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Show onal Topics Interpreted ' by William Bruckart ' jWvrfm National Pr. Bulldln Wa.hmgtoD, P. & JyOTUUl Washlngton. I have received a letter from a reader in my borne state of Missouri, Our propounding a Public Debt 'ery Umely Z"; quiry concerning the public debt of the United States. It is timely for more than one reason. rea-son. The United States government operates on a fiscal year running from July 1 to the next June 30 and we are, therefore, just about to close another fiscal year. A second sec-ond reason why this inquiry Is timely relates to the size of the present public debt, almost $32,-000,000,000. $32,-000,000,000. Our public debt has surged higher high-er than normal during two periods of the last twenty years and the course of the debt, therefore, Is one with which most mature persons are more or less familiar. But it remains as a act uat, while most people are Informed concerning the total of the national debt, they have not had opportunity to learn exactly exact-ly what it means to the Individual. Treasury transactions, as a whole, are rather difficuK to underhand and since the sums in which government gov-ernment figures now run are so huge, the general attitude of individuals indi-viduals is to let the thing pass as a matter for expert attention. It ought not to be so. The public debt is a matter of direct concern to every one of us and that is a further fur-ther reason why the inquiry mentioned men-tioned above is Important. I have often wondered whether individuals, In considering whatever what-ever obligations they have in the form of a debt, take into account the fact that the public debt is actually ac-tually a commitment against you and me and everyone else. Persons who have not so thought of the public debt, probably will be shocked to learn that in addition addi-tion to their obligations that have been contracted personally, there is something like .$245 which, although al-though an Infinitesimal portion of the public debt, constitutes actually an Individual obligation. The first plan called for the use or vast snmsP for expenditure by h government in the belief th at the naying out of public money would EX? industry and that industry once on its feet, would again i yield profit and that profit would in turn produce taxes for the government Then came the public relief programs pro-grams for which larger Buma-to be exact, $3,500,000,000 In one year and $4,880,000,000 In another year were appropriated and spent. Thus we see in the last three years that the debt of the nation has grown rom approximately $21,000,000,000 to approximately $32,000,000,000 and each person's share, as stated previously, Is about $245. Now, the figures here set out tell much more of a story than just that an enormous and Tell the i n c o m p r e -c,v hensible number of dollars have been spent, millions of them needlessly. need-lessly. They tell more of a story, Indeed, than Just the fact that within with-in another year there will have been approximately $3,000,000,000 more expended and that the debt then will have been Increased something like $13,000,000,000 since the Roosevelt Roose-velt campaign of spending began. To understand the situation in which the United States government govern-ment and, therefore, the people, find themselves, it might be better to picture what would happen to an Individual in the same circumstance. Hundreds of thousands of individuals individu-als are In debt but nearly all of them seriously try to avoid getting in debt beyond their capacity to pay off their obligations. If sickness or poor crops or poor business or any one of many other afflictions overtake over-take that individual, even though his personal debts might be liquidated liqui-dated under normal conditions, he is well, he just sinks. Our government differs from that Individual only in the fact that its citizens regard the government's credit as virtually limitless. It can continue to borrow and people will accept government bonds in exchange ex-change for their money for quite a while. But let us attempt to visualize visu-alize in our mind's eye what would happen should our government be called upon to meet some extraordinary extraor-dinary conditions that would be comparable to the loss of a Job by the individual who is in debt. It seems to me that the Roosevelt Roose-velt administration has followed the latter course on Too the optimistic Optimistic Dase- entirely too optimistic it appears ap-pears and has plunged this country too deeply into debt. I do not mean to imply that government gov-ernment securities are not good any longer. Far from it. I maintain that as long as our money Is any good, our government's bonds are good. Yet, it must be apparent to every thinking person that we cannot can-not continue to spend at the rate Therefore, when any person looks at that vague and shadowy term, "the public debt" in this light, they cannot help but realize that it has a very real and personal meaning to the individual. That enormous sum of nearly $32,000,000,000 must be paid off as any other debt and the government must collect it from everyone who lives in this country. Again the public debt may seem a thing far removed but it is brought home directly to each of us through the taxes we pay and ln more ways than most of us care to admit are contributing that tax. So, when the government contracts a debt and arranges to pay it off, the only way collection is possible for the extraordinary amount is by increasing he share of government expenses which each of us bears, meaning of course, an increase in our tax. In 1857, the public debt was only 528,700,000. In that year, each person's per-son's share was Some only $1.01. With History the advent of the Civil war, the government needed funds and began be-gan borrowing additional amounts until ln 18G6 the debt reached what In thost days was a high figure $2,750,000,000. At that time, each person's share was $77.69. Good administration and sound financial policies followed and the debt was reduced, paid off, until during the early 1900's, the debt was reduced until each person's share was something less than $17. Continual retrenchment was carried car-ried on until the World war interrupted inter-rupted the program and fresh borrowings bor-rowings were necessary for prosecution prose-cution of that great conflict. The borrowing of the war days carried our public debt to a new high point of $26,594,000,000 on August 19, 1919. The debt, because it was a new peak, looked insurmountable and it was dangerously high but through the administrations of Presidents Harding and Coolidge, the job of paying ff the debt was seriously attacked and this program eventually eventu-ally resulted in reduction of the debt to about $16,500,000,000 during the administration of President that marks the last three years. I prefer, as against the present spending policies, the policies of President Andrew Jackson, who fought always against excessive costs of government; who demanded demand-ed consistently that the expense of government be raised regularly for each year's payments and that there be a little extra put away for the proverbial rainy day when the government gov-ernment was called upon for emergency emer-gency payments. The policies of Andrew Jackson were so effective that during his administration in 1S37, the public debt was wiped out and there was actually cash In the treasury besides. Supporters of the present spending spend-ing policies will say, of course that the public debt of those days was in no way comparable to that of 1936. That Is true but neither were the resources of the United States in those days comparable to the re sources and the wealth producing 7rn 016 present-day United States. Likewise, the population of the United States in Andrew Jack sons term In the White House was only a mere handful compared to the nearly 130,000,000 of io-m Hoover. It was from this low point that the present debt burden has mounted mount-ed and continues to ciimb. The depression de-pression reduced government Income In-come from taxes and left the treasury treas-ury with a deficit in two years of the Hoover regime. The result of those deficits was to increase the public debt because money had to be borrowed to pay current running expenses. The borrowing bor-rowing did not appear serious, however, how-ever, either In the last two years of the Hoover administration or the first year of the administration of President Roosevelt because Mr Roosevelt had pledged the country during his campaign to economize in every direction. It was his promise prom-ise that he would curtail expenditures expendi-tures by one-fourth and therefore make the outgo and Income of the government approximately the same Instead of that course, Mr. Roosv velt Initiated the present program of expenditures ln huge amounts So answering the Inqlr, us t what the public debt means to tl , Individual citizen, the answer n, r be a relation of the fact that 1 is family's share as we start Bsca year in the government an proximates $1,000. it mpnn, f ther, that through one ffV or another, that individual Is be in ing to pay the interest of more ' $710,000,000 every TMr T, Hmn in addition, that his JnVJ ',l"s' in a position for he rs ?T ! .e lives of most persons L v ' lvl 'J where It would face evt K oulty were It called TupT '1; our country ln war or moot . fp?";1 emergency like that throm h " ' we have been passing. Kv w lU;h government debts In thlu"0 States are held to be h 'Ht debts and not to h h("""''"l" -ne of us can avt, la from that government n "J"'""8 to dig deeper and , e, Pr ' t "hlro pocket for the payme U of f Wo.t.rnNJ.l)a taxes. |