Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-06-13
I-ReductiOn Of the Public Dept.
BY FREDERIC J. HASKIN.

The beginning of the administration
| OF President Hoover finds the United
States in debt in a sum of roughly $l8,-
900 900 900, or about 800, 100000 less
| than the debt which was against lis
when the Harding administration took
office eight years ago. Year by year this
Nation has been paying into its Treas
ury in taxes goodly amount more than
has been needed to operate the Federal
Government, and the surplus has been
used to retire part of the war debt.
About one-fourth Of that debt has now
been paid and about three-fourths re-
mains to be paid.
Paying this first, and perhaps the
hardest, quarter of our national debt
has not really been hard for the aver
age citizen These have been prosper
Gus years, in which taxes have not
pressed too GENEROUSLY upon us. From
time to time the rates Of Federal income
taxation have been reduced from the
war time levels which has helped to
make the tax payments easier. For the
mass of Americans the reduction Of the
great war debt has not been hard. For
the responsible men who have Steered
the affairs Of Government so that sur
pluseS could pile up and be applied to
debt reduction The task has not been
easy. President Calvin Coolidge and
Secretary of the Treasury Andrew W..
Mellon have been credited by the pub
lie with bearing the brunt Of this task
It is not unfair to the ex-President to
recall that Secretary Mellon was pur-
suing the task, effectively although
without spectacular display, while Mr.
Harding was in the White House.
First Session Of Congress.
A review of the state of the Treasury
today and of the steps which have
brought 1t from the war status to its
present condition will be immensely
helpful to every one who desires to
observe with understanding the poll
cies of the Hoover administration, now
coming into view as Congress is meet
ing for the first time under the new
regime. This new Congress proposed
two outstanding actions, a partial re-
vision of the tariff. which may have
o large effect on the income Of the
which may affect very greatly the ex-
penses of the Government. This same
Congress also has the power, any time
it chooses, to spend money for as many
other purposes as 1t may select, II the
President agrees, or as 1t may insist
upon over the objections Of the Presi-
dent.
The Nations financial status today
is like that of any individual who has
bought a house and paid for 1t mostly
by a mortgage loan. Assume that this
off one-quarter of the loan and seems
to be pretty we'll able to go on paying
1t off with regularity. At this point
the individual finds that his grounds
need improvement. Shall he stop re-
firing his mortgage and devote all his
surplus earnings to fixing up the
grounds?
President Hoover has retained Secre-
tary Mellon in charge OF the National
Treasury. What Mr.. Melons policies
will be under the new administration
may perhaps best be estimated by re-
calling what they have been in the
past. While a public man is still in
Office and while partisanship still in
spires men to his opposition and to
his defense, 1t Is not easy to say what
view history will take of his work. Mr..
Mellon has been called by his admirers
the greatest Secretary Of the Treasury
since Alexander Hamilton. His oppo-
nents have called him less flAttering
things. Regardless of these opinions,
eight years of postwar Treasury man.
agement are now history and as f1nan-
cial history they are truly remarkable.
While other national treasures have
struggled, wobbled, and even collapsed
completely, that of the United States
has become the foundation stone of the
greatest financial structure the world
has even seen, the key and center of
prosperity unheard of in volume of
wealth and industry. While other
treasures have sought only where they
could borrow more and postpone the day
of payment of the war obligations, the