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Show mm Wts' I ill .JiM:Ui. 1 II Released by Western Newspaper Union. UNEXPENDED WAR FUNDS MUST BE WATCHED THAT CONGRESS has fully provided pro-vided funds for war purposes is demonstrated by the fact that of the money appropriated for expenditure expendi-ture up to July 1 of this year, 203 billion dollars . had not been used hut was still subject to the call of the administrative departments. It means the departments had in their hands a sum equivalent to an average aver-age of $1,561 for each man, woman and child in the nation. That is nearly twice the amount that has actually been expended for war purposes pur-poses during the years of 1941, '42 and '43. From July 1, 1940, to July 1, 1941, expenditures for war purposes amounted to $6,301,043,-165. $6,301,043,-165. For the next year, ending July 1 1942, the expenditures amounted to $26,011,065,089, and for the last year, ending July 1, 1943, the total Was $70,219,400,244. In addition to the 203 billions of unexpended balances, congress has provided well over 100 billion for war purposes for the current fiscal year, ending July 1, 1944. Senator Byrd is asking the "why" of these tremendous unexpended balances. He sees in them a danger dan-ger to American institutions in placing plac-ing so much, evidently unneeded money, in the hands of government departments. Congress could, and possibly may, recall such balances as have not been expended, or for which contracts have not been let. Congress has voted money like the proverbial drunken sailor. If it is not needed it would be well to relieve re-lieve the taxpayers of as much of the war burden as is possible of saving. That $1,561 is quite a sum for each one of us to meet. That, plus the individual portion of the appropriations for this year, means an average of better than $2,500 for each man, woman and child, or a mortgage for each family of five of $12,500. WISHFUL THINKING WILL NOT WIN ELECTIONS WISHFUL THINKING does not win elections. Before the votes are counted the "outs" can wish themselves them-selves in and the "ins'-' can wish themselves in again. Even at this early date wishful thinking is being indulged in by candidates for nominations nomi-nations for every office up to that of President. Listening in at occasional small gatherings of party workers or friends of some candidate reminded me of one man who did more than wishful thinking. Some two weeks before the election in which Governor Gov-ernor Landon was defeated for the presidency, in company with a Chicago Chi-cago acquaintance,' I paid a call on Jim Farley at Democratic headquarters head-quarters in New York. My Chicago acquaintance was for Landon, was wearing a big Landon sunflower and in a wishful thinking way was confident con-fident of the governor's success. After Aft-er I had introduced him to the Democratic Dem-ocratic chairman he expressed that confidence in general terms. Jim Farley pulled a number of sheets of paper out of his desk, a sheet for each state, and taking them one at a time, he told my acquaintance just what would happen hap-pen in each state. Landon would carry two states. That Farley knew was demonstrated two weeks later when the votes were counted. He knew. I do not know the details of how he knew but Jim Farley was not a political organizer who depended de-pended on wishful thinking to produce pro-duce the results he desired. POST WAR RELIEF AND UNCLE SAM IT IS BEING PROPOSED in Washington that philanthropic Uncle Sam, representing 6 per cent of the world population, should carry the greater portion of the post war relief re-lief and reconstruction expense. To do so the 20 cents, or more, out of each dollar in his pay envelope, the worker is now paying as income taxes, will be heavily increased and the American standard of living must be reduced to that of European Euro-pean and Asiatic nations. It all sounds very nice as expressed in idealistic words but will the American Amer-ican workman stand for such a program pro-gram as expressed in his dollars? That new car, to be purchased when the war ends, would be definitely def-initely out and it would be potato or cabbage soup, instead of a beefsteak, beef-steak, for his dinner. America should, and will, do its share but let us be practical about the doing. SHOULD Vice President Wallace Put all the corporations out of business, busi-ness, as he threatens to do, who will Pay the taxes needed to operate an expensive government? WE CAN, IN TIME, pay off the war debt, large as it will be, by getting get-ting back to that adequate simplicity of government we enjoyed in the early years of this century. The cost in those years was well under a billion dollars a year and we had. all the government we needed or wanted. We did not have, or know the meaning of "bureaucrats." WHEN THE DOCTOR comes home from the war he will find many people have recovered from the illness they thought they had. SECRETARY ICKES tells us the American national wealth amounts to something like 14 trillion dollars. The Brookings institute, an outstanding out-standing fact-finding organization, tells us it is about 365 billion. I would prefer to take the figures of Secretary Ickes but imagine the Brookings institute is nearer the correct cor-rect amount. THE LOUDEST CRITICISM of the uspension of a philanthropy comes from, those who profited most from it operation. |
