The Plymouth tribune. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1901-1911, 1905-11-09
CANNON WILL FIRE BOMB.
Plans to Have Congress Decide on
Necessary Appropriations.

When speaker Joseph G.. Cannon
arrives in Washington from Danville
ILL.,, two weeks hence, he will have
with him plan TO force economy ir
appropriations during the coming
session of congress.
The speakers plan has its novelty
and is as courageous a scheme as
was ever conceived in the brain OF
a representative.
The members of the congressional
advance guard declare that the
speaker has come to the conclusion
that if congress instead of the var
ious departments of the executive
branch of the government, be allow
ed to make laws and to decide on
what appropriations are necessary
the result will be deadly blow to
treasury deficits.
This intention of the speaker in
view of the fact that congress is sup
posd to be the law making and ap-
preparation giving body might be
considered joke were it not for
the fact that for years, the congress-
men say, the departments have been
| usurping the legislative functions.
The thought of a revolt against
1rr,c Lot II
the department, from cabinet officers
down to minor clerks, had birth late
| last year and it has been growing
and taking form until it is ready for
transformation into a blunt speech
from the lips of Speaker Cannon.
1t was representative George w
Prince, of Calesburg, ILL.,, who first
suggested to his fellow members that
they were in congress to take the in
itiative in law making and were not
elected simply to do what they were
asked to do by officials. great and
little, who desired legislation along
certain lines which they laid down
with rule and pencil.
Mr.. Prince was a member of the
committee on military affairs, which
had framed bill providing for the
purchase of certain grounds where
annual encampments of regulars and
| militiamen might be held for the in
struction and general good of both
federal and state troops
A department interfered and said
through its spokesman, that congress
had no business TO make law like
that, and so congress didn't make
the law. The Galesburg man was
wroth and he delivered speech the
memory of which is lingering and
bearing promise of fruit in the con-
templated action of the speaker.
This matter in which Mr.. Prince
was interested was not perhaps OF
! great moment, but the representa-
tives whoare now in Washington say
that if congress this year refuses to
listen to about one-half the appeals
of the departments, no harm to the
departments will be done and that
money enough can be saved to cause
the balance sheet to look pleasing to
the eyes of the most rigid economist
No one is at all backward in free
speech about the plan outlined for
keeping the expenditures within mar
| row limits. is said in all serious
ness that enough money is spent
every year to replace furniture that
doesn't need replacing to build bat
tie ship, and that changes of methods
are yearly authorized by congress at
the request of department officials,
with full knowledge that the change
is to work little good and to cost
much money
1t has been said that the plan OF
economy with which Speaker Can
non is credited is as courageous a
scheme as was ever conceived 1t is
courageous because its carrying out
will mean reversal of practice, the
offending of thousand and one men,
and will involve the making of The
plain statement to the faces of some
supposedly mighty ones that they
are no longer to be allowed to dc
clerical work in the departments fol-
one-half of the day and to make laws
for the people for the other half.
This is the way that representa-
tives declare that the departments
make the laws: Recommendations
for expenditures and for extra cleri-
cal forces and for all sorts of things
are made by chief and subsidiary
clerks all down through the division.
bureaus and branches into which
a department is subdivided These
accommodations go to the depart
ment chief, who with the constant
cabinet changes cannot be expected
to know whether everything that i:
asked for is proper or not, but he
chooses, as a rule, to consider lna
it is proper.
Congress finally gets all these rec
Concentrations ard is asked to make
appropriations. Then the underlingl
of the department affected get tt
work quickly and generally effestiv: