Detroit evening times. (Detroit, Mich) 1921-1958, 1941-03-17
Seven Billion
Seen rs Pct.
Of Total Aid
Base Estimate on British
Victory in -Four Years
BY PAUL MALL0N

" A well-placed government
official of exceptional finan-
cial judgment figures this ST.
600, 100000 as only the first IS
per cent advance on aid to
Britain.
His reasoning: Britain is
likely TO win but will require
about four years. The $1,000
100000 figure was rough es-
innate to cover the first year
of new British orders. Probably
nowhere near that amount can
be actually spent the next II
months. but increasing produc-
tive capacity will enable larger
expenditures next year and
thereafter, so the average is apt
TO be around S7,000,000,000
annually.
This figuring would make the
plausibly expected expenditure
S2S,000.0O0,000. Our own con-
templated three-year defense
program has already reached
, $50 900, 100000. The two to-
gether could thus approximate
$4,000, 900. 000-twice the total
! of all government appropria-
tions in the last war years of
II. Is, and 10.
A magazine, the American
Investor, has figured new way
of trying TO tell people how
much a billion dollars is. Their
system: If. an unusually alert
and industrious young man of
Is started counting one dollar
! bills at the rate of 100 a min
ute. ne would be able to count a
billion dollars by the time he
was SO years old working
eight hours a day, five days d
week..
A PROFOUND internal dis
"A turbance has been caused
here by the arrival of the last
| London economist S h low in &
Britain's financial predicament.
| The Federal Reserve Board
survey periodicals rs devot-
ing extraordinary space to the
economist article and financial
officials are handing it around.
The gap between British reve-
nue. and spending will reach
81. 200. 100000 a month ton the
basis of a S4 pound) this COM
ing fiscal year, beginning April,
the article says.
Only half can be raised by
means now visible. The other
half must come from imitation.
compulsory savings or additional
taxes tthe limit of taxation al
ready have been approximately.
differences is initiation may have
to come.
British national income for
the coming year is estimated
at $36.000,0 100000: government
expenditures at more than half
that, S20.000,000,000. Automatic
new revenue increases have al
ready been provided in excess
profits taxes and purchase taxes.
Government levy on cosmetics,
for instance, is 35 per cent?
The deficit in spite of all this
is estimated at $13.000,00O. 900
for the year. Savings, foreign
holdings, and sterling balance
will be tapped for half this, but
no one knows where the other
half can be found.
What stirred our financial Of
ficials so much was the possibil-
ity that the British predicament
is a foretaste of what we will
have to face in some degree.
Note: A considerable imitation
is already under way in Britain.
using the pre-war year 1885 as
100, note circulation has already
increased to 1853.
| EFT ii not dismay YOU TO note
- IN your daily news or con-
versations increasing number of
nutty notions. During world ex-
cltement such ideas as "a con-
centration camp for Senator
Wheeler" or institution of a
general government overlapping
system for citizens are bound TO
come up. probably with increas-
ing frequency from now on. Yet
there is no indication that the
great bulk Of dominant govern
ment officials are being swayed
in the slightest by the fury of
ain infiniteStimal numbers of hot
heads.
As for overlapping. Mr.. Roose-
Welt has already said he. with
the late Justice Holmes. consi-
derS II dirty and undemocratic
business. and would tolerate its
use by the government only in
legitimate cases of espionage,
sabotage, kidnapping and ex-
tortion.
J. Edgar Hoover said about
the same thing. Against their
judgment, the mysterious force
which is propagandizing for the
Hobbs bill tapping by all gov
eminent departments for all
suspected felonies) is likely TO
gain more attention than head
way.
As for concentration camps,
not even Interior Secretary
lckes has yet mentioned them
and possibly he Joins with every
other official in considering the
idea preposterous.
The wonder of most officials