The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1942-01-15

I
in his annual message to Congress and
in his budget are not only breath-tak-
ing, they are so huge they are almost
unreal. Fifty-six billion dollars for
war and defense in the next fiscal
year, for instance.
The words call up in my mind the
figure Sc with dollar sign in front
and a parade of zeros behind. find
it difficult to translate that kind of
figures into the dollars we use to pay
the rent and the grocery bills on the
first of the month. What scares ms
is trying to figure out how we're even
going to pay those billions out of the
dollars we use for rent and groceries
and clothes and all the rest of it, be-
cause have bunch that is the only
way they can be paid. Already the
war is taking the dollars we might have
spent for new cars through taxes and
using them to make airplanes and tanks
in the automobile factories.
I suppose there is one good result
from the tragic problems created by
priority curtailment of production of
cars and refrigerators and all those
things and taking the money we might
have spent for them through taxes. At
least that much of this war We'll pay
for as we go, and won't have to worry
about afterward.
Here are some figures on contracts
for various munitions as of month
ago that give some idea of the kind
of about program we're going into
this year: ordnance, nine billions; air.
planes, ten billions; naval vessels,
seven and half billions; merchant
ships, two billions. There are other
items totaling in all 40 billions.
To produce the $4,000 airplanes the
President plans for the next fiscal
year, We will have to more than double
our present production within year.
To make $4,000 tanks means TRIPPING
or quadrupling tank production, also
within year. That's why those budget
estimates are so astronomical.
am not familiar enough with pro-
duction of the other weapons the
President talked about to know, but ]
do believe the 10000 airplanes he
asks for the next fiscal year can and
will be produced, even though that
means hitting a pace of 5000 planes a
month in the next year. Our warplane
production is simply amazing, and in
view of the vital Importance of ali
power in this war, that makes it one
Of the bright spots in our picture.
$50
Both President Roosevelt in his
message and Prime Minister Churchill
in his speech to Congress emphasized
strongly the need for constructive
program after the war, and continued
collaboration by the United Nations tx
the end that We never have to de
this kind of job again.
I'll support that policy 100 per cent
I think it would be but little more
tragic to go down fighting, lose the
war, than to win the war at the cost
of tremendous sacrifices and Their
throw it all away by losing the peace
with the whole thing to be done ovel
again in twenty years.
The somber business suits and com.
plete absence of uniforms or pomI
when Churchill spoke to Congress pro-
vided a striking contrast to the mill.
taristic settings in which the dicta-
| tors deliver important messages. Chur-
chill, peering quizzically over the tops
of his horn-rimmed spectacles, looked
like a chubby professor rather thar
the leader of great nation at war. Anc
| the quiet and inflexible force of his
words was in sharp contrast to the
shouted harrangues of Hitler.