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Show "i.j r. ' i ." ALTHOUGH overshadowed by k concentration on the defense establishment and economic impact im-pact of military spending, U. S. Government expenditures on public pub-lic works have developed a marked uptrend after several years of comparative stability. As a result, public works programs pro-grams are becoming an important factor in the rise in Federal spending spend-ing to record peacetime levels, and a significant counter-recessionary force at the same time, whether or not they satisfy the advocates of massive pump-priming. A Bureau of the Budget analysis of public works programs of recent re-cent years and their cost show that such Federal expenditures, civil and military combined, ranged from around $4 billions a year in the 1952-57 fiscal periods, with the high point set in the 1953 fiscal year. For the latest fiscal year, there will be a rise of more than a billion bil-lion dollars over the 1957 period to a total estimated at $5.7 billions for the year, and the probabilities are that this increase will be equalled or exceeded in the 1959 fiscal year starting July 1. The last official Government figures for public works spending placed the total at $6.7 billions for the 1959 fiscal year, but steps t;iken to accelerate some of these programs as an economic stimulant indicate a substantially larger expenditure total than originally estimated. The figures show that Federal public works spending will rise about 50 per cent in a short period of two years, and that they will come close to being the equivalent equiva-lent of a tenth of total annual Government Gov-ernment budget spending. Such totals to-tals were exceeded only once before be-fore in the nation's history, at the peak of Federal spending during World War II. Then the dominant public works factor was military, with civil public works held to a minimum. This time the big push is coming from civil public works, led by the highway program. The Bureau of the Budget analysis analy-sis states that direct Federal construction con-struction currently constitutes ubout 6 per cent of the total value of new construction. Federally-aided Federally-aided State and local public works represent another 5 per cent. But this is only a partial indication of the Government's impact on the key construction industry. Government Govern-ment action stimulates private construction con-struction in a number of ways, through incentives to farmers, homeowners, and businesses in the form of loans, loan guarantees, tax concessions and grants. |