--- title: National Affairs: Third R description: Four of Lynchburg, Va.'s seven city fathers last week looked sheepish as men who had gone to school with them pointed derisive fingers. The Lynchburg council had made a monkey of itself over... canonical: https://time.com/archive/6863228/national-affairs-third-r/ author: TIME article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 1934-12-03T05:00:00.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-03-13T18:29:15.643Z article:section: U.S. og:title: National Affairs: Third R og:description: Four of Lynchburg, Va.'s seven city fathers last week looked sheepish as men who had gone to school with them pointed derisive fingers. The Lynchburg council had made a monkey of itself over... og:url: https://time.com/archive/6863228/national-affairs-third-r/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: National Affairs: Third R twitter:description: Four of Lynchburg, Va.'s seven city fathers last week looked sheepish as men who had gone to school with them pointed derisive fingers. The Lynchburg council had made a monkey of itself over... twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- * [U.S.](/section/us/) # National Affairs: Third R by [TIME](/author/time/) Dec 3, 1934 5:00 AM CUT by [TIME](/author/time/) Dec 3, 1934 5:00 AM CUT Four of Lynchburg, Va.’s seven city fathers last week looked sheepish as men who had gone to school with them pointed derisive fingers. The Lynchburg council had made a monkey of itself over arithmetic. The council was about to tax Chesapeake & Potomac Telephone Co. of Virginia 3% of its gross revenue for doing business in the city, when a councilman suggested that the franchise tax be set at 1½% and the company be required to provide city officials with 40 free telephones. A 3% tax was calculated to yield $8,000\. The annual charge for 40 telephones was $2,880\. The council majority wanted whichever proposition would yield the city the greater net profit. For 15 minutes they argued about arithmetic. Then they voted 4 to 3 for a 1½% tax and 40 free telephones. As proof of their wisdom the majority offered the following calculations : Tax at 3% $8,000 Less cost of 40 telephones. . . . 2,880 Net yield $5,120 Tax at 1½% $4,000 Value of 40 free telephones. . . 2,880 Net yield $6,880 Not until Lynchburg mathematicians explained to the council that in one case the city would have $5,120 in cash and 40 telephones and in the other the city would have $4,000 in cash and 40 telephones did its members discover the fallacy of their greedy vote. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/archive/6863228/national-affairs-third-r/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/archive/6863228/national-affairs-third-r/"},"headline":"National Affairs: Third R","datePublished":"1934-12-03T05:00:00.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-13T18:29:15.643Z","description":"Four of Lynchburg, Va.'s seven city fathers last week looked sheepish as men who had gone to school with them pointed derisive fingers. The Lynchburg council had made a monkey of itself over...","url":"https://time.com/archive/6863228/national-affairs-third-r/","keywords":[],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME","url":"https://time.com/author/time/"}],"articleSection":"U.S.","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/us/","name":"U.S."}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/archive/6863228/national-affairs-third-r/","name":"National Affairs: Third R"}}]}] ```