| OCR Text |
Show m. w im.t . in' i.pjiii i im.wi. ipium wH'nw w,m' nummi . ww mai 'i i iVmVi rt i a j Mi Yi ft', ii iaii! ViiMWiVtl-iirrlilMai miiTf n'fif-'r-- J 'ruan Watch for fireworks over Sen. Harry Byrd (D. Va.) resolution resolu-tion to abolish Reconstruction Finance Corporation. Powerful financial interests are behind this move, capitalizing on a few admittedly rotten actions by a few people not big enough for the trust reposed re-posed in them. But it is believed be-lieved that Sen. Byrd, one of Virginia's wealthiest ap-p ap-p I e growers doesn't chop down his orchard or-chard on find- railroads, financial institutions, and political subdivisions such as counties, etc. In fact, the 2i, billion dollars loaned small business by the RFC is less than one-sixth the amount of money that has been given away to help European business through the Marshall Plan. The entire losses on all RFC loans of 63 million dollars is only about of the money given away by the Marshall Plan in free gifts of tobacco alone. But that is a minor point. No one presumes to argue that unlike the Marshall Plan, which is a dead loss to the taxpayers tax-payers of the nation, the RFC has made money. In fact, RFC has earned the U. S. Government Govern-ment almost 2 billion dollars. Twenty years ago, when set up, RFC was given a $500,000,000 loan from the United States Treasury. In those 20 years the RFC has turned over to the U. S. Treasury Treas-ury the following amounts. Payment Pay-ment on principal advanced . . . $400 million. Interest on loan ?396 million, plus stock dividends of $327 million plus $600 million mil-lion worth of RFC operating profits. Bear these facts in mind when the big debate comes up on the RFC. Bear in mind that RFC has made it possible for 60,000 small businesses to have a chance. Also bear in mind that RFC has paid back almost 2 billion dollars on a 5 million dollar loan from government. Then before you get too impressed with this 2 billion bil-lion dollar RFC earnings, also bear in mind that the Marshall Plan gives away more than three times this amount in a single year. Which agency, you should ask yourself does America the most good? ing a worm in c. W. Harder it. He just gets rid of the worm. The other day in Congress, veteran Illinois Representative Adolph Sabath, also a Democrat, Demo-crat, threw some very revealing facts into focus. Rep. Sabath pointed out that RFC has helped thousands of small business firms to get on their feet. The figures show that 60,000 loans under $500,000 have been made. The average of these loans has been $40,000. Despite all the hue and cry, RFC has only written off slightly more than 1 as bad loans. But here the facts get even more interesting. The write offs on the small loans, those loans to small business busi-ness averaging only $40,000 each, is less than 1. But loans to the big borrowers, averaging $2,-900,000 $2,-900,000 each, have been written off to the tune of slightly more than ly2. , And here the facts presented by Rep. Sabath get even more revealing. Over half of the $134,000,000 written off by the RFC as bad loans was on loans advanced to National Federation or Independent Business |
