Economy?

With the ferocity of Hyrcanian tigers, the House of Representatives fell upon the first spending bill submitted by the Administration this year and slashed $150,000,000 (17%) off the deficiency appropriation for WPA (TIME, Jan. 23). Still snarling like the most savage, sabre-toothed Economizers ever heard in the political jungles, House Republicans and anti-Administration Democrats ganged up on the Administration's second appropriation measure--a general Deficiency Bill--and chewed $3,550,000* off the bill's budgeted total of $13,529,000--an impressive saving of 26% which would have been truly sensational had Democrats had the heart to take off another $3,500,000 ticketed for a new Census Bureau building.

When the House last week pounced on the Independent Offices bill, carrying $1,668,290,340 as recommended by the Budget Bureau, and from it ripped $21,-797,000 (i%), including $17,392,977 for TVA extension works, the House's lust for economy seemed proved beyond doubt. Only increase voted over Budget proposals was $2,500,000 for FHA's payroll this fiscal year. A significant reduction: salaries of Civil Aeronautics Authority members down to $10,000 from $12,000.

But these exhibitions of economy lost their significance when the public learned last week about a quiet little speech made by Secretary of the Treasury Morgenthau to an Appropriations subcommittee in secret session last month. Testifying on the Treasury-Post Office supply bill, Mr. Morgenthau calmly observed that a public debt of $50,000,000,000 was in certain prospect for the U. S., and would by no means strain the nation's financial structure. Shocked protests answered Mr. Morgenthau. But realists on Capitol Hill knew that he was only putting it mildly. They knew that the PUB/- era is here to stay as long as any member of Franklin Roosevelt's Cabinet can foretell, and they knew that Mr. Morgenthau's speech was only the polite introduction of an act which the Economy-breathing 76th Congress will presently have to perform willy-nilly: raising the legal limit of the national debt from $45,000,000,000 to $50,000,000,000 (or beyond).**

*Chief reduction: $3,000,000 instead of $5,000,000 for New England hurricane relief. /- Permanently Unbalanced Budget. **The national debt at last week's end: $39,733,653,568.08.

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