When depressions were great: Sept. 24, 1929, in local papers

In today’s installment of news from Minneapolis newspapers of 79 years ago, the United States treasury has as much as $300 million surplus revenue to give back to taxpayers; non-bank lenders play a big role in loans; a senator bloviates that government favors industry over the masses; former President Coolidge cuts a four-digit check; and a businessman explains how global economic collapse might, in theory, get started. 

From The Minneapolis Journal, Sept. 24, 1929:

U.S. Piling Up Big Surplus, Plans 1930 Tax Reduction; Total May Be $300,000,000

A substantial reduction in taxes, favored by President Herbert Hoover, will be recommended to the regular sessions of congress next December by the treasury … [E]xperts will start work within a week to determine how much of a cut can be made and how it will be distributed. The financial officials … pointed to continued prosperity and large income tax collections as the base upon which the tax reduction would be made.

Coolidge Gift 4-Digit Check

Calvin Coolidge’s wedding present to John [Coolidge] and Florence [Trumbull] was a check, Mrs. John H. Trumbull, mother of the bride, revealed today. “It was a check — a substantial amount — but I cannot say how much,” the governor’s wife said. She denied reports the former president had presented the newlyweds with a $50,000 trust fund. She indicated the check was for an amount in four figures.

From the Minneapolis Morning Tribune, Sept. 24, 1929

Everybody’s Business

George W. Edwards, economist of Stone Webster & Blodgett, Inc., in his admirable publication, The Money Market Survey, which he publishes each month, says that during the past 12 months, non-bank-lenders have supplied $1,600,000,000 of the increase in brokers’ loans, while the banks have contributed but $460,000,000.

“Since the beginning of this year, the financing of investment trusts has amounted to about $1,110,000,000,” says Edwards. “Due to seasonal conditions, the volume of bond issues has been small. Foreign bond offers were few, and the volume of municipal bonds was the lowest for any August since 1923.”

Senate Pushes Drive for New Income Facts

One of the outstanding features of the debate over the tariff bill in the senate has been an insistent demand, reluctantly yielded to, for information concerning industrial concerns, hitherto regarded as secret. … [T]he debate closed on the subject with this sarcastic utterance from Senator McMaster:

“I realize that we ought to give full consideration to the side of industry, that the tax payers of the country should not be given any consideration; that the great mass of the people who pay the bills, when they are being taxed further by law, should not know the full reasons why they are being taxed.”

Economic Interdependence of U.S., Europe Heightens Concern Over World Bank

The interests of the united States and the interests of Europe are so bound together economically, despite the seeming isolation and financial security of this country, that the setting up of a bank such as the proposed Bank of International Settlements becomes a matter of grave concern to American business …

“Suppose, for instance,” said one business man interested in farming, “that England wanted wheat from the United States. Suppose at the same time that England’s sterling exchange was weak, as at present. politicians in any other country might see in this an opportunity to force down sterling exchange still further, and thus aid their own debt payments by the purchase of cheap sterling exchange.

“If this were done — if England’s exchange were pounded down to a still lower level — it would have an immediate unfavorable effect upon the agricultural situation in this country … it would cost England more to buy American dollars, and hence the English could not afford to buy so much wheat … and the American farmer would suffer accordingly. … The same condition applied to other American industries, would give the same result.”

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