Show Pump Priming Expenses Fall a aBelow Below Hoover Regimes Regime's in ill 32 By y DREW PEARSON AND ROBERT S. S ALLEN Writers of feature in inThe inThe Washington Round Merry-Go-Round a daily The Salt Lake Telegram WASH W WASHINGTON ASHINGTON Feb 12 The 12 The question you now hear whis- whis he presidents president's residents resident's back more than any other is Why doesn't he ne go in for or government spending The whispers come from almost every member of his official official olli- olli cial family except Henry and in some cases as for instance Federal Reserve Chairman Marriner Eccles are so loud loudas as to be nearer shouts than whispers Eccles' Eccles theory is that a billion dollars of pump priming now would be worth 10 billions to the national economy a year from now All the chorus even chorus even most of the business leaders who once clamored for budget balancing balancing agree agree that spending is the only thing which will jerk the country out of the recession Apropos of spending some extremely revealing figures have been prepared by government economists which show that the much vaunted planned economy was not so very well planned after all Most amazing revelation is that government pump priming has now dropped to below the amount spent by Herbert Hoover in 1932 and that this drop has been so precipitous that it is no wonder business has been left gasping The original idea of the new deal spending program was to get business started on a gradual curve upward then reduce the spending gradually giving time to business to dig in and take hold Instead the pump priming program thanks program thanks in part to the bonus reached bonus reached a precipitous peak in 1936 of more than four bilion billion bil bU- lion ion dollars Then in 1937 with business demanding a l 1 balanced budget and Roosevelt grimly determined to give it what it wanted pump priming dropped like a bolt out of the blue to only about Even this drop was worse than it looked for was spent in January of 1937 leaving only distributed distributed distributed through the remaining 11 months Here are the figures in millions of dollars 1930 1930 1931 1931 1748 1932 1932 1646 1646 last year of or the Hoover administration 1933 1933 1846 1846 1934 1934 1935 1935 1936 1936 year of the bonus payment 1937 1937 approximate The presidents president's fiscal advisers say that the drop in business activity was as closely allied with the drop in spending as the condition of a hospital patient is allied with shots in the arm In this case the country was given too big a dose in 1936 then the medicine was taken away too abruptly in 1937 The patient is now howling for more Copyright 1938 for The Telegram |