OCR Text |
Show 1 ?2, 000, 000, 001) THREE .MONTHS' SPENDING. During recent years, the American public has become accu.-tjmi-d to astronomical as-tronomical statistics especially in I the field of government spending. The j days when a million dollars was an impressive sum seem to be over, at least temporari'y it takes at least ten figures to elicit much in the way of public interest nowadays. Even so, here is a fact that should command the earnest and thoughtful attention of us all: Federal government govern-ment expenditures for a little o-er three months of the current fiscal lyear passed the 52,000,000,000 mark ! breaking all previous records in the country's peace-time history, according accord-ing to a New York Times article based bas-ed on treasury reports. Every nickle of that $2,000,000,000 either came out of our pockets or must come out of them in the future, when the deficit must be realistically faced. Every nickle of it comes out of the salaries of workmen, the sl'm profits of industry, the meagre returns re-turns paid investors. Billions that could otherwise be used to provide addit'onal employment or raise the wages, to build factories, to expand old industries and initiate new ones, go to the tax collector. Two billion dollars would create 500,000 four-thousand-dollar homes. It would employ 1,606,606 men for a year at wages of $100 per month. It would bu'ld 20,000 one-hundred-thousand-dollar factories which could pro-i pro-i duce necessities and luxiries, up purchasing pur-chasing power, and provide jobs. If it were simply divided equally, it would give every man, woman and child in this country $16. Those illustrations give anidea of the almost 'nconcaivable rate at which a single governmental unit is spending-, the people's money. And remember remem-ber that $2,000,000,000 represent jbut thres months' spending. State and local governments are equally prodigal. prodi-gal. Is it any wonder that authority after authority saystkat tax reduction reduc-tion would g've the greatest possible spur to recovery. ? |