The times-news., 1938-12-15
FEDERAL GOVERNMENT DEFICIT
MULTIPLIES

The federal treaSury'S deficit for the nrSt
five months of the present fiscal year. as
announced by the treasury authorities Is
more than ONE and A HALF BILLION
DOLLARS.
! This deficit is two and one-half times the
size of the deficit for the corresponding
period of the previous fiscal year. fhe
present estimate of the best opinion obtain
able is that the total deficit for the present
fiscal year will amount to more than -FOUR
BILLION DOLLARS.
The present debt Of the, federal govern
ment, as admitted by the treasury authorl-
lies, is approximately FORTY BILLION
DOLLARS. Senator Byrd of Virginia
stands ready to prove that the govern
ment's system of bookkeeping makes the
debt appear to be several billion dollars
less than it actually is. As matter of fact
it is difficult to ascertain exactly what the
countrys debt is. 1t is certainly not less
than the treasury admits in the published
figures of that departments may be a
little matter of billions more than the sum
the treasury acknowledges.
The Wall Street Journal discusses this
problem in a way that may be somewhat
enlightening to our readers, and we quote
few paragraphs from the Journal:
In little more than fortnight the new Congress
will be sitting. few days later it will receive the
budget message on which the President and several
Sf his fiscal advisers are now at work. The prepa-
Be task of extraordinary difficulty; will be the
Action by which Congress transmutes its recon-
&endations into authorized expenditures.
Because, more than ever before, the coun-
try's chance of successful transition from an
economy of government support-spendng to one of
fully active, Self-supporting production depends
Upon the quality of the budget. And until we &C
eompIsh that transition the country is bound to
remain in a state of economic emergency, living
upon its credit instead of earning its living in cur
Tent production and employing normal proper
tion of its whole labor force in productive under
fakings.
No one need suppose that the 1910 budget will
balance But the fact that expenditures cannot be
brought within revenues Immediately is no reason
10 abandon ali thought of bringing the rate of
Treasury disbursements under rational control. 1t
is the direction that the countrys fiscal manage
ment is to take in this winters appropriations
the question whether the government moves toward
budget balance or farther away from it-that will
weigh most heavily in determining whether the
business upturn in progress since the middle of the
year and showing signs of "leveling off" is to
make further Roadway and to develop into real
and lasting recovery.
: So far in the current fiscal year Treasury re-
eeipts have fallen off by roughly 200 millions while
total expenditures have increased by roughly roc
millions. The deficit of more than billion and a
half is two and half times that of the correspond
ing period year ago. For the entire fiscal year q
Heicit Of four billions and perhaps considerably
more is in prospect, to compare with one of ST..
3S4 0000 600 in the year ended last June. This yeal
the deficit will have returned to about the proper
lions Of that of 1885, which included prepayment
Pf the bulk of the veterans adjusted compensation
certificates.
For all too many reasons, this winters bulge
making is going to be peculiarly difficult. Our sud
den Conviction of the necessity of enlarged meas
pres of national defense, the practical failure o.
the latest legislation the subject to relieve ag
ricufture of its disabilities and the municipal ap
petite which has grown great on a long continued
diet, of grants-in-aid suggest only a few of tn
great pressures which win come to bear on Con
guess to keep the Treasury spigot wide open-o
connect more spigots. The unemployed are still
with us. And finally the very fact that private
industry has made partial recovery this year from
The 1887 recession is offered as argument for con
tinued government spending, lest the recent gain
be bGghted
But that defense of continuous national defei
financing is as false as every other. If it were tru
That a cessation of this large-scale spending wer
bound to mean business recession, we still woul