Evening star., 1924-03-19
CAN YOUR TAXES BE CUT?
Series of Articles on the Cost of Government:
:, Where the Money Goes. and Why.
BY JOHN F.. SINCLAIR,
Author Of "Can Europe Hold Together p

/ Items require 1916 cents of each dol
| lar spent during this present year by
| the government. IF we put all the
| other activities of the government
| together, we find that they will cost
| the American people just 20.4 cents.
! Now. manifestly, If we are to cut
| expenditures in the federal govern
! ment we must attack the place where
/ the expenditures are large. In other
| which total 80 per cent We need not
| give SO much attention to those
| others which take 20 per cent.
Employees Increase 10000.
Yes, it is true that the total num-
Der of federal government employees
| (Army and Navy not includeO has
| grown from 438,057 in June, 1916, to
! 54S,531 on the same date in 1928; that
| is an increase of about 10000 people.
| Now, where does this increase come
| in? Just four departments. The
! growing Post Office Department took
| $4,000 of the increase; the Veterans
| Bureau, $4,000. the Treasury Depart
! ment, about 5000; the War Depart
] ment, over $4,000; Navy, over 1000.
| All together they absorb more thai.
| the total increase. Some departments
| decreased. Mark you, these are fed
| eral civil employees. The soldiers and
| sailors of the United States are not
| included in this list.
| We have heard during the past few
! years a great deal about the govern
ment doing too many things and that
! the expenses were piling UP because
/ of these various new Developments
! 1t developed that the government
was meddiing too much in business.
! These figures will show just where
| the governments activities have con-
| centrated.
/ There is only one business that the
| government is medd1ing in too much
and with disastrous result, and that is
| the business of war. The modern in
| dnstrial plant is SO organized today
| that there is no such thing as a victor
| or a vanquished in modern warfare.
| There used to be, but not now.
| Europe today proves this.
| Yet We are continuing to spend
| billions and more billions i'll vain
| effort to protect ourselves in exactly
| the same way that the European ma
! tions protected themselves prior to
| 1914.
IF the Army and the Navy men of
the United States had their way,
| every man in America would be in
| the Army and the Navy" declared a
very high government official to me
! recently.
| Says Saving Lies in War Funds.
Now, take the Army. 1t is larger
now than it was before the war, and
| yet all Europe is bankrupt. What
/ are we preparing for? Surely not for
! participation in another European
/ war. Is ii to arm our Canadian from
tier? We have needed no armies there
| for 10 years. Are we going to COM
! mence now? No! Well, then, possibly
| Mexico. One cabinet officer told me
/ we could "clean up" Mexico with
| $4,000 men If it became necessary.
| But we have increased our army
| from a total of 212,0g0 men in 1913 TO
! 81 900 men in this year of Christian
| civilization 1924. So if we decide to
! become a warning people and "clean
up" Mexico, we have over five times
as many men in the Army and Navy
as we need.
Walter Brown says we may he able
! by efficiency and economy and reor-
eanization Of government business to
save one half of / per cent of the
total annual expenditures. That is
SlS.6hn,000 year-what we are
! spending on the Army and the Navy
every ten days.
Hoover says we are spending all
| too little on development and con-
s-ructive work. In this Hoover
| agrees with Henry c. Adams, but the
! record shows we have been spendine g
fer the past ten years for military
activities ten times as much as we
/ have spent on the constructive work
OF the government.
In a word. the government is too
! much in the business of war and too
little in the business of peace. and
con sidering our pacific isolation. this
| applies to no government in the
world any more than it does to ours
| Relief from federal taxes will not
| come from cutting the salaries OF
! government employees down from
| say $4,000 a year to $500 year;
| nor will it come from dischargine
! from the government service few
/ thousand government clerks and EN-.
! p1oyes. 1t will not come by reor-
| ganizing the government bureaus
| nor by reducing relatively the great
| such as we have been doing during
| the past ten hysterical years.
! Calls Arms Aims the Crux.
The expenses of the federal gov.
| ernment can be reduced only wher
the American people seriously attack
| the whole public policy of military
| preparedness. When the American
, people realize the significance of wal
F! in relation to the bread and butter
| of everyday life. When they know
, so that no one can confuse them, that
| modern warfare is not only fndlvldua
| but national suicide Ct mean from
| not only the physical and moral, but
the economic point of view as welD.
| When they know that Mr.. Aver
| age-Man pays the titanic expense!
| incident to any modern war only b!
| pulling in his belt and lowering hi!
| standard of living and the STANDARD
| of living of the whole country unit
| the war debt is paid.
| In word, when the long-sufferins
and discouraged taxpayer in Americ;
attacks the whole stupid policy o
| national defense, as We now under
| stand it, and substitutes for IL thu
| spirit of friendly cooperation in pur
| suing the arts of peace, the construc
| tive function of the government, theI
| real relief will be at hand.
Copyright, 1924. in United States and Grea
| Britain by North American Newspaper
| Alliance. All rights reseryed)
Tomorrow: Paying the Bills TO