President Roosevelt last week presented his first war budget. It called for the U.S. to spend in the fiscal year 1943 (beginning next July 1) $58,927,992,300.
By far the greater part ($52,786,186,000) of this sandbagging sum is to go for war expenses. For "normal" requirements, including interest on the public debt: $6,141,806,300 ($437,464,462 less than in the current fiscal year).
The figures were too tremendous to grasp, but statisticians fumbled feebly with them. Mr. Roosevelt was asking the U.S. to spend in one twelvemonth a sum: 1) $21,000,000,000 greater than the total value of all securities on...