Wait & See

With a 185-million-dollar surplus showing on the Treasury's books for fiscal 1928, talk of income tax reduction waxed in Washington last week. President Hoover commented cautiously: "We are giving careful study to the possibility. . . . We all hope that the situation may work out. . . ." Secretary of the Treasury Mellon: "There may be reasons against it." Chairman Smoot of the Senate Finance Committee: "Nothing doing!" Tennessee's Senator McKellar: "Such a surplus would not have been possible but for the amendment introduced by me" (publicity for tax refunds).

Obstacles to tax reduction, now under study, are the following extraordinary appropriations authorized by Congress for near-future expenditure:

Farm Relief ($500,000,000).

Army & Navy aviation ($200,000,000).

Cruiser construction ($274,000,000).

Boulder Dam ($165,000,000).

Flood Control ($300,000,000).

Public Buildings, ($200,000,000).