Double Trouble

The U.S. Treasury ran smack into a serious shortage problem last week when Internal Revenue Commissioner Guy Tresillian Helvering estimated that to collect the proposed 5% withholding tax on salaries his bureau would need 50,000 new machines and pieces of office equipment, plus 11,000 new employes. Private businesses would likewise need thousands of machines and payroll clerks.

This is a huge order: the 50,000 machines needed by Helvering's bureau alone total 30% of a normal year's output of all business machines (excluding typewriters). Worse still, WPB has already cut most office equipment companies to 70% of 1941 production, has ordered a dead stop by year's end.

When & if the tax is passed, the Treasury has one partial solution: it can get some machines from WPB's stockpile. The Government doesn't worry about what private employers will do.

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