The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1937-09-16

diverting things about the New Deal
that the effort to impress the people
generally with the dangers of national
insolvency and stress the confused and
uncontrolled state of the Federal fl
nances has not been markedly success
full. For that there are various other
reasons, too.
One is because the Administration
propaganda has continuously soothed
the people into believing that if they
have faith in the President everything
will work out all right and that with
business recovery the budget will be
automatically balanced. That has been
the doctrine, and the degree to which
it has been swallowed is one of the
most remarkable things that has hap
pened in our political history. In face
of the facts it is perhaps as striking
evidence of the lack of public dis
cernment as has ever been given.
Every year Mr.. Roosevelt, who in 1882
was the most emphatic and articulate
of all the pointers-with-alarm on this
subject has presented an optimistic
picture of the Federal finances, which
in few months turned out completely
inaccurate. Aand every year he has
promised that the deficits would end.
Another reason people have not
been greatly impressed is that the
warnings have been repeated so often
without anything dreadful happening
that they have lost their potency so
far as the general public is concerned;
though, Of course, thoughtful men
know that every time the note of
alarm is sounded it is more serious
and more justified. To the average
citizen, however, the unbalanced bud
get has become a routine affair to
which he is thoroughly accustomed.
While he cannot help absorb the fact
that the debt is higher and the deficit
deeper than before, it seems old stuff
to him and the risks are obscured by
other and more interesting things.
Nevertheless, it seems important to
present the facts about the Federal fl
nancial situation as often and as clear
ly as possible in the hope that soon
or late the true significance will sink
into the so-called public mind and a
public sentiment be created that will
prevent US from going over the brink.
1t is the only thing that will. At the
beginning of the last session of Con-
gress Mr.. Roosevelt made a particu-
larly optimistic statement, a specially
strong declaration for economy. The
time had come, he said, for retrench-
ment.
In the current fiscal year, he said, we
would achieve an approximate balance
of the budget and in the next fiscal
year-the one we now are in-we
would achieve an actual balance. He
presented, in detail, the figures to
show that this would be done. Business
all over the country responded hope
fully to this Presidential note and even
more so to the stirring statement of
Mr.. Mariner Eccles, head of the Fed
eral Reserve Board, one of the earli-
est advocates of the spending policy.
Mr.. Eccles insisted that now it had be-
come vital to balance the budget and
that continued borrowings were dan
gerous.
This is what the critics of the Roose-
welt policy had been saying for three
years, but when Mr.. Roosevelt himself
and his chief financial adviser said it,
the significance was very great. 1t
seemed that at last halt was to be
called in the wild pouring out of Gov
eminent money, that the Administra-
ton was call set" for a genuine effort
to recover control of its finances and
restore national solvency. Such, at any
rate, was it's avowed purpose. But did
it do anything to promote that purpose
except talk? Did it take a step in that
direction? Did it attempt to curtail in
any direction? The answer is mo"
On the contrary, the two concrete
propositions which would have saved
an immense amount of money and ac-
tually balanced the budget had they
gone through-were both opposed by
Mr.. Roosevelt, beaten on the floor OF
the Senate by Administration leaders
under orders from the White House.
That is a matter of record. One pro-
posal was to reduce the relief appro-
priation asked by Mr.. Hopkins from a
billion and half to billion dollars
for the year. The other was to take a
fiat ten per cent out of all approprla-
tions for all departments. Congress
was willing and anxious to do both
these things. They were proposed not
by enemies of the New Deal but by
friends of the President. Senator