Walker Lake bulletin. (Hawthorne, Nev.) 1883-1926, 1923-03-17
WOULD TAKE WORLDS GOLD
II Distributed Equally the Cost te
Every Man and Woman in
United States Would Be
1920 a Year.
Did you know that il costs each
man and woman about one days
wages week to pay his or her
share of the cost of governing
the people of this country2

Washington.-The total cost of gov
erning the people of the United States
is nearly eight and one-half billion dol
lars year. according to computa-
ton made for the Budget, the month
ly publication of the national budget
committee. by william P. Helm, Jr.. Its
Washington correspondent.
On the basis of 40,0OO,OO0 workers,
whose gross income is 100000, O0O, 900
year, this means that the burden Of
government on every man and woman
In business or professional life, In
Guiding the 100000 persons who are
on the public payrolls in nation, states,
cities, countries and other municipali-
ties, would be about $500 annually. II
they should contribute labor instead
of dollars, every worker would give as
his or her share more than seven
weeks labor every year. Every week
every one of us would work approx
mately one day without pay as our
contribution to the cost Of preserving
life, liberty and the pursuit of happi-
ness under our intricate and far-fiung
system of government.
10000 Public Servants.
Mr.. Helm bases his estimates upon
such official records as are available
for the year 1921. These show the
number of public servants in the Unit.
ed States to be not less than 2,OO0,OOO
In other words we have working for
US today In civil life and in the ma
tional defense, full-time employees to
the number Of all the military forces
we sent abroad during the World war
In the lists are more than $4,000 town
and city firemen, $1,000 policemen
$4,000 guards, watchmen and door
keepers, 100000 common laborers
$4,000 detectives and 10000 sheriffs
$1,000 city and county inspectors Of
various kinds, $4,000 postmasters, 225,
600 sailors, soldiers and marines, 2,30O
life savers, and so on, down to snake
doctors and star gazers. The census
Of 1920 gives the total number OF
workers within the United States as
Al 1914, 248. One out Of every twenty
Is, therefore, on the public payroll. II
the railroads of the country were to
marshal their forces, they would fail
to match the army of men and women
holding remunerative government posi-
tons. All the coal mines and all the
automobile plants In the country com
bined fall short Of the man power OF
the government. All the hired men or
all the farms In the United States
barely equal In number our public
payroll attaches.
By the method of computation used
the total cost of American government
in 1921 was within hailing distance OF
eight and one-half billion dollars
"That sum-" says Mr.. Helm, sis beyont
human Imagination; no man can Wis
uallze 1t in bulk or power any more
than he can conceive of space. Blu,
there are comparisons through which
a sense Of the magnitude of this sun
can readily be obtained.
Mountain of Gold Needed.
Assume, for instance, that all thi.
money had to be paid out In gold. II
we were to ferret out all the golt
aAove ground In the world today the
sum would be little more than suff
Client for one years payments.
"The national income of the United
States recently has been estimated by
leading economists at from sixty tC
sixty-flve billions Of dollars annually
The governments own investigation