The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1925-07-01
A Canadian Budget and Coming Elections

TN the debate on the federal budget,
the Hon. Mr. Robb acting minister
Of finance in the liberal" king gov
eminent, claimed there was sur
plus The tory opposition, thirsting
COR the spoils of Office, insisted there
was a deficit" Regardless of tory
demagogy, the facts do demonstrate
that the surplus" claimed by the
king government is rank fake.
In no less a measure than the recent
Royal-Union Bank merger or the class
struggle in Nova Scotia, the federal
budget throws a glaring light on the
condition of Canadian capitalism
which lives increasingly by the in
tense exploitation of the Canadian
masses. The public debt at tho
md of the fiscal year for 1920-21 was
2,340 million dollars and the estimat-
ID net debt at the end of the pres
snt year 1924-25, is 2431 millions-an
increase in Indebtedness in four years
Of over 80 million dollars. In addi-
ton the government has during this
period guaranteed National Railway
bonds to the extent of some $50 mil
lion dollars, and as the National Rail-
ways are burdened with the heritage
of over-capitalization from the days Of
private ownership, this additional
amount will eventually have to come
out of non-railway revenues. So a to.
tal national debt of only half a. bill
lion dollars in prewar days has swol-
len to the present tidy sum of two
and half billion (S2,5OO, 0O0,OO0) dol
lars. More than third of the public
revenue is now expended in interest
payments, the annual interest bill hav-
ing averaged 1875 millions in the last
three years.
uOW was this huge debt incurred,
IL to whom is it owed and who is
expected to pay the price" for it?
The expansion of the national debt to
the sum of two and half billion dol
lars was largely due to dominion par
ticipation in the late imperialist world
war. This fact of course partly ex-
plains the reluctance of the king
government to embark on further war
commitments spelling greater contri-
buttons to the maintenance of British
navalism; it partly explains dominion
insistence on Status" and the differ
ences with the British imperial gov
eminent over the signing of the
treaty of Lausanne the Geneva proto-
col and the Security Pact" in con-
nection with the Rhine. In view Of
the penetration and influence OF
American Imperialism on the one
hand, and the sharp antagonisms with.
in the dominion itself between CAPT
tai and labor, between agrarian West
and OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES East, be.
tween French-Canada and Orange On.
tario, between the maritime prov.
inces and all others-participa Ir
another war with the huge debt Of the
last still bearing down, might shall +,
the whole structure OF Canadian con.
federation to its foundations.
But IL this huge debt was Incurred
in the imperialist war, and i'll NOR.
than third Of the revenue is going
into perpetual interest payments u
capitalist bondholders and war ptofit
GERS, and II as the government has ad
mitted more than half Of these war
bonds are tax-exempt, one gr Ia
source Of the deficit and the way 10
its liquidation becomes very clear. III
to the present, however. the idea
the capital levy has been advocated
by nobody outside the Communist
Party OF Canada The government
the capitalist parties, the bond-nold
ers and their crowd will not hear Of
anything that would make them pay
the costs. The business interests
already I'll the air with their cries
that taxation is too high" They