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Show FORCING US INTO INFLATION. In a recent art'cle, Paul Mallon, the well known Washington correspondent, corres-pondent, wrote: "The truth is the treasury does not know what its receipts re-ceipts and expenditures will be next month. Its haziness about the future expands at the contemplation of each sheet on the calendar. It cannot have even a faintly worthwhile opinion beyond be-yond next year." This is ;n line with the theory that many thinking Americans have been holding for some time that federal finance is in a hopelessly chaotic condition. con-dition. Forecasts as to the future revenue have no sound basis they usually represent optimism, rather than realism. The government continues contin-ues to spend us farther into debt and apparently hasn't the slightest idea of where the money is to come from to meet the obligations. One inevitable result of such a policy is constantly mounting taxes along with new taxes. Another, and perhaps more menac'ng possibility, is inflation. All the tax laws in the world cannot produce revenue when personal pocketbooks and industrial bank balances run dry. When that happens, inflation which can be defined de-fined as cheapening and degrading the currency becomes the "easy" way out. The perils of inflat'on need no description de-scription the tragic examples of Germany and other countries which experienced inflationary periods are well known. If we are to avoid such social and economic traged'es at home, government finance must undergo un-dergo a thorough overhauling, both in principle and practice. |