| Show 0 our ur Govern how it operates by william bruch bruckart art THE TREASURY A A ordinarily run rath f er tradition things that are done once in a certain way us usually illy are arc done that way over and over again allowing of course tor for proven changes one of the things they do Is celebrate new year and they th ey have doue done it with a lot of noise and loss of sleep for many many years years hut but their government started d a ne new w year recently and as though t those hose who direct its affairs wanted to be the exception that proved the rule they did not start out for a night of it IL it was the fiscal year the money year so to speak for the gov ern ment and it constitutes the basli basis upon which all goi government rn merit functions are operated predl predicated c anted or planned that new year started as I 1 have said without any balli ballyhoo hoo and without celebration the ballyhoo had taken place weeks before the officials official had done their staying up many nights because instead of a celebration program they had the difficult job of laying out a program for paying the expenses of the government determining what those expenses should be and deciding where the money could be obtained for performing all of the functions which we know as governmental in other words what those officials did was I 1 prepare a budget et of income and outgo all of that was done prior to the new year ear of which I 1 have spoken the date of this new year came circumstances cumptan cum stances ces that immediately preceded it may be described something as follows the gigantic set of books used by the treasury were closed at p m on june 30 they balanced of course but to make the receipts equal the expenditures for the twelve months preceding there had been borrowings or money obtained from the sale of government securities such as bonds notes certificates of indebtedness and treasury bills bill the difference between the expenses and the regular receipts of money that the government did not have to return in other words I 1 the amount of the borrowings constituted the government deficit for the year every agency of the government having money to spend closed its books at the same time the treasury did for the next nest day started a new fiscal year and reckoning was to start all 11 over again there were new funds funds available appropriated by congress for operating in tile the next tw twelve elve months or until june 30 1033 such was the circumstance of the governments new year prior to that time as I 1 have indicated the treasury which Is the bank for all of tile the government had told the president that it was going to need a lot more money than the tax laws then in fit operation would produce so the president sent a message to congress con giess saying in substance that new taxes must be levied so that the income of the government would be as great as the necessary expenditures the budget must be balanced or its as we used to say we must live within our income thus stripped of bunk verbiage and terminology cross currents of political explanation and expostulation the treasury was forced to turn mackto back to the people for more money it may seem to the residents of any particular township county or state that they are many weary miles from washington that the government Is 13 some gigantic thing about which they need not concern themselves directly but the point of this article Is to show pe he fallacy of such a view the government at washington Is just as near to all 11 of us as Is the ministration of the township trustee or the judges or commissioners by whatever name known in the county seat town or city none can deny therefore the influence e exerted upon every citizen by the treasury for the simple reason that it more than any other unit of the government perhaps touches that well known institution the pocketbook obviously of course the treasury does not get taxes wherever and w whenever it desires tile the constitution fixed that matter in advance it said congress should levy the taxes in truth however congress has from time immemorial followed the suggestions gest ions of the treasury rather closely since the treasury Is better acquainted qu quain aisted ted with technical I 1 matters na tt C r S there always have been and probably always will be differences largely political over the proposals of the treasury for raising taxes but those differences are not pertinent here so we have a new tax law which will tax hundreds of different transactions of business aswell as well as incomes that the government at washington and all its agencies from the nearest to the farthest may keep on operating in your interest and in mine and it Is said in the constitution that the treasury shall have power to collect taxes etc yet there Is another function of the treasury about which it Is much more pleasant to think it concerns money money bloney ins has a fascination the treasury produces it it distributes it and through its correlated agency the pd federal eral reserve rescue board it indeed controls it Ilo however wever that la Is a story in itself 0 isal 1922 western newspaper paper union |
