THE PRESIDENCY: Mathematics of Peace

On his yacht Williamsburg three weeks ago, President Truman looked at long strings of figures supplied by Budget Director Harold D. Smith. There in neatly rounded numbers was the billion-dollar mathematics of what it would cost for the U.S. Government to stay in business after having run in the red for 16 years and built up a $275,000,000,000 debt.

The totals told Harry Truman that he could (if he wanted to do some wishful thinking about the future) make the headlines say that he had pulled off the almost forgotten trick of balancing the budget. The figures also told him, and...

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