HAS TRUMAN BEST JOB?

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 69, Issue 160, 19 April 1949, Page 6

HAS TRUMAN BEST JOB?

Office is Heavy Burden

INTERESTING FACTS REVEALED (By William Hardcastle.—Reuter’s Correspondent). Now that Congress has voted him an increase in salary, Americans are beginning think that, in terms of cash and comfort, Mr Harry Truman has the best job in the United States. If their estimate is correct, and in view of the fact that the United States has the highest standard of living of any nation, it may well be the best job in the world.

The calculations by which this estimate is reached are perhaps somewhat exaggerated. The President now has an annual net income of 110,000 dollars (about £47,000 sterling) a year. There are many people in the United States to-day whose income is more than that, but, but including the various “perks” which go with the Presidential Office, the “United States News” magazine calculates that a private citizen would have to earn 3,500,000 dollars (about £875,000) a year to be able to live like the President.

The President’s “perks,” it says, in-, elude a private pullman railway carriage, a yacht, an airliner, a fleet of cars, a squad of secret service men, a private police force, a mansion, a 16acre estate, a retinue of servants, a barber, a library, a private swimming pool, tennis courts, free medical and dental care, free bands, films and the pick of singers, dancers and entertainers, who are only too ready to entertain him ror nothing. For a man born on a humble farm who went bankrupt as a small town haberdasher before entering politics, that is, indeed, high living. , j , , j

Cannot Compete

In the years between the two wars, there were perhaps millionaires who could eq'ual it in terms of luxury, but heavier taxes to-day mean that even the richest private citizen cannot compete with President Truman as far as standard of living is concerned. These estimates, however, omit the fact that the President has the income and the “perks” for four years only—unless he is elected for another term of office. If he loses his post at the end of this term, he Is given no pension, and has to make his own way in the world.

To earn a net total of 110,000 dollars a year, like the President, the average private citizen would require a gross income of 240,000 dollars (about £60,000) but it is the other things which go with the Presidency which bring the cost of his establishment up to a level beyond the reach of any private person. Mr Truman’s yacht, the Williamsburg, for instance, is 243 feet long, has a 15-foot drafts and a speed of 16 knots. As a private yacht, it costs several million dollars, and it would cost a private individual to-day some 200,000 dollars (about £50,000) a year to maintain it.

Mr Truman is a keen flyer, and. the pride of liis transport is the specially built four-engined Douglas DC-6 airliner, “Independence”- which, cost 1,000,000 dollars (about £250,000) plus some extra* l , to build. Its maintenance runs into many thousands of dollars a year. His private pullman car, the. “Ferdinand Magellan,” was owned by Mr Roosevelt. It was armourplated and its windows bullet-proofed at the outbreak of war. It cost 350,000 dollars (about £57,500) originally, but would cost a great deal more to-day. Mr Truman pays no railway fares when he uses it. A fleet of cars, conservatively estimated at 25, serves Mr Truman and his staff. Some of them are given by manufacturers, but they have to be serviced and maintained — (about £62,500) a year. Impossible to Estimate The value of the President’s home, the White House, is impossible to estimate. Ten years ago, the value of the land on which it stands in the centre of Washington was estimated at 25,000,000 dollars (about £6,250,000). Since then real -estate prices have soared. It is now being renovated at a cost of 4,000,000 dollars (about £1,000,000) and, if owned by a private citizen, would cost 500,000 dollars (about £125,000) a year in estate taxes alone.

Because of its place in the history and tradition of the nation, however, its real value is incalculable. The President’s security is watched over by 25 secret service men and 107 policemen whose salaries amount to 350,OOOdollars a year. Servants at the White House cost 150,000 dollars a year more. There are six engineers, six -carpenters, a painter, four electricians, eight gardeners, three plumbers, three labourers, a storekeeper, a messenger, a housekeeper, five butlers, seven cooks, four doormen, seven housemen and four maids. A swimming pool, a library, tennis courts and a place for pitching horse shoes, television sets in~several rooms, and a private film theatre take care of the few hours of relaxation a President is able to seize. And a full-time doctor and dentist watch daily over the health and regimen of the whole Presidential family. All in all, Presidents have come a long way since George Washington started it all off with a salary of 25,000 dollars (about £6,250) a year and yet there is little, if any chance of Mr Truman making any personal financial profit out of his tenure of office. He will need every penny of his salary and expenses to carry out his official duties and keep his establishment in shape. Sincfe he had no personal resources apart from his salary as a Senator when he took over office, he is likely to leave the White House with a bank balance little, if any larger, than in 1945.

Boston Tea Party

Here is another version o£ the Boston Tea Party, the English account of which “every schoolboy knows” (?): The East India Company used to bring tea to England where 1 it was sold to a London merchant, who sold it to an American merchant, who sold it to an American shopkeeper, who sold it to the colonial tea-drinker; and each time at a profit; four profits for the teadrinker to pay. Then the company was given the right to send the tea in its own ships, open its own warehouses in the colonies, and sell direct to the shopkeeper. By cutting out two® profits tea could be sold at about half price.. But the merchants would be hurt in the pocket-books while they had stocks of the dearer tea on hand. Therefore, the new cargo must not be landed.