Coulee City dispatch. [volume] (Coulee City, Wash.) 19??-19??, 1936-06-25
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National Topics Interpreted AB 4499e@@a@@A
by William Bruckart 1TIflQllE&
aionalPr

ment. Then came the public relief
programs for which larger sums-to.
be exact, $500, 100000 in one year and
| $4,SS0,000,000 in another year-were-
| appropriated and spent. Thus we see
! in the last three years that the debt
| of the nation has grown from approx
imately s21,0O0,00O,00O to approximate
| ly $32,000000,00O, and each persons,
| share, as stated previously, is about
| $245.
| Now, the figures here set out tell
much more of story than just that
an enormous and in
lei the comprehensive num-
Story Der of dollars have.
been spent, millions
of them needlessly. They tell more Of
a story, indeed, than just the fact that
within another year there will have
been approximately $3,00O,OOO,OOO more
expended and that the debt then will
have been increased something like.
$13,000.000,000 since the Roosevelt cam
paign of spending began.
To understand the situation in which
the United States government and,
therefore, the people, find themselves,
it might be better to picture what
would happen to an individual in the
same circumstance. Hundreds of thou
sands of individuals are in debt but
nearly all of them seriously. try to-
avoid getting in debt beyond their
capacity to pay off their obligations.
If sickness or poor crops or poor bust
ness or any one Of many other afflic-
tons overtake that individual, even
though his personal debts might be-
liquidated under normal conditions, he
is-well, he just sinks.
Our government differs from that in
dividual only in the fact that it's citizens
regard the governments credit as:
virtually limitless. 1t can continue to-
borrow and people will accept govern
ment bonds in exchange for their
money for quite while. But let us
attempt to visualize in our minds eye
what would happen should our govern
ment be called upon to meet some ex-
traordinary conditions that would be-
comparable to the loss Of job by the
individual who is in debt.
Just how would our government
meet the requirements of another war,
for example? Just how would it be-
able to care for the destitute and the
jobless, for another example, if our
economic conditions would go into an
other tailspin and we would find our
selves in another depression? The an
swer seems fairly obvious.
So, 1 cannot help asking which is.
the wiser policy-to prepare for future
emergencies or to indulge in reckless
| spending with no thought beyond the
present?
1t seems to me that the Roosevelt
administration has followed the latter
course on the opti-
90 mistic base, entirely
| Optimistic too optimistic it ap-
pearsand hasplunge6
this country too deeply into debt.
l do not mean to imply that govern
ment securities are not good any
| longer. Far from it. I maintain that
as long as Our money is any good, our
| governments bonds are good Yet,
it must be apparent to every thinking
person that we cannot continue to-,
spend at the rate that marks the last
three years.
| I prefer, as against the present
spending policies, the policies of Pres
ident Andrew Jackson, who fought al
ways against excessive costs of gov
| eminent; '.who demanded consistently
that the expense of government be,
raised regularly for each years pay
ments and that there be little extra
| put away for the proverbial rainy day
when the government was called upon
for emergency payments. The policies
of Andrew Jackson were so effective
that during his administration in 1887.
the public debt was wiped out and
there was actually cash in the treasury
besides.
Supporters of the present spending
poiANA0so vail say, VI SOulSc, ludL IuGe
public debt of those days was in no
way comparable to that of 1896. That
is true but neither were the resources
of the United States in those days
comparable to the resources and the
wealth producing capacity of the pres
ent-day United States. Likewise. the
population of the United States in An.
drew Jacksons term in the White
House was only mere handful COM
pared to the nearly 13O,0OO,OOO of 1886.
So, answering the inquiry as to what
| the public debt means to the individual
citizen, the answer must be relation
of the fact that his family's share as
we start new fiscal year in the gov
eminent approximates $1,000. 1t means.
further, that through one form of tax
or another, that individual is helping
| to pay the interest of more than S71O.-
100000 every year. 1t means, in addi-
ton, that his government is in a
| position for the first time in the lives
of most persons now living where it
would face extreme difficulty were it
called upon to defend our country in