Evening star., 1936-05-10


ley of Kentucky.
Every quadrennial national political
convention has a keynoter, a speaker
selected to sound the key for the cho-
rus of attack on opponents and OF
promise of changes to be effected II
the opponents are defeated. Senator
Barley was the keynoter of the DEM
ocratic National Convention which
launched the New Deal toward power
in 1882. Senator Barkley has been Sc
lected to be the keynoter at the
Democratic National Convention
which is to renominate the New Deal
ticket next month.
The chuckle comes from recol-
lection of the high points of his key
note address of 1882 and from rec
ognition of the absurdity of any one
except a Republican sounding the
same keys for the opening of the
1886 campaign in the light of what
has happened in the meantime. What,
the chuckling query asks, can Sen
ator Barkley say this time? Ger
tainly, the chuckling wisecracks go,
he will have to write an entirely new
speech, for he won't be able to pick
up much of what he wrote for the
Democratic applause in 1892.
The record of the 1882 convention
shows Senator Barkley streSSing a
keynote of economy. At one point he
said, While making pious and viz
tuous overtures to economy Mr..
Coolidge officially recommended al
lotted and approved increases in the
expenses of the National Government
of more than S650,000,0 0,000."
Federal Cost Increase.
Later he observed the cost of gov
ernment in the United States has in
creased out of all proportion to the
needs of the people, or to the bene-
fits received by them" He recalled
that in 1900 the expenditures of the
Federal Government . had totaled
$3.50 900, 900. an amount which barely
pays the interest on our public debt"
that in 1914 the total had been about
81 900 900 900. and that in the Hoover
administration years of 1881 and 1882
it had been $4,000 100000 and more
than $5,000,000,0 900, respectively.
What shall the Democratic party
do when it comes into power on the
fourth day of next March?" Senator
Barkley asked in 1882. Shall we pay
service to economy, or shall We abol-
ish every unnecessary office, every
useless commission, every redundant
bureau that has been established un-
der the expensive regime of Harding
and Coolidge and Hoover, and lift
from the backs of the American peo-
pie (the record notes loud applause)
that intolerable and unbearable load
which weighs them down today until
they can scarcely look the sun in the
face?"
Official records, carrying into the
subsequent years of the New Deal
administration, show expenditures Of
the Federal Government as follows:
1881 (Hoover). S4,09l .597,712; 1882
(Hoover). $5,153 ,644.895; 1888 (nine
months Hoover, three months Roose-
velt), S5,142, ,953, ,627; 1884 (Roosevelt), =,
S7,105, ,050,085; 1885 tRoosevelt). ST.
1926, ,166. Figures for 1886 are lack
ing, because the fiscal year does not
end until June 80, but Henry Morgen-
thau, jr, Secretary of the Treasury,
recently estimated for the Senate
Finance Committee that the deficit
alone. counting in prospective bonus
payments, would amount to $685.
100000.
Mounting Public Debt.
The public debt in 1881 was $16,-
801 ,485, ,143, after steady reduction
during Republican administrations;
wartime peak; in 1885 it reached
$28, 700. 1872 ,624, and by next June 80
it is expected to total about s34,O00,-
100000. Interest on the public debt
amounts to 1920, 1926, 1853.
The House has passed the fourth