Evening star., 1937-12-12
BY the Associated Press.

Wllcl tllc 1OVCI lAlllClltS C6AC wa
$6,694, 900 900.
Just Under Average.
The prediction for this years spend.
ing runs a notch or so under tn,
average for the last four years. Tht
latest estimates call for2$7 ,545 ,000, ,00t
to be spent. However. hard winter
throwing many persons on relic.
might boost those figures greatly.
A few points stand out in all Of
the talk about spending and budget
balancing:
The Government has spent about
sl1 900 100000 less during the last
four years than were spent during
the four top spending years Of the
World War.
Its average spending has beer
$7,866, 100000 a year in the four.
year period of l934-l937 During the
years from 19l7-l921 it ran at the rate
of $40 ,682 600, 900 year.
Present-day spending is running
considerably higher than double the
figures at which it stood between
1926 and 1929, the four most recent
non-emergency years. The average
for those four was $3,118, 100000.
Average Receipts Higher
The average receipts of the Govern
ment from taxes, customs and other
sources from 1884 to 1887, however
was just shade higher than it was
for those four pre-depression years oi
1926-29. That average for the last
four years has been $4,l79 900 900
During the World War period. money
came into the Treasury at the rate ol
1924 900 900 year.
The income of the Government i
rising, however While the average fol
the last four years is just above the
four billion mark, the amount taker
in during the fiscal year of 1897 has
been exceeded but twice in history
and that forecast for this year has
been topped only once. Those were
during the bumper collection years oi
1920 and 1921 when all sorts of specia
taxes were in effect
In 1887 the Governments income
was $5,392 100000 Some of those
who are studying Government spend
ing say that the budget is likely to be
brought into balance somewhere be-
tween that figure and the six billion
mark.
They allow in this prediction for the
absorption into the regular budget ol
quite few of the emergency activi.
ties that have been carried in thu
special budget that was set up to tax,
care of such things. They point out
that the amount listed in the emer.
gency budget dropped by half a billior
dollars between 1884 and 1895, but al
the same time the regular budget fig-
ures jumped by more than the same
amount.
Between 1885 and 1886, the emer.
gency budget dropped by less than hall
a billion. And during that time enough
extra aids to the citizen had beer
added to the regular budget to lift il
by more than a billion and a half.
Both the emergency and the regular
budgets were trimmed in 1887, ths
emergency spending by $400, 900 .00t
and the regular work by 5000, 900 900
Government income and spending
reached the billion-dollar mark necl
and neck in 1917. Both of them stooe
in that vicinity during the one yeal
while war was bearing down upor
America. Then they leaped upwart
and neither have gotten back to thu
,billion-dollar neighborhood since.
Income Peak in 1920.
Income reached its peak in 1920, fel
to its lowest point of the last two dec.
AIDES in 1882 when it shrank to abcu
two billions.
The years Of 1918 and 1919, when thu
Government was catching up with 1t.
hasty commitments Of the war, wer,
the two most costly ones it has seen
In 1918, it spent IL billions and IL
1919 it spent 18 billions.
One phase of budget balancing
stressed by many is that when tn.
Government gets back of spending
within its income, 1t will quit addin,
to the national debt. It now costs thu
Government around $500, ,000, 900 {
year in interest on the amount it owes
The path followed by the nationa
debt has been hilly one. leading up.
ward with each war, or, now and then
when business would run into troubles
edging downward later, but nevel
seeming to get back to a point quite a.
low as the level from which it started
climbing.
Lowest in 1870.
1t reached its lowest point in 184p. Al
that time, after clearing away thu
debts of the Revolution and the Wa
Of 1912, the total debt of the Nationa
Government had been whitfield dowr
to $500, 900, which figured out to q
cents of debt for each person in tn.
Nation.
The Civil War sent it above the bill.
lion-d dollar level for the first time. Blu
it did not pause there. It was two ane
half billion in 1865. a debt tina
amounted to $77.O7 q person.
For only two years since then has Il
been below q billion. BY slow degrees
and steady chopping, year after year
save for one smitten by DEPRESSION
was brought to less than Q billion IL
1892 and 1893. to per person figur'
Of $14.49 in the latter year.
World War costs lifted 1t to a peal
Of $25. 400. 900 600 by 1919, or &240.0.
q person. Steady trimming brought 4
down to $16.10o, ,000, 900 in $780,, o.
$131.49 person.
Deficits set in then, next came tn,
costs OF relief and depression rene.
dies. The debt now stands at $37,153,.
10000, which, using the latest censu
estimates, figures out to $290.2e tina
would be needed from every man
woman and child in the Nation tt
wipe 1t out.