare, is totally obscured by it. On the level of national government, we find opponents lined up on the contrary sides of genuine policies, domestic and foreign. Coming down the scale of size in units of government, we find less and less of this until on the county, village and town level, nothing at all is heard of policy. On local levels, elections are fought usually' about things called \issues\, which run the gamut from snide racial bias themes to quite rational but slight matters of which roads to pave. But no number of issues taken together ever constitutes a policy. Consequently we have for term after term office-hold ers without policy succeeding office-holders without policy, and the towns or villages they are elected to pilot drifting like toy balloons let loose at a county fair wherever the hot winds of \issue\ drive them. This fall there will occur in New Castle a purely local elec tion without distraction from national or state campaigns. And it seems likely, for the first time in a decade, that there will be two parties in the field. We presume that the Democratic Party has returned to operation because it has reason to believe there exists opposition to the local government which has been in office for some 15 years. It is much too early to guess what the issues will be between the contending parties, for these usu ally develop late in the campaign, and often by chance, but it is not a minute too early to ask, in the name of the voters of New Castle, that the Democrats state what is Democratic policy con cerning the Town, and Republicans state a Republican policy. During the years when there was no opposition, it was not ask ed, by the fact that no opposition arose to ask it, what Republi can policy was in governing the Town. What Republican policy was is implicit then in the legislation of the Town Board and the decisions of the Planning Board, the Zoning Board, the Rec reation Commission, the Board of Grievances, et al. But during an election, for the rightful information of the voters, policy cannot remain implicit lest there be suspicion that it is devious, but must be made as explicit as ink and type can make it. We have a notion that occasionally a citizen somewhere in New Castle looks up from local news reports to ask of his long- suffering wife: \Why did this happen? Why wasn't something done? Whither are we drifting?\. As of the present moment there is no known published chart of where New Castle is go ing. The nearest thing to a stated policy on the future of New Castle is Councilman Francis Decker's capitol budget, which is official neither with the Town Board nor the Republican Party. It states, within certain limits of finance, what developments the Town ought to set as goals for itself. By that much, it is good. In a larger way the reasons why the financial limits were so set is policy, and the projects permitted within it the details of its substance. What policy is presumed in these financial assump tions? No one can say whether they are valid unless they are stated nor whether the policy is popular. We use Mr. Decker's capitol budget only as an example of budding policy and not for the finding of inadequacies in it in purposes which it does not claim to have. The important thing is that this kind of bud ding policy burst into full bloom by election time. The'Democrats have, as we recall last fall's election, already NEW BOOKS at the LIBRARY NATIONAL BOARD OF FIRE UNDERWRITERS \THIS MAY BE QUICK, BUT I THINK IT'D BE CHEAPER IF YA DID YOUR OWN SPRING CLEANING, PAL!\ set about the formation and publication of a true policy. As we remember it, it was generalized policy and had not got down to cases. For the sake of the electorate, we hope that the Demo cratic policy-makers do come down very specifically to cases, for where there is an election without a clash of policy, it is only a squabble of ins and outs about an exchange of places, like a game of musical chairs. We hold that nothing could be more interesting to the citizens of New Castle during the coming summer doldrums than a rousing bipartisan debate on what to do about the Town in 1952-53. At least the outcome would be that for the first time in years the electorate would know not only for whom they were voting, but for what. To the Editor, We believe EVERY HOME OWNER WILL WANT TO AC TIVELY SUPPORT PROPOSED LEGISLATION TO modify the tax law as to capital gain and loss resulting from the sale oi homes. A large percentage of home owners are or will be affected by some phase of this legislation. Persons vitally concerned are as follows: 1. Any man with a home to sell. 2. Any man apt to be transferred in his job who must sell a home in one area to buy in another. 3. Any man who finds his pre sent home inadequate for the needs of his family who needs a larger and probably more expensive home. 1. Any man who finds his pre sent home too large for his needs but who is stymied by the present tax law which brings about an \even ex change\: one large valuable home in exchange for one small home. A summary of present activity on the present unfair tax law ap peared in the Wall Street Jour nal on March 7, 1951: \The House Ways and Means Committee is showing a lot of sympathy for a proposal to waive the capital gains tax on any 'profit' from sale of an owner- occupied dwelling if the seller uses the gain in buying another house for his own use. \Present law taxes as a capital gain any profit a home-owner realizes on the sale of his resi dence, but does not permit a deduction for any loss incurred. Some legislators, backed by the home-selling industry, have de cided this is unfair in many cases. So they are working to set aside taxes on the 'paper profits' of home-owners who must sell their houses because their jobs require them to move to another city, or because their families have outgrown homes purchased years ago. \Three bills to waive the capi- SUBSCRIPTION ORDER I wish to subscribe to the New Castle News for 1 year at $3.50 • 2 years at $5.00 • Enclosed is $ to cover the cost. (Please check here if you have never been a sub scriber previously •) Name . Address ) ) ^ r { Fiction Age of Longing, Arthur Ko6||r ler. W Rock Wagram, William Saro- yan. Sheep Rock, George. Stewart. The Widow Had A Gun, George Harmon Coxe. Nan-Fiction His Eye Is on the Sparrow Ethel Waters. Harem Scar'em, Rosj: Taylor. How to Build Garde* tures, Henry Aul. Understanding Naturali birth, Herbert Thorns rence Roth. Young: People Pirates, Pirates, Pirates, Phyl lis Fenner. Wait for Marcy, Rosamund du Jardin. Children Five Go Adventuring Ag^i, Enid Blyton. Ballet for Beginners, Nancy Draper. tal gains tax on phantom profits irom the sale oi nonics are oe- tore the House committee. \One scheme would allow a man who oells his house ao profit to buy another within 12 months without capital gains4frA liability under prescribed cui-, cumstances. \Here is an example of how the plan would work. Suppose a man paid $10,OJu tor a nouse in 1945. He sold it in 1951 tor $15,0u0 and bought another home for $15,00u or more, under present law, this man would pay the capital gains tax on the ii>5,- 00i) up to a maximum of rate on 50% of the gain. The WW propooal would waive this tax if he buys another house within one year for as much as or more than $15,000. \But if the home-seller made $5,000 on the $15,000 house he sold in 1951, then bought a $L2,- UOOdwelling, he would have to report $3,0J0 as his capital gain on the whole transaction, xnese proposal would apply to vol^- i/ary as well as forced sales.\ Wire or write your congress man urging him to support the plan proposed by the national Association of Real estate Boards. LET'S WORK TOGEiH- 13R TO STOP THE CAPilAL GAINS TAX ON HOME OWN ERS \PROFITS\. Helen Allen Cronin Chappaqua, N. Y. ^ WOMEN OFFICERS WANTED Women qualified for commis sion in the United States Marine Corp.* or its reserve compoxient must have application in lor the Women officers Training Class before April 15, it was an nounced today by Captain E^>. Alsip, Officer Procurement Owl- cer at 346 Broadway, New York City. College graduates with a bac calaureate degree from an ac credited college or undergrad uates pursuing such a course are eligible for application. Prior military service u not re quired. Candidates may enlist for WOTC when 18 years of age #t will not receive commissions before their 21st birthday. Wo men must be single, citizens of the United States, and under 25 years of age SL, of July i, 195,., to apply for this year's class.
