Coulee City dispatch. [volume] (Coulee City, Wash.) 19??-19??, 1936-06-25
Washington.-I have received a let
.er from reader in my home state of
Our
Public Debt

|
Our ing very timely in
Public Debt quiry concerning the
public debt of the
! United States 1t is timely for more
than one reason. The United States
government operates on fiscal year
running from July 1 to the next June
80 and we are, therefore, just about
to close another fiscal year. A second
reason why this inquiry is timely re-
lates to the size of the present public
debt, almost $32,0OO,OO0,OOO.
Our public debt has surged higher
than normal during two periods of the
last twenty years and the course Of the
debt, therefore, is one with which most
mature persons are more or less ia
miliar. But it remains as fact that,
while most people are Informed con-
corning the total of the national debt,
they have not had opportunity to learn
exactly what it means to the indi-
vidual.
Treasury transactions, as whole,
are rather difficult to understand and
since the sums in which government
figures now run are so huge, the gen.
eral attitude of individuals is to let the
thing pass as matter for expert at
tention. 1t ought not to be so. The
public debt is matter of direct con-
Germ to every one of us and that is
further reason why the inquiry men
toned above is important
hauo .oftop 1uopdoro1 xr,ho<bor ind;
viduals, in considering whatever obli-
cations they have in the form of debt,
take into account the fact that the
public debt actually is commitment
against you and me and everyone else
Persons who have not so thought of
the public debt, probably will be
shocked to learn that in addition to
their obligations that have been con-
tracted personally, there is something
like $245 which, although an infnitesi-
NAL portion of the public debt, consti-
tutes actually an individual obligation.
Therefore, when any person looks at
that vague and shadowy term, "the
public debt in this light, they cannot
help but realize that it has a very real
and personal meaning to the individual.
That enormous sum of nearly $32OOO,-
100000 must be paid off as any other
debt and the government must col
lect it from everyone who lives in this
country.
Again, the public debt may seem a
thing far removed but it is brought
RI 70 ne
the taxes we pay and in more ways
than most of us care to admit we are
contributing that tax. So, when the
government contracts debt and ar
ranges to pay it off, the oEiy way col
lection is possible for the extraordinary
amount is by increasing the share of
government expenses which each Of us
bears, meaning of course, an increase
in our tax.
! In 1857, the public debt was only
$2S,7OO,000. In that year, each per-
sons share was only
Some S1.O1. With the adj
History vent of the Civil
I f'a war, the govern
ment needed funds and began borrowing
additional amounts until in 1866 the
debt reached what in those days was
high figure-$2, 750,OOO,OOO. At that
time, each PERSONS share was $7769.
E Good administration and sound finan-
cial policies followed and the debt was
| reduced, paid off, until during the
early 1900's the debt was reduced until
| each, persons share was something
| less than ST..
- Continual retrenchment was carried
on until the World war interrupted the
program and fresh borrowings were
| necessary for prosecution of that
great conflict. The borrowing of the
war days carried our public debt to
a new high point of 1864, OOO,OOO on
August 10, 1919.
The debt, because it was new
peak, looked insurmountable and it
was dangerously high but through the
administrations Of Presidents Harding
and Coolidge, the job Of paying off the
debt was seriously attacked and this
program eventually resulted in reduc-
ton of the debt to about $16,50O,OOO,-
GOO during the administration of Presi-
dent Hoover
1t was from this low point that the
present debt burden has mounted and
continues to climb. The depression
reduced government income from taxes
and left the treasury with a deficit in
two years of the Hoover regime.
The result of those deficits was to in
crease the public debt because money
had to be borrowed to pay current
running expenses. The borrowing did
not appear serious, however, either
in the last two years of the Hoover
administration or the first year of the
administration of President Roosevelt
because Mr.. Roosevelt had pledged the
country during his campaign to econo-
mize in every direction. 1t was his
promise that he would curtail expendi-
lures by one-fourth and therefore make
the outgo and income of the govern
ment approximately the same.
Instead of that course, Mr. Roosevelt
initiated the present program of ex-
penditures in huge amounts. The first
plan called for the use of vast sums
| for expenditure nv the government in