Show 0 national topics interpreted by william bruck washington now that the president has hag laid before congress ills his re quest tor for the new na national dional appropriations finan debt caal students are wondering more and more when the end of this government spending Is to come it will be remembered that mr roosevelt said a year ago that the total public debt should not exceed and that that figure should be reached around june 30 1933 1035 when it is considered that the present public debt exceeds exceed it becomes difficult to understand how the president will succeed in sticking to his original assertion to hold the national debt at the figure named the treasury department has just released its annual report and this reveals an increase in the public debt of approximately six billion dollars since june SO 0 1033 as an eighteen months record bebas made the total cost of 0 the recovery spending program aggregate something over twelve billion dollars since january 1 1931 1031 when the spending spree really began to make the vast amount more readily comprehensible hen lien sible it you take the time to figure it out you will find that the government has been spending borrowed money at the rate of almost twenty three thousand dollars a minute in the last four years to illustrate further the magnitude of this sum a figure expert espert here has calculated that there lias has been about one billion minutes since the birth of christ and therefore the federal government in the last four years has added about twelve dollars to the public debt tor for each of the minutes since christ came ou on earth dut but to get back to the present plan presentation of the budget with its maximum outlay of around seven billion dollars recalled to some leaders the assertion by the president respecting in the topmost limit for the public debt in the budget message which lie he presented just a year ago sir mr roosevelt boldly stated ills his belief that the g government should seek to hold the public debt to the figure of furthermore he added the government during the balance of tills calendar year should plan to bring its 1930 expenditures including recovery and relief within the revenues expected in the fiscal year C the fiscal year 1936 begins next july 1 and frequent pronouncements from the white house have made it clear that a balanced budget in that time Is quite unlikely in addition the treasury said in its annual report that taxes always lagged behind in reflecting recovery of the country for example income taxes to be paid on march 13 15 19 1936 06 and in the subsequent installments of that bear ear win will be the result of levies on earnings of tile the current calendar year no one expects earnings in 1935 1035 to be normal it Is obvious therefore that the balancing of the budget in the fiscal bear car beginning july 1 1935 becomes almost a physical impossibility unless the president should do the unexpected by cutting off every one of the sixty five or more recovery and relief agencies find and should cut off all federal funds for relief of the destitute if that were done it Is estimated by fiscal experts that ordinary receipts by the treasury would come close to meeting the ordinary cost of the regularly established governmental agencies 0 0 there had been frequent contentions by avid new dealers that sir air roose belts second budget presidents recommendations recommendation a views change provide a clear picture of his general fiscal policies if their statements remain true they resulted in setting up one of the most paradoxical conditions in the history of this nation looking back over tile alie whole roosevelt period the thin tiling which observers have never been beau able adequately to explain Is who or what effected the change in the presidents views on fundamental financial questions it Is too obvious to precipitate an argument that tile the presidents views have changed when one goes back to his first message to congress or beyond that to his campaign speeches and the platform upon which be made the race for the presidency it Is futile to attempt to reconcile those utterances with the subsequent spending and borrowing program in which ills his administration has indulged it will be recalled that sir mr roosevelt declared in ills his inaugural speech an intention to balance the budget and wipe out the deficit left on his lap by the hoover administration he went on to say that if congress in its generosity voted sums that placed the budget out of balance it was under the necessity at the same time to provide taxes to raise the excess expenditures sino there cah can be no dispute that mr Roosevel ts views have changed and he has acted in accordance with his new found principles the interesting thing Is who brought about the revision of views on tile the part of the president some of the presidents virulent critics have asserted in the opening days of congress that sir mr roosevelt was wholly uninformed as to the needs with which lie he was con fronted when he was making his campaign speeches they say ile he found ills his original promise to be all wet and he be took uie tle only alternative to stave olt off it a bitter row in his big own party offering much money for congress to spend amon among tile the presidents friends I 1 have heard private expressions that mr roosevelt had bad been misled by some soma of the group who held his ear car at the start of the administration these men referred to a number of oe the so 80 called progressive republicans like the LaFollett es norris johnson ot of california and bronson cutting of 0 new mexico several of these were so well liked by the president that they were invited to enter his cabinet consequently there are those who believe that mr roosevelt followed the advice of the progressive republican group much more closely than leaders among the old time democrats most of the progressive republicans are spenders at heart according to the general view here and they are also men who regard a balanced budget as not very important so while no one can say definitely what influences altered the presidents stand it certainly Is regarded among observers here as being a situation in which the wind makes the straws point toward the BO called progressives progress ives as having joined hands handa with the president in initiating what has come to be the greatest outpouring of taxpayers money except in var nar time since our government was established organization of the new congress has resulted in a new cry in reality a very old cry but it Is south in in new since we have the saddle not ot heard it in fifteen years the cry we are hearing now from republicans Republic ang and from northern democrats Is the wall that the south Is in the saddle while there certainly can be nothing criminal about the south being in the saddle it provides a grand political la Is sue both within the democratic ranks and between the democratic party and what la Is left of the republicans in con res it also touches a question that has been discussed many times namely the wisdom of the seniority rule in congress the seniority rule provides that the oldest members in the point of service shall inherit committee chairmanships and shall have other positions of honor in the house and senate out of the CO democratic senators only 24 come from what Is known as the solid south of the democratic members of the house only about are thoroughly acquainted with the yell of the confederacy yet in tile face of this tremendous growth of democratic membership coming out of the north and the west the south la is in the sad saddle ile more solidly than ever the of the house went to representative byrns of tennessee who succeeded to the place made vacant by the late henry T rainey ot of illinois mr byrns had been democratic lealer leader and his promotion left a vacancy to which representative will bankhead of alabama was elected thus moving leadership further to the south the only plum if it be a plum that went north of the mason and dixon line was the selection ot of representative oconnor of new york as chairman of the rules committee in the senate we see vice president garner clarner the presiding officer a texan the majority leader Is senator robinson in son of arkansas the powerful committee on finance Is presided over by harrison carrlson Marr lson of mississippi the senate committee on banking and currency la Is controlled by fletcher teher of florida and the committee on agriculture Is headed by smith of south carolina one could go on and name many others although I 1 believe the consensus Is that the seniority rule has not worked to produce as many duds for senate committee chairmanships as has occurred in the house democratic leaders in the house have made certain that they will not be embarrassed barr assed this year checking us is I 1 they were in the radicals first new deal congress in that session they were constantly harassed by the radicals who sought to force votes on legislation which the president and ills his advisers did riot not want and which for the sanie same sa nie reason the democratic leaders did not want the radicals accomplished complis hed their purposes by use ot of what is 18 called the rule of discharge of 0 committees but that rule has been amended so BO that to invoke it now actually a majority of the house bouse will have to sign a petition under the previous rule the signature of members of the house was sufficient to compel the discharge of a committee from consideration of any piece of legislation referred to lt it for action the necessary number of signatures was obtained in three embarrassing cases last year the soldiers bonus bill was brought out by that method the frazier leinke farm mortgage ga e inflation bill was released for a b bouse ouse vote in the same manner the new house organization however is determined not to be embarrassed in that manner it succeeded in democratic caucus binding on all democrats in having the original rule amended so that now there must be a majority of all house members affixing their signatures to the discharge petition before it becomes operative era tive 0 k union |