"Rather Grand News"

"I have some rather grand news for you," was President Roosevelt's greeting to newshawks one day last week as they flocked into his Hyde Park study. He proceeded to tell them that Secretary of the Treasury Woodin had just telephoned him that the Government's $500,000,000 issue of 3 1/4% bonds had been oversubscribed six times.* It was the new Administration's first excursion into the bond market, in fact the first long-term Treasury issue since September 1931. The rush of investors for the new bonds was generally interpreted as one more manifestation of the public's confidence in its President and his program. Because the Treasury had promised to allot in full all subscriptions of $10,000 or less it was expected that the issue would greatly exceed $500,000,000. The result will be that on Aug. 15 the Treasury will have on hand the largest cash balance in its history--some $1,500,000,000. But President Roosevelt was not yet able to report that he had balanced his budget. The July deficit of ordinary expenditures over receipts was $32,404,398. By including the "extraordinary" budget for emergency relief, the total July deficit amounted to $107,757,140. But this was $305,207,120 less than the July deficit of last year.

*In London last week a -L-15,000,000 issue of 4% Canadian bonds was oversubscribed in less than 60 seconds.

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