Evening star., 1937-10-30

Ine united 0LaLeS
Treasury. II am allowed to let it ac-
cumulate for four weeks and send
a check for ST 400 The Administra-
ton says it is going to save this money
for my secretary and pay it back to
her as a pension after she is IS years
old.
I don't like the system. I would
rather pay my secretary what prom
ised to pay her and let her do her
own saving; she is a competent per-
son who owns her own home and
carries an endowment insurance pol
icy. For that matter. whether she
is a saver or spender, makes no
difference to me. I think she ought
to get all her pay, and then save Il
or spend it as she likes. I don't
think it's my business or the Govern
ment's business, what she does with
her pay whether she saves some of
it or spends it on lip sticks and
permanent waves 1t didn't use to be
the Governments business when
America was free country. Maybe
lllllCllCd Will OC llCC dSdll
some day At present. the Govern
ment insists it is going to take some
OF my secretary's wages from her
and save it for her.
Blanks and Blanks.
Very well. every four weeks I make
out check for sl4o and send it to
Mr.. Morgenthau. have to sign lot
OF blanks. too. dozens of blanks, blanks
with much fine print sign every
thing my secretary pokes under my
pen. Some DAY. 1 suppose, I'll make
some mistake that will bring the
Government down on me.
Mr.. Mongenthau gets my check for
81 40. He or the administration, or
the law, says they are going to save
this money for my secretary. But do
they? They do not. They deposit my
check in the bank along with their
other receipts OF every kind from every
source. They treat my check as cash
in the till. They use it for any pur-
pose they choose. They may use it to
help pay the Presidents salary, or to
pay for ammunition for the Army.
They may use it to pay farmer for
not raising potatoes. (In order that
my secretary, whose money it is, shall
be obliged to pay higher prices for the
potatoes she buys-but that is a diff
ferent story.)
AS money, the Sl40 has gone. 1t
has ceased to exist But Mr.. Nor
genthau does this: After he has re-
ceived and used up this $40 and
enough other similar payments from
other persons to make a total of q
thousand dollars, he. or some of his
subordinates, takes piece of greenish
paper and prints on it the words:
"One Thousand Dollar Bond" This
bond he or one of his clerks sticks in
pigeonhole somewhere and marks it
Social Security Fund" All this
printing the 81 900 bond and marking
1t Social Security Funds just a
bookkeeping transaction. That $1,000
bond Is just piece of paper, an I.
o. U. 1t is just an T. o. U. signed
U. S. A.
Where viii Money Come From.
Some day-may the time be long
postponed-my secretary is going to
reach IS. At that time, the Govern
ment is going to pay her her pension,
or ought to. Where is the money to
come from? There won't be anything
in the Treasury earmarked for her
except that I. o. U. She is supposed to
get real money. Where and how will
the Government get it?
Will the Government get the money
out of future taxation in that future
year? Will the Government take the
future tax payments made by some
future secretary, and use them to pay
the pension of my present secretary?
And how shall we look upon that
81 900 bond? Is it debt owed by the
Government? Surely it must be. If
so, when and by what means is the
Government going to pay it? Will the
future secretary be taxed to pay the
81 900 bond, too? 1t looks to me as if
that future secretary is going to be
taxed twice-once to pay off the 1000
bond and once to pay the old debt due
to my present secretary.
But at this point the thing gets too
deep for me. Vaguely I feel there's
something cockeyed about it, but
can't understand it. It's just beyond
| my brain. I had a relative who, some
| 90 years ago, was mathematician
and made up the first actuarial tables
in the United States; but he was only
q relative by marriage, did not in
| l,.y{f fHo foIoof