Evening star., 1932-06-23
CAPPER STRESSES
CONGRESS- TASKS
Forum Speaker Points Out
Big Achievements of
Short Period.
Continued From Sixth Page)

Continued From Sixth Page)
the country to omortgage their farms, their
futures, to retain purchasing power
And the money lenders of the country
lent credit 70 the farmers, taking prom
ises to repay cash for that credit, just
as they lent the rest of us credit on
promises to repay in cash for our specu-
lations in securities.
We bought everything on time. We
bought autos, and radios, and clothing,
and luxuries and necessities, but prin-
cipally We bought securities.
Always, nearly always, we bought
on time.
We traded promises to pay for credit
still more credit.
But We promised to pay in cash
We got credit instead of cash in return
for our promises to pay.
AT the time We got the credit it was
as good as cash. We felt liberal We
increased our taxes: we granted bo-
muses.: We issued bonds for public
buildings, schoolhouses on every Sec
ton: auditoriumS in every town; new
court houses: new buildings for depart
mentS and bureaus in Washington; new
bureaus and commissions we bought,
and bought, and bought and bought
on credit exchanged for promises to
itHHN III tdcll III lIl6 1uJllTF.
Why not? The new economic era
had arrived. We had the Federal Re-
serve system. which furnished credit
facilities and guaranteed they were
sound. And the money lending class
in perfect good faith, I presume-en-
couraged us to borrow and spend, bor-
row and spend, borrow and spend.
Tax Burden Doubled.
I'VE doubled our tax burden in a
decade. We tripled our total indebted
ness. But we had a good time while it
lasted
Then the bubble burst.
But before the bubble burst some
thing else had happened. Something
we cannot ignore. Something which
adds to our present troubles. but prom
1ses also way out if it is intelligently
used instead of abused
Il refer to mass production by ma
chinery. During and following the war
we carried on our marvellous develop
ment of the machines-in industry in
transporta ton. in agriculture in min
ing, in all lines of production. We de-
veloped the machine until in seven
months We can produce just about
everything we can consume in IL
months.
Mass production came. and with it
the replacement of man power by ma
chine power. Unless hours of labor
were shortened to offset increased ma
chine production, there was bound to
be unemployment for all five months
out of u. or for millions of workmen
all the time.
"As I said a moment ago. finally the
bubble burst We heard about 1t in
october, 1929. but refused to believe it
until along about November. 1881
BY that time We had some 1000. 900
OF unemployed. We had accumulated
debts amounting to 10000 millions Of
dollars. We had run up an annual tax
bill Of 10000 millions of dollars. Our
annual interest bill was around 1000
millions of DOLLARS And the 10000
millions of dollars of pyramided Sc
curity wealth'-borrowed from the fu-
ture-had disappeared. But the 10000
million dollars we had promised to pay
in return for the 10000 million dollars
credit paid for the pyramided securi-
ties still remained on the books.
Lot Sought From Congress.
when Congress met in December
that really was the situation the coun
try faced. The country wanted Con-
gress to restore the 10000 million dol
lars of vanished credit; it wanted Con-
gress to reduce the annual tax burden
of 10000 million dollars; it wanted
Congress to insure jobs for the 1000. 900
of unemployed; it wanted Congress to
bring back the prosperity of those
days when we borrowed and spent,
borrowed and spent, borrowed and
spent.
And Congress has failed to do the
lob. It could not do that job. 1t Is
going to take time, and work. and
scrimping. and intelligent leadership
to bring back the prosperity of before
the war. hope none of us lives to see
again the 'pyramided' false prosperity
of the postwar days.
"As the people see it, Congress has