Evening star., 1938-08-07

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gold dollar would
be the lowest in
the country's his
tory: farm in al
come for the flrst
nine months of
this year esti-
m a d by the - s%* n
Agricultural De- r., ~.,.
par tment at
$500, ,O00, 900 below that for the same
period last year and the tobacco
growers staging revolt.
What to do? Poor Henry Wallace!
But Henry does not have high-priced
ghost writer's for nothing. Those boys
are clever. II you cannot boast about
the New Deal, blame 1t on the Re-
publicans, they said. Tell those
Iowans, said the ghost writer's, that
the G. o. P. Is responsible for what
is happening In 1898, even though
the Republicans have been out of
power since March 4. 1888. Tell 'em
anything, advised the ghost writer's,
blame it on the debts-no, not the
New Deal debt-the private debts Of
the l920s-those Iowans won't know
the difference!
1t Was Very Confusing.
So Henry delivered a speech on
debt. Every few seconds billions Of
dollars rolled OF Henry's tongue. 1t
was tremendous! But 1t also was
very confusing-and not all Of 1t was
in accord with the record.
For instance, in one place the
Secretary said that from 1892 to
1898 the Federal debt was increased
from l7l2 billion to the all-time
high Of 361a billion dollars" Then
little further on he said this:
Most people don't realize that
nearly 8 billion dollars was added
to the Federal debt before this ad-
ministration took ONCE This admin.
istration has added l4la billion dol
lars more"
In his first statement Secretary
Wallace would have the country be-
lieve the national debt increased 10
billion dollars between 1892 and 1898.
But he would also have the country
believe it had increased only l4l2
billion dollars under the New Deal.
Therefore, he undertook to give the
impression that in the last year Of
the Hoover regime the debt increased
by "A billion dollars.
An Example Of Accuracy.
Now the of,icial Treasury records
state the Federal debt on June 80.
1882. was $l9.4s7. 900 900 and that on
March 4, l933-the day the New Deal
arrived-it was s2o,937, 900, ,00o-an
increase of 81, ,45O. 900 900 and not the
34,50O. .000, 900 implied by Secretary
Wallace. His statement In that re-
spect was just about as accurate as
the remainder of his speech.
The truth Of the matter is that.
according to Treasury figures. the
Federal debt has increased approxi-
mately l6 billion under Roosevelt. ex-
clusive-and this is important-of
more than 4i7 billion dollars OF
Government-guarant securities or
an increase Of close to 2l billion
dollars. According to Mr.. Roosevelt,
the Federal debt will 60 up another
3la billion dollars more In this fiscal
year.
Obviously Mr.. Wallace wished to
create confusion about this dreadful
state OF affairs-and he did His
real point, however. was summed up
in the sentence that the debtor
position OF the entire United States
is stronger than at any time since
the early 20s." To prove that Mr.
Wallace asserted, without giving any
authority. that private debts today
are actually 20 billion dollars less
than In 1890. Such a figure cannot
be more than an estimate.
If it is an accurate statement, then
the country in the last three years
has gone through the wringer Of
dedationary liquidation to much
greater extent than in the 1929-l932
depression. The Commerce Depart
ment in its statistical abstract gives
the total OF private debts for 1880 as
ss4 500. 900 900 and for 1885 as $73,-
800 900 900. or 4 decrease of $ll,200.-
10000. IT, as Mr. Wallace says.
the decrease since 1890 totals 2S bill
lion dollars. then there was reduc-
ton OF almost II billion dollars in
the last three years. Some one has
missed 4 great story here!
But 1t Is Only 4 Fairy Story.
But it is only fairy story, for
Mr.. Wallace is talking lot OF hokum
and he knows it. His sole object Is
to divert attention from the increase
in the Federal debt and ne is trying
to do that by creating confusion.
He did 20 well. he became confused
himself, because he started out by
contending that debts are bad thing
for country and ended up by
asserting that in a capitalistic civil
lisation, such as ours. there can be
no prosperity without an increase IN
debt
In effect what Mr.. wallace said
was that Republicans were terrible
people because private debt increased
during their administration. but he
also said that there can be no pros
perity without an increase In debt"
Does Mr.. wallace mean to say he
thinks there should be no prosperity?
Perhaps. after all, the only difficulty
Is Mr.. wallace has greater need OF
4 good statistical economist than q
political ghost writer.
Q