The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1934-11-29

washington, NOV. III
Twice now there has come from
Postmaster-General Farley a flaming
announcement that for the first time
the Postoffice is no longer a drain
upon the Treasury. Last July, with
great pride, he reported to the Presi-
dent surplus of $5,OOO,OOO, and very
recently it was impressively an
nounced that the surplus was $12,-
100000.
Mr.. Farley, in making these re-
ports, buttered the President thickly
with eulogies and then creased him
self as a model of economy and eff
cheney. That he should in the main
"get by" with these preposterous as
sertions is one of the best evidences of
the confusion engendered by the New
Deal. In a normal administration no
department head would have dared
present such report. He would have
known it would be analysed at once,
the joker discovered and the pretense
punctured. Yet so thick is the fog in
which the Administration moves, so
rapid the kaleidoscope the whole
governmental picture, that by being
sufficiently solemn and self-righteous
about it Mr.. Farley is enabled to have
blazoned in headlines all over the
country the totally misleading state
ment that he has turned a great def
cit into a comfortable surplus.
The basis for this claim is a fine
illustration of what can be done in
the way of deluding the public with
figures. Undoubtedly, when the Farley
report was first made a great many
people were puzzled. Those who
stopped to think knew perfectly well
there was catch in it, but there were
the figures, and not many are in posi-
ton to question them. 1t was utterly
unreasonable, but it was impossible to
Immediately point out the flaw, and in
another day, such is the speed with
which the New Deal whirls, that
public attention was diverted and the
Farley surplus" accepted by all ex-
cept an informed few who know a
bluff when they see it and can tell a
fake from a fact.
One of these is Mr.. Ashmun Brown,
the correspondent of the Providence
Journal. In writing of the $12,161,-
415.03 Farley surplus" of June 80
last, Mr.. Brown says "the brazen
effrontery of the man leaves one
aghast." Mr.. Brown then proceeds
to analyze Mr.. Farley's figures, and
shows how he arrives at them. In
the first place, so far from having a
$12,000,000 surplus, the Postoffice De-
partment ended the fiscal year with
$4,000, 1852 deficit. This was off
cially announced by the Treasury De-
partment while the President was in
Hawaii. 1t did not, however, prevent
Mr.. Farley from claiming a few days
later $5,OO0,OOO surplus. Recently,
the strain of the campaign over, Mr..
Farley raised his surplus to $12,000,-
900, and says Mr.. Brown, "got this
gorgeous fiction broadcast over the
country"
The key to the Farley claim is an
inconspicuous phrase tucked away in
the report, which says, "The figure
(of surplus) is a net total after
authorized adjustments for certain
subconventions and free mailing
charges" Naturally, this means
nothing to the average reader. The
perspicacious Mr.. Brown, however,
discovered what it means. Mr.. Far
ley, he points out, "has set down the
figures of his departments expendi-
lures for ocean and air mail subsidies,
and has added to that his own gener-
Gus estimate of what it cost to trans
port and deliver under frank the
thousands of tons of Government
mail, always costly, but vastly in
creased under the New Deal. Mr..
Farley has then subtracted the total
thus obtained from the total expendi-
lures of the department. AS the Off
cial Treasury deficit was $52,003,295
62, and he claims a surplus of $12,-
161,415.03, it is evident that by a
stroke of the pen he wiped out ex-
penditures of $64,164,710.65.
He might just as easily have sub
tracted $100,000,OO0. Under this
method, clearly the only limit to the
Farley SURPRISES is the limitation of
his imagination of the cost of the Gov
ernment-franked mail. The truth is
Mr.. Farley spent $52,OO0,OOO more
last year than he took in and his
Surplus is obtained only by not