The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1921-05-07
MELONS JOB
MIGHTY TASK
OF DIRECTION
Duties of New Secretary,
While Not Spectacular,
Confronted With Difficulties
of Great Complexity.
HERITAGE IS CONFUSION
BY MARK SULLIVAN

VIC oiSSoSl Jul LII luc CdUlueI duu dS
living to it in way that commands
universal admiration so long as our
foreign affairs are so complex and so
pressingly important. This judgment
is correct
But it is also true that another man
in the cabinet, much less in the public
eye. has q job of which the difficult
ties are not perceptibly less. The
public eye does not realize yet how
heavy a burden rests on Secretary
Mellon, of the treasury. The changes
that have taken place in this depart
ment in the direction of size and
complexity are not realized. When
Wilson became president, the treas
ury did a business of roughly $1,000
100000 year, and carried a public
debt that was comparatively negli-
gible. During the eight years of Viii
sons administration the changes that
occurred in the treasury department
were enormous. To mention only the
more important differences between
the treasury at the time Wilson came
into power and the treasury as Secre
tary Mellon finds it is to make an ex-
tremely impressive catalogue.
Operations Increase
The annual financial operations of
the treasury have increased from
roughly $4,000, 100000 to approx
mately $4,000. 900, 900 The public
debt has increased from a negligible
sum to over s20,0O0.0OO,O 900 Many
new departments have been added of
a size and Importance as great as the
whole treasury itself was eight years
ago. The income tax law entails an
nual fira ncial operations greater than
the entire business of the treasury
was formerly. The enforcement OF
the prohibition law has added to the
treasury a force almost as great as
the entire force of the whole treasury
department was formerly. Through
the federal reserve act, the treasury
has taken over a degree Of manage
ment of the banking business of the
country which is SO big and SO vital
as to be more important than many
cabinet departments are.
The treasury has borrowed over
S20.oC0. 000,0 a large portion of
which is in such shane that very soon
there must be refunding operations of
4 magnitude never before attempted
in the history of the world. The
treasury has loaned to foreign govern
flltHtS SolHS iu,CUV,VOV,poo uolldl I'LL
der circumstances such that many Of
the loans can only be collected by the
most careful management and by the
exercise of great patience and wis
dom. On these loans there is now
about half a billion dollars due in az
rcars OF interest
Directs New Bureau.
The treasury has taken on a war
risk insurance department comparable
in size and in complexity to any OF
our great insurance companies.
These are the principal items of the
increase in the volume Of business Of
which the new secretary Of the treas
ury must take care. Many of these
additions were taken on in the loose
and haphazard manner which neces-
sArily attended the haste of war.
If it be said that Secretary Mellon
finds his department in condition of
such confusion, let that not be inter
preted as a criticism of the man un-
der whom these conditions arose.
Let it be said, one and for all, that
in the judgment of many who are his
political opponents, Secretary McAdoO
vas. for war time purposes, an excel
lent secretary of the treasury.
In war time the common rules Of
prudence and caution are reversed.
There is military maxim which
lould be remembered and always re-
Gated in any criticism of our manage
ment of the war whether as regards
the treasury or any other depart
Hent
Time is Everything.
The maxim is in war money is moth
ing and time is everything. Every
L. IL,
II i a rart of his preliminary training
But il is most difficult for the civilian n
mind TO appreciate this maxim, and al
most impossible for the civilian mind
TO observe it, Again and again during
the war business men, whose training
a'l had been in civilian life, came to
Washington to help win the war.
In most cases. the first and most
difficult lesson they had to learn was
TO dismiss their customary civilian
c2ution about economy This lesson
Of Diminishing all considerations of
'cororlv and focusing every effort on
COZ i6eratiOHS of Speed was very diff
",'lt for civ ilian minds to learn, but il
WaS Of 'ho essence Of carrying on war
successfully
Needed Dashinq Man.
This is the thing that should be re.
membered whenever there is criticism
rf ex-Secretarv McAdoo. for the
,lurcinC. haadlong haste with whicf
ho did things. I have heard one of
Tho three or fonr greatest bankers in
tie cOuntrv--n NAV who. generally
yneaking, heartily disapproved of Nc
sdoo. say that for wartime purposes
NcAdoo was the ideal secretary of
the treasury.
The secretary OF the treasury that
we needed in war time was a dashins
man of action. intent upon quick re.
suits. regardless of cost. The man we
needed WAS one who should feel CON
hdence that the United States could
never go broke. When it became A
matter OF borrowing money through
the sale of bonds when. nrudent neoDle
said let US issue 81 600. .0On 900 in Vic
tory Ronds-and when McAdoO said
No, let us make it $4,000. 900, 900 and
(Continued on Page Thirteen)