The times-news. [volume] (Hendersonville, N.C.) 1927-current, 1933-09-04
NEWSPAPERS OPINIONS
THE FINANCIAL HEADACHE

look at the treasury statement of the Federal
government as prepared by Director of the Budget
Lewis Douglas. is enough to strike little chill of
fear TO any conservative citizen who has horror
of debts.
II reveals that the public debt of the government
has now SCARED to something like twenty-three bill
lion dollars David Lawrence, analysing the situa-
tion in the current issue of the Saturday Evening
Post tells us that within the next twelve months
the debt may increase to the alltme high of TWEEN
tv.seven billion dollars. That is higher by almost
half billion dollars than the debt reached in the
World peak.
sbouId the fears of Mr.. Lawrence be sustained,
as seems probable should present emergency ap-
nominations all be expended it would mean ap-
proximately four billion dollars added to the ma
tonal debt by the application of New Deal recov-
ery programs. Adding this to increases IN the debt
that were piled up during the Hoover admnlstra-
ton, there would be total of something like ten
billion dollars increase in the debt of the Federal
government chargeable to emergency expenditures
incident to the depression.
Translating this into term of public burden, MI
Lawrence points out that it means an annual IN
terest charge of one billion dollars, all OF which
Becomes a fixed expense of hercuean proportions
Facing the situation as it is, the writer very
logically points out that there is no possible sou-
ton except by finding ways of collecting more IN
the way of taxes from the people. There is no
need to kid ourselves taxes cannot be decreased as
long as public debt burdens increase. The public
ALWAYS has to paw the fiddler Mr.. Lawrence puts
it thus bluntly:
"x x whether wars come depressons pass,
the painful truth is that it's the people who pay,
and pay, and pay!
'Many of the indirect taxes, which used to be
called nuisance taxes and which were originally
imposed during the war and revived during the
present depression, are bound to stay. The day S
not far distant when the agitation for sales tax
will be revived, for the simple reason that there
will be no other productive source from which the
Federal government can collect substantial sums
Many of the states are already enacting sales-taX
laws and it looks as if the Federal government
NAV some day compcate the saes-tax lebies by
one of it's own just as it has entered the gasoline
tax field after the states had found it prolific
source of revenue.
with the states and cities anxious to collect
sufficient sums to balance their budgets and with
Federal government spending larger and larger
sums the problem of coordnating tax revenues as
between the Federal government and the states
and cities is bound to develop a paramount issue
Just as soon the emergency spirit of the depres-
sion has passed and the calm sober day of reckon
ing has brought showdown on how these enor-
nous expenditures for the depression are going to
be retired.
Already we have had some evidence of how
| temporary" some of the taxes are going to be.
Thus, the Congress which in the summer of 1882
passed special taxes, including the gasoline tax
amounting to $40O,O0O00O year, gave as its
promise that the taxes would come to end
within year or so. Instead the new Congress has
now reenacted all, those taxes and imposed levy
of 1927, 200, 900 besides.