Askov American. [volume] (Askov, Pine County, Minn.) 1914-current, 1942-03-05

VI Tie udtlO1 war
effort. Though taxes will yield more
revenue than last year, they will meet
only part of the war bill. Since the
treasury must continue to borrow
large amounts, it will therefore be
necessary for Congress, in the near
future, to give it additional borrow
ing authority.
BY June 80, 1913, the public debt
will reach 10000 million dollars,
according to estimates of the Budget
Bureau. At that time, the interest
charges on the debt will amount to
So, 500 100000 annually. This interest
charge, alone, is a greater amount
than the principal of the national
debt when the United States entered
the first World war, and more than
the total expenditures of the Federal
government in any peace-time year
prior to 1917. BY next year, just
the interest on the debt will be equiv
alent to approximately $40 a year
for every man, woman and child IN
the country, or S32 year for every
adult
In the light of developments in the
Far East, and the probability of a
| new NaZi offensive in Europe this
spring, the United nations have little
reason to hope for final victory as
early as 1913. If the war continues
through 1914, our public debt will
rise to 100000 million dollars, or
more, with annual service charges Of
nearly four billion dollars Such a
debt would be extremely burdensome
even if national income remains at a
level of 100000 million dollars or
more annually, and this burden will
be much heavier if national income,
as result of postwar depression,
suffers a precipitate decline.
Though the country is ready to pay
whatever is necessary to defeat the
Axis, it has the right to demand that
war appropriations be wisely ex-
pended, that unnecessary expendi-
lures be eliminated, and that the
strictest economy be exercised in nom
defense spending. AS the debt rises
to unprecedented heights, there is no
place in Federal finances for either
waste or ''boondoggling."
Stripping for War.
Strength in war for a large and
wealthy country like the United States
is largely question of adaptability
We have man-power, large resources
of raw materials, great industrial
plant capacity as we'll as vast army
of trained workers and skilled man
agement. Our chief problem today
is conversion of our resources in all
these spheres from a peacetime to
a wartime basis, with speed common
surate to the urgent needs of the hour.
1t is not by chance that attention
is being centered at the moment upon
conversion of the government to war
time necessities. The fact is that we
have built up in Washington, dur
ing the last decade, truly gigantic
organization to supply peacetime
wants of the people. While we were
doing this, aggressor countries that
are now our enemies were pouring all
| liiCli SilSI SlSS liltO lIlS VI war
machines. That is why they are so
much better prepared at the outset
than we are. To match and then
exceed their strength it is obviously
essential to convert our whole ma
tional energy primarily to war OBJ
jectives. That is elementary. The
strange thing is that the government
has not moved more quickly to adjust
its own organization and tempo to
the requirements of total war.
President Roosevelt clearly evaded
the issue when he asked his anony-
nous visitor whether he would abol-
ish meat inspection and allow the
people to eat diseased meat in war
time. The visitors must have an
swered, "Of course not" If he were
alert to the problems of government
and modern warfare, however, he
might well have added: "But if you
have two bureaus inspecting meat,