Evening star., 1932-03-14
WASHINGTON OBSERVATIONS

No one will wish to detract from the
credit due leaders of both parties In
Congress in their handling Of the bud
get crisis and the courageous proposals
of the House Ways and Means Com
mittee to raise more than a billion
of dollars in new tax revenues. But
the fact remains that despite all of the
declarations that I'VE must balance the
budget. We will balance the budget.
We have balanced the budget" the
bill will still leave the Government
unable to meet all its obligations in
1888. No attempt has been made to
provide for the $479 100000 that un-
der the law must be paid into the
sinking fund In that year. The Treas
ury must either borrow to meet those
payments or suspend the sinking fund
altogether for year. While suspen-
sion will involve no actual increase in
the total of public debt, it will prevent
the reduction of the debt which Con-
gress prescribed in the sinking fund
act, and for which, under a strict bud
getary policy, provision ought to be
made Moreover, the Treasury will be
out another s27o, ,0o0, 900 in 1888 un-
less foreign governments resume pay
ments on their debts at the close of
the Hoover moratorium. Few informed
persons expect that this debt payment
money will be forthcoming next year.
Together these two items represent
three quarters of billion dollars of
nominal deficit in 1893 even with all
the new taxes now proposed and even
without any additional appropriations
for roads, for unemployment relief or
for the war veterans.
y \
Mayor William B. Harrison OF Louis
vile, KY, whose trim and youthful
figure and smartly tailored clothes are
reminiscent of Mayor Jimmy Walker
of New York, minus the Walkeresque
Broadway frills. passed through Wash
ington last week en- route home. Mayor
Harrison has been in New York as a
guest Of the Board Of Trade, invited
was able to operate under a full head
of steam and to g. ahead with an
undiminished program OF municipal
activities with the lowest per capita
cost and the lowest per capita debt of
any city over the 100000 population
mark in the United States. In these
times of bankrupt municipal finance
and overburdened municipal taxation
the Louisville record has attracted wide
attention. In New York Mayor Harrir
son was introduced as the eighth Won
der Of the world. In Washington he
was received by President Hoover and
visited the House and Senate. He was
the Republican gubernatorial candidate
in Kentucky last year. One Of these
days soon, according to hts admirers.
he is going to govern the State or rep
resent 1t in the Senate, or both.
II
George Palmer Putnam, New York
publisher, publicist and explorer, Is in
a tilt with the War Department over
the question of the publication of "un-
pleasant" war pictures. Publisher Put
nam has in preparation pictorial
document against war, graphically
illustrating the horrors of modern con-
fiict" For his purposes the more horrible
the pictures the better. He has select
ed photos from the files of the United
States Signal Corps Ordinarily copies
Of the official pictures are available to
any one who is willing to pay for the
prints. But In this case the War De-
partment refuses Putnam quotes Mai.
Gen. Carr as saying: ITO give out any
such pictures would be against public
policy. 1t would not be ethical. It
would not be decent. Think of the
Golo StaI MotnetS tne country sent 10
France. Over there they saw the lovely
cemeteries In which lie the dead Of
the A. z. F. These mothers carried
home in their minds beautiful pictures
Of these cemeteries. We cannot spoil
these memories"
Compliments continue to pour in
on the White House Press Association
on the success of its tenth annual
banquet, staged earlier this month and
attended by a host of national notables.
Mr.. Hoover, who by this time must be
an experienced judge on public dinners,
found occasion last week to tell Presi-
dent Mallon Of the association that the
dinner of the White House correspond
ents was the most enjoyable. as wen rs