Life, 1921-02-10 · page 28 of 42
Life — February 10, 1921 — page 28: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This article by Gluyas Williams satirizes Senator Sounder's complacent response to America's post-WWI national debt crisis. The correspondent expresses alarm at the $2 billion national debt and additional $2.3 billion floating debt (from naval expansion), while Sounder and Senate Finance Committee Chairman Senator McCumber remain oddly calm. The satire targets several targets: government fiscal mismanagement, the absurdity of department heads padding budget requests knowing Congress will cut them anyway, declining income tax revenue (humorously attributed to tax avoidance), and the seemingly pointless War Finance Corporation revival. References to Representative Longworth and "the gentleman from Utah" (likely a protectionist) suggest broader congressional dysfunction. The cartoons illustrate the disconnect between grave financial reality and political nonchalance, mocking both bureaucratic games and citizens' anxiety about government solvency.
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Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
“LIFE. Senator Sounder Fiscally Fit But LIFE’S Famous Correspondent Is Worried About the National Debt Special Correspondence ASHINGTON, F By GLUYAS WILLIAMS . 5—At a recent meeting of the Senate Finance Committec, of which I am a distinguished mem- ber, Secretary of the Treasury Houston gave us some figures regarding the financial condition of this great and glorious nation that, to put it mildly, appalled me. The Secretary, and even the Chairman, Senator McCumber, took the matter very calmly, yet the only interpretation that I can put upon his statement is that this government is financially not more than a jump and a half ahead of the sheriff! In fact, I felt the situation to be so serious that as soon as the meeting had adjourned I rushed round to the Treasury build- ing and tried to obtain a year’s salary in advance. THE SECRETARY Though I am the last one in the world to wish to spread alarm or pre- cipitate a panic, I have the wife and the children to think of; and with the government owing $2,000,- 000,000 at the end of the fiscal year, as the Secretary says it will, I can’t for the life of me see where my $12,000 is coming from. My request was refused, which in itself strikes me as a little suspicious. The amount that the government owes is absolutely nothing short of astounding Besides the amount that I have mentioned there is a floating debt of $2,300,000,000, incurred, I suppose, by the extensive naval program of the last few years. And yet some short-sighted people would have us continue to build ships. And in all my experience with deficits—I am frank in saying that the Sounder household has known many of them—I have never known anything like that $2,000,000,000. I have told the Secretary and I have told the Committee that something must be done about it. I absolutely insist on that. To make matters worse, the sources of revenue are drying up. The Secretary in- forms us that not nearly so many people REPRESENTAIIVE LONGWORTH HAS DROPPED IN SEVERAL TIMES THE GENTLEMAN FROM UTAH DISCLAIMED BEING A SPOTTED PROTECTIONIST. are paying income taxes as formerly. Now, as for that, I don’t wholly blame them, though I should like to know how they get away with it. The income- tax collectors have always struck me as unusually alert; they have been in cor- respondence with me since 1917 for fail- ing to write the word “none” after Schedule C: “Income from Fiduciaries reporting on a Calendar Year Basis.” On account of this deplorable financial condition the Secretary has urged Con- gress to exercise the utmost economy, and the House has begun to slash the Appro- priations bills. There is nothing that the House likes to do quite so well as to slash Appropriation bills. Therefore the heads of departments always add enough to their estimates to enable the House to AND EVEN SENATOR MCCUMBER TOOK THE MATTER VERY CALMLY. have its fun without cutting the appro- priation below the real needs of the de- partment. I have always regarded that as a splendid example of friendly co- operation and a tribute to the efficiency of our government The financial stringency has also caused the Secretary to oppose reviving the War Finance Corporation, and in that he has the hearty support of those who revived it. [am not quite clear in my mind why that measure was passed, unless it was to furnish debating practice—a sort of early season training before the big games. However that may be, apparently all who voted for the resolution are hoping that the President will veto it. If he does not it will be merely another example of his stubborn refusal to co-operate with Con- gress. Pretty much the same fecling extends to the Emergency Tariff bill, which is now before the Senate, although by the time this reaches you we may have taken ac- tion upon it. Representative Nick Long- worth has had a good deal to say for the bill in the House, and he has dropped into the Senate several times to listen to the debate, which at times has been very in- spiring. One of my colleagues spoke for four hours in behalf of raising the sched- ule on peanuts by one cent. And Sen- ators Smoot and Harrison had a little run-in, in the course of which the gentle- man from Utah disclaimed being a spotted protectionist. In short, we are putting a great deal of time, energy and thought in- to the bill, and if we succeed in passing it in spite of ourselves, we shall again have to pin our hope on the President's veto, Senator Sounder. comicbooks.com