National Affairs: Memo v. Memory

Franklin Roosevelt was in a jubilant mood as he received reporters for his press conference one day last week. Chuckling as he read from a memorandum written by Economic Adviser Lauchlin Currie-occasionally remarking: "The Republicans will have a hard time answering that one." "This will come as quite a shock to some people"—he listed several highly mathematical reasons why the U. S. is not going broke. He repeated one of them three times, not from the memo but from memory. As unanimously reported by the correspondents present it ran: From 1932 to 1939, decreases in State, county and local debts were...

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