FISCAL: Black & Red

The U.S. Treasury last week rang out the old fiscal year with a budgetary surplus of $3,509,782,624, second biggest in its history. (Biggest: $8,419,000,000 in fiscal 1947-48.) The U.S. was in the black for the third time in 21 years because defense spending during fiscal 1950-51 was slower than anticipated, and federal income was greater than estimated: a record-breaking $48 billion. In spite of the surplus, Secretary of the Treasury John W. Snyder went back to deficit financing. He announced that he would borrow $1,200,000,000, use most of it to retire $1 billion in short-term notes. Snyder apparently started deficit financing to try to needle Congress into passing a stiff tax bill. His estimate of the budget deficit in the new fiscal year: $10 billion.