Morgan County Democrat. (McConnelsville, Ohio) 1886-1943, 1934-07-19


audience had come to hear.
As was fully expected, hfs ad-
dress was against the Roosevelt ad-
! ministration, and his speech of
! about two hours length did little
else than fay the administration.
He yelled wolf wolf, saw red, etc.
Fess is one of those who by nature
is prejudiced against progress, and
his prejudice is multiplied infinite
ly because it is political and econ
omic progress brought about by
political party that he opposes. He
devoted much time to a discussion
OF expenditures of the government,
in which he saw nothing but red.
Here as in many places his state
ments were grossly misleading Had
he wanted to be fair with President
Roosevelt, he should have pointed
out that each of the last three years
/ has seen deficit in excess of bill
lions. Four depression years
three of them under Hoover, ac-
cumulated deficit of 10 billions;
this added to the federal debt which
previously existed brought it to 27
billions. Why just add up the red
side of the ledger-add up the
black figures on the asset side
cash on hand. stabilization reserve
and collectible loan-and by SUBJ
tracing the total it makes the act
ual debt eight billion less. Fess
failed to tell his audience that the
national debt when Roosevelt took
office was % billions-that it was
increased about four and a half bill
lions in the last two years OF
Hoover's administration. And as
pointed out, there are impressive
offsets against the 27 billions ma
t1onal debt. Don't lose sight of the
fact that two of the governments
dispensing agencies have been the
Recontruction Finance Corporation
and the Public Works administra-
ton, and don't lose sight of the
fact too that the money they have
dispensed has gone out largely in
the form of loans, secured by good
collateral. Remember there is
difference between loans and ex-
penditures
We know figures and statistics
are not interesting, but since Fess
took up at least an hour in quoting
figures, We must take a little space.
We want to give some figures of
David Lawrence man who has
never been accused of being biased
in favor of the New Deal In
diagram in last weeks United
States News, he throws some inter-
esting light on the points under dis
cussion. 1t shows that the deficit
of 1884, of which Roosevelt's ad-
mlnistration is responsible, is $3,-
900, 1000 But the deficit of 1888
for which the Hoover administra-
ton was at least partly responsible,
was $3,068, 100000, and the deficit
of 1882 for which the Hoover-Fess
administration is wholly responsible
was S3,153, 100000, and the year
previous there was huge deficit.
So as a matter of fact, government
expenditures under Hoover ran far
ahead of its income, just the same
as it did under Roosevelt. OF course
Fess said nothing about that, and
the increased expenditures that
have been under Roosevelt would
have come had Hoover been re-
elected, since huge sums would
have been appropriated to feed and
clothe the unemployed.
AS to F'ess' claim that the debt is
SO large that it can never be repaid.
it is simply anti-Roosevelt prop
aganda, and exaggerated by Fess
for political effect. Just moment,
please. In 1916, as Fess pointed
out, the national debt was a billion
and a quarter dollars. The World
war ran the debt to approximately
twenty seven billions, which showed
the government spending and lend
ing nations, to win the war, had
gone on at the rate of eight billions
a year. BY 1880 the huge debt had
been reduced to approximately ten
and half billion dollars, and
doubtless would have been re-
duced still faster with benefit
to the country, if during those
years Republican admin
istrations of which Fess was a part,
had not seen fit to reduce income
tax rate on the upper brackets of
such men as Mellon, and thus it
would have tended to prevent that
concentration of great wealth which
eventually contributed to the fnan-
cial collapse.
The senator spent much time
warning that the United States,
European examples, is
drifting toward political dictator
ship, ETC. Fess and his like who are
finding fault with the president ON
this score, should stay closer to
home in their criticism and not go
to Europe. President Roosevelt in
his plain terse manner went to
the heart of this question recently
when he asked the people to read
the "Bill of Rights" and to point
out any liberty guarantee there
which has in the least been in
fringed. Until Fess or some one
else makes a specific case on the
basis of that challenge, all talk
about dictatorship in the United
States is just so much idle chatter.
The crowd waited patiently until
the last, to learn the remedy-the
Fess and his kind who laid the trap
for our misfortunes from 1928 to
1882, and since he suggested no