The Washington times., 1932-12-10
PUT IDLE BACK
TO WORK. HE
PROPOSES
Attempt to Balance Budget
Is Futile Undertaking,
Montanan Says
BY BURTON X. WHEELER
U. s. Senator, Montana

u. B. SENATOR montana
There must be an end to
wage cuts and to salary cuts.
I shall vote for no measure
offered in Congress that is
based upon this vicious and
wicked policy, misna me d
economy" p
In place Of it, let us restore
the wage scale in government
service and in private indus
try. Let us put our idle mil
lions back to work by. a great
public works program. Let us
restore his purchasing power
to the farmer by cutting the
value Of the gold dollar. Let
us without further delay as
sure possession Of their homes
and properties to the city
worker and to the farmer.
Hits Budget Balancing
The government has been
seeking for the past two years
to balance it's budget. 1t is not
only q futile undertaking. 1t
is one fraught with danger to
the well-being Of the Amerl-
can people, because it is at
tended by wage and salary cut
ting and by adding to our al
ready vast army o. unemployed
men and women.
We are in an era Of falling
prices and of dwindling foreign
trade. In such period all bud
get estimates of income must be
falsified by the facts. Revenues
cannot be estimated; they must
be guessed at.
It is perfectly ridiculous for
anybody to try to say today,
when commodity prices con-
tinue to fall, what they will be
tomorrow and, consequently.
perfectly ridiculous to talk about
balancing the budget. What we
should be endeavoring to do.
and what we must do, is to de-
wise ways and means to increase
the price level. If we can do
that we can very easily balance
the budget through increasing
incomes and increasing earning
capacity.
Conditions Are Changed
Ours is an exactly opposite
experience from that presented
in a period of rising prices.
Then revenue estimates are dis
closed to be under. the facts.
and a surplus results. This
happy condition existed while
Andrew w. Mellon was Secre-
tary of the Treasury, and he
was given. credit for a circum-
stance over which he had no
control and, apparently, very
little understanding.
That the budget should bal
ance as a general policy is en-
tirely sound. It is desirable. If
the country can, without undue
strain, meet running expenses
out Of current revenue it is
sound policy to do so. If, how
ever, the effort to do this in
wolves strain and widespread
hardship, as at this time, the
attempt should not be made.
We did not balance the bud
get in the war years. We made
no pretense of doing it. Ex-
penses over those that could
be paid for by current revenue
were covered by borrowing. The
Government sold bonds and
increased the public debt.
Better Off in 1919
The debt in 1919. amounted
to $25,500, 100000, the highest
in our history. Were we bank
rupt in that year, with an un-
balanced budget and a huge
debt? We were not. Measured
In terms of the general well
fare, we were a great deal bet
ter off than we are today,
when the debt is about $6,00O,-
100000 less. Nobody even sug.
gested bankruptcy in 1919. He
would have been laughed at,
and rightly.
National bankruptcy results,
not from an unbalanced bud
get, but from the inability to
pay interest on the public debt.
America is not in the remotest
danger Of that.