Evening star., 1940-01-05


credit in the whole history of the
Republic. Even in wartime the
public debt did not approach its
present level.
Examination of the figures by
the layman will show that work
relief" takes more than a billion and
a quarter dollars, agriculture takes
a billion more and public works and
other pump priming activities abb
sorb another billion. The total of
these three items is $3,300,000 900,
which is more or less equal to the
annual deficits.
What makes it necessary to
spend S3,3O0,OO0,000 on pump prim-
ing each year? What is there about
Americas present national econ
omy that requires these big subsidies
out of the public treasury? In
these three items comes political
support of unprecedented strength
to the administration. But the
question is never settled as to
whether the political support comes
as a reward for the paternalism
shown by the administration, or
whether support is deliberately
sought by the party in power
through large scale spending.
Business Might Be Antidote.
An interesting test may come some
day when another political party
is in the saddle. New Dealers say
the subsidies would not be mater
tally cut. There is, on the other
hand, no doubt that tax receipts do
go up as business expands, and if
the national Government is COM
mitted for years to come to some
form of subsidy to agriculture and
to public works, then some method
OF stimulating private business so
as to yield more tax money out of
the present rates would seem to be
logical. What the opponents of the
administration claim is that if re-
form policies and experimentation
were ended and sensible programs
of liberalism adopted, business
would improve to such an extent
that less subsidy would be needed
and tax collections would rise
Most disappointing about the bud
get message is the way the figures
are presented. No corporation ap-
plying fer registration at the Securi-
ties and Exchange Commission
would be permitted to go before
investors with system of account
ing such as is now proposed by the
President.
1T is true that the operating state
ments of the Government have
never been in accord with the GUS
tomary accounting methods of
private business, but when the
deficits are so large, it is natural
that there should be an even greater
interest than ever before in what
the true condition of the annual
fiscal picture really is to be.
Thus the Presidents effort to
reduce the appearance of a deficit
of S2.876,000.0 by stating that
S700000,00 will be recalled from the
assets of Government agencies be-
longs properly in any plan or pro-
posal to show how the deficit will be
financed. But the true deficit is the
subtraction of receipts from expenses
in this case. Likewise, there is no
certainty that the proposed new
taxes will raise any $460 100000, yet
this item is Jumped into the proposed
receipts when an effort is made to
indicate deficit of about 81, TIC 00O,-
900. Likewise the estimates for relief
are tentative and heretofore there
have been supplemental appropri-
atiOns for w. P. A. and other large
deficiency appropriations.
Fit for Campaign Speeches.
From a political standpoint, it is
desirable, of course, for the adminis-
tration to appear to be cutting down
the deficits. But it had a downward
trend once before, only to let the
red figures rise again. The full effect
of the Presidents way of presenting