Mcallen Daily Press

The President asserts that the government has minimized in the press and despite the deficits and the huge increase in public debt because so much of the spending has resulted in permanent additions to the national wealth. In support of this point a table was submitted to show the amounts spent since 1933 for these so called permanent additions. The press stories from Washington reported the conference of presidential advisers as being particularly jubilant over this exhibit as a refutation of those who have criticised the increase of debt. The exhibit, in connection with our debt and spending policy, amply confirms the worst fears of the New Deal critics. It is completely devastating expose of the fallacious policy of government debt. The error is in violation of the most elementary principle underlying the use of all credit, namely, that the loan must be repaid within the reasonable useful life of the improvement created out of borrowed funds. The President refers to the roads, public buildings and other public works created by spending borrowed funds as "permanent" additions to national wealth. Unfortunately, none of these things is permanent. All wear depreciate, and all must eventually be replaced or rebuilt. Unless the debt issued to construct these improvements is retired by the time their replacement becomes necessary, the country will face the obligation of borrowing again for such replacement, while the former debt is still unpaid. There is no present intention, or prospect, or possibility of retiring the original debt within such a period and there is every certainty, therefore, that these "permanent" additions will be gone long before they have been finally paid for. If this is any shorter and more direct path than this to the national poorhouse it has not been charted in the Rake's Progress.