The Washington times., 1925-01-21

Astonishing Development Is
Shown in Data Sent Con-
gress by Budget Bureau
Bx WILLIAM HARD.

u
is now one of the great banking
houses of the world, and its income
from interest paid to it on loans
and from further payments made
to it for the retiring of the prin-
cipaIs of those loans will amount
in the next fiscal year to more
than a quarter of a billion OF
dollars.
This astonishing development is
made clear in the facts released
to Congress during this legislative
session by the Bureau of the Bud
get.
The Government at the end of
the last fiscal year had out at
interest among the railroads of
this country the sum of almost
S4OO, OO0, 900. Some $500, 600, 900
of it was lent to railroads under
section 210 of the Transportation
Act of 1920 to help put the
American railroad system back on
its feet.
Interest From Railroads
It is ironically noted here that
our railroad executives are not very
strong for Governmental loans to
farmers and that our farmers are not
very strong for Governmental loans
to railroads, but that each interest
is quite fairly strong enough for
Governmental loans to itself.
In any case in interest on loans
outstanding to railroads, it is cal.
culated by the Bureau of the Bud
get that the Government win next
year derive some SIS, 400, 900.
It further viii regain from the
railroads some $6,600,0 900 in repay.
ment on principal, making total OF
some $26. 0O0, 900 which win come to
the Government out Of business
operations with railroads and not
from the taxpayers as taxpayers.
Further, the Government viii col
lect some $40, 400, 900 in interest
from France and some 81, 400, 900 id
interest from Belgium.
It is widely thought in this coln
try that the French and Belgians
are paying us no interest. This
impression is erroneous.
On the value of the surplus sup
plies which we sold to them at the
end Of the war, they are paying US
interest regularly and in the next
fiscal year this interest of $21, $780,
to support the whole of our Depart
ment of Commerce.
Some Other Incomes
Meanwhile, the five European
countries which have funded their
debts to us britain, Hungary, Po-
land, Lithuaniai and Finland will
principal, the quite considerable
sum of approximately $161 GOO, 900.
The Government further will de.
rive some $1,000, 900 from the sale
Of farm loan bonds; and this sum
Of money. along with quite a few
other similar surAs, appears as part
of the general total revenue Of the
Government and seems to be part
Of the burden on the general tax
payer; but it is not.
1t represents banking opera
ton by the Government and costs
the tax payer nothing.
The precise. total listed by the
Bureau of the Budget in the reve-
nue. account OF the United States
Government, under the item "In-
terest, Premium and Discount" and
under the item ''Repayments Of
Investments" is $255.434,3
This prodigious sum viii be in
creased to at least $400,000,00O when
our European creditors who have
not yet funded their debts to us
begin, as they sometime must and
will. to do so.
The size even of our present in
come from our loans and from cur
other governmental banking opera
lions may be illustrated by the cal
culations following:
xr,In Of lnClE-
lative establishment, which includes
the Senate, the House, the Govern
ment Printing Office and the Library
of Congress. Take the whole cost
of our Executive" which includes
the maintenance of the President
and of all his White House en-
virons. Take the whole cost Of
the Department of Commerce. the
Department of Justice, the State
Department, the Department Of La
bor and the Department of Agricul-
ture Excluding rural roads,.
The gross total of all these costs
Is less than $50, 900 900, and there
fore only approximately three-fifths
of the amount of money that the
Government now gets in as interest
and on principal.
Total Cost Large.
Add in then the total cost OF
those distinguished institutions. the
Shipping Board, the Emergency Fleet
= CORPORATION, the Federal Trade Com
mission, The SMITHSONIAN lnstitu'
ton. the Railroad Labor Board, the
Civil Service Commission. and the
Interstate Commerce Commission
Still the gross cost of all the gov,
ornamental bodies so far mentioned
will in the next fiscal year be only
about $3.50. 900.
Then throw in the rural roads
the appropriation for which in the
current Department of Agriculture
bill is s76,000,000. The final gross
total of all these governmental bod
les and enterprises of ours Is then
$256, 5000, 0O0-just almost exactly
what we now get in on interest ana
principal in the course of the bank
ing operations into which we gov
ernmentally have ventured.
But there is approximately an
other quarter of a billion of dollars
which the Government now derives
not from the general taxpayer but
from certain miscellaneous sources
which do not hit the really general
taxpayer at all.
Tomorrow: Uncle Sans Revenue
Pick-Ups.l
Copyright 1925, by Current News
Features, Inc.)