The journal. (Caldwell, Ohio) 1934-1961, 1952-04-17
Just Amt Up To

Benjamin F. Fairless, President of u. S. Steel Corpora
ton, tells a story about Mike Monaghan, a steel worker. Old
Mike was a melter in the open hearths and, according to Mr..
Fairless, one of the best u. S. Steel ever had, but his special
claim to fame was his unlimited and colorful vocabulary.
You have heard of men who could swear a blue streak with
out once repeating themselves. Well, Mike had one great ad-
vantage over them-he' didn't mind repeating himself at all.
He was the envy and the idol of every man on his crew;
and half a dozen times a day, when something incurred his
dspleasure, he would sound off until the air in the shop be-
came a deep and satisfying purple.
One particular day nothing at all had gone wrong. Mike
and his crew were melting steel faster than it had ever be-
fore been melted in those furnaces, and they were out to set
an all-time record of production. They would have done it,
too, but for one of those freak things that come once in a
and the bricks came tumbling down into the melt. 1t ruined
the steel, it ruined the furnace and it ruined Mikes chances
for a production record.
For a full minute Mike stood there staggered by the
enormity of his bad luck, while his men waited breathlessly
would fully express his feelings, and theirs. His face grew
red; he sputtered and finally, with a gesture of utter despair.
Fellows" he said, Il just amt up to it."
Well, | understand just how Mix Monaghan felt. 81 lust
amt up to" finding words adequate to give a verbal blast to
the high-powered p~rofligates at Washington who are on the
widest spending hinge this nation or any nation has ever
gone on. Those fellows must lie awake nights figuring out
new and bigger plans for the further fritering away of Am
erica'S assets.
The amount of money being spent by the Federal Gov
eminent is staggering-so staggering that Mr.. Average Citi-
zen just cannot comprehend it. Add to this the greatly in
creased spending of state and local governments and you
come up with an overall figure that proves the nation is
rapidly being spent into insolvency.
In 1851, the Federal, State and local governments spent
an amount equivalent to 81 per cent of total wages and sala-
ries of all persons-from the lowest paid worker to the high
est paid executive-engaged in gaintul non-goVernment pur-
suits.
And now the Administration comes up with Federal
budget of 1854 billion for the fiscal year ending June 80,
1858. Add to this figure the state and local expenditures
which are running at around $24 billion per year and you
find that total government expenditures for the next fiscal
year will be nearly $110 billion.
The President asks for another increase in Federal in
come taxes. The Congress should not grant this request and
probably won't. Senator Walter F. George Democrat),
Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, has expressed
his opinion as follows: " l believe that any further in
crease in income taxes will not only discourage the taxpayer
from any effort to produce further income, but will also en-
courage businesses to become extravagant, wasteful and in
efficient"
That would seem to leave but one acknowledgements
must cut non-military expenditures to the bone, and set UP
safeguards to insure that not one single penny of the tax%
payers money is wasted in the defense program.
George Peck.