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P. E. TILLMAN 4737 RAVENSWOOD AVE. CHICAGO, ILL. January 24, 1939 Honorable Mar inner S« Eeoles Chairman of the Federal Reserve Board Washington, D. C. Bear Sirs I listened with considerable interest to your talk in defense of Federal Deficit Spending on the Radio Forum program last night* You imply in this talk that as a result of your twenty years of banking and business experience that you were better qualified to speak on a question of National Economics than those individuals who seek political offices. Such an implication should be true, however, one would expect that after the build up you gave yourself that the statements you were about to make would be true* I have particular reference to that part of your talk wherein you stated that although the former administration during the years 1930 to 1932 had a deficit of eleven billions that the National income had decreased about one hundred fifty billions. In this instance, you based your comparison on the 1929 National income of seventy-nine billions• In your very next statement you have the unmitigated gall to state that the present administration from 1933 to 1936, with deficit spendings of thirteen billion, increased the National income something like eighty billions and used as the basis of your comparison the 1932 National income of forty billions* For a man of your professed knowledge to use on the one hand the highest National income ever recorded figuring the losses and on the next hand to use the lowest National income for perI haps a decade or two without any qualifications whatever to I figure increases, is nothing but the cheapest and lowest type \ of political lyiqg* It is really unfortunate that people in high and important governmental offices (you are by no means the only one) must find it necessary to distort the facts and P. E. TILLMAN 4737 RAVENSWOOD AVE. CHICAGO, ILL. - 2- truths so far in order to maintain themselTes and their party in poorer • Do not misunderstand me that I refer to the Democrats only, as the same tactics have been used by the Republicans* It would appear what this country needs most badly is honesty of thought and purpose rather than self glorification of those people who hold high offices which should command respect. Yours very truly, P#E«Tillman ec February 1, 1939 Mr. P. E. Tillman 4737 itavenswood nvenue Chicago, Illinois Dear Mr. Tillraan: This will acknowledge your letter of January kU wnich I have not had an opportunity to answer heretofore owing to the press of other affairs. Your letter is vigorously penned, to say the least, and reveals a good vocabulary, including invective. But I was discouraged to find that you had based your disagreement with me upon some glaring misstatements of what I said over the radio. It is evident that you took no notes and that your memory is not as sharp as your animus. To assist in such a situation, I am enclosing a printed copy of my radio address which I sincerely trust will enable you as a reader to correct some of the erroneous impressions you received as a listener. I don*t quite follow your mental processes in stating that it is "political lying" to compare the drop in the national income from 1931 to 1933 inclusive with the 1929 level and to compare the increase in the national income from 1934 to 1937 inclusive with the level in 1933- I am not a physicist but I assume that any drop is measured from the preexisting height, just as any climb is measured from the base of the climb, furthermore, I was careful in ray discussion to point out that I was making comparisons with the 1929 and the 1933 levels, respectively. Although I have never held a political office, I have been in public life long enough to know that one should expect ciriticism from some quarters for any belief regardless of its sincerity or the amount of hard thinking devoted to it. On the other hand one cannot get accustomed to brickbats from supposedly intelligent people who base their cirticisms upon . P. E. Tillman - 2 misstatements of what has been written or said by the one whom they criticize* kt any rate, I hope the printed text will arouse your curiosity as to what I actually said. Yours very truly, M. S. Eccles, Chairman. enclosure LC/fgr
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