The Hawaiian gazette., 1906-03-20
[Mnil special to the Advertiser.l

W N-hN'AlAANp AO-Ns - ~, -NoaN" -
now looks as though the present Con-
gress would become a great reform
Congress. There has been so much asi-
tation over the measures which Presi.
dent Roosevelt wants enacted into law
and which Congress has been resisting,
that minor attention has been paid to
the economies which the House es-
pecially has been inaugurating. These
economies are not only in reducing APP
preparations, but in enacting restrictive
legislation, which will cheek officials
and prevent their spending the govern
ment S money lavishly.
Gnc Senate, thus far, has taken little
part in that direction but it gladly viii
when the appropriation hills get over
its way. The House has the first say
with those supply bills. For weeks aud
weeks hearings have been conducted
in the House appropriations commit
tee and in three or four other com
mittees of the House that are prepar-
ing appropriation or supply tills These
hearings are generally semi-eNocutive
hearings and hut little regarding them
gets out till' the hearings are published
in full But the tendency in all of
them has been to question government
officials SO as to unearth wherein there
has been unwarranted extravaganza
and il is unfortunately true that there
are many such cases coming to light.
A CRYING ABUSE.
Last year Congress began the work
by enacting a provision on one of the
appropriation bills, making it a seri-
GUS offense to commit the government
to expenditures which had not been
authorized by Congress. But, care
fully as the law was supposed to have
been drawn. the keen officials who
have developed great cleverness IN
finding ways~to get around Congress,
did violate il with impunity and came
up this year, unabashed, asking for as
large deficiency appropriations as ever.
Now Congress has enacted another and
severer law against entering upon ex-
penditures which it has not authorized
and the President is expected to sign it.
Hardly a department of the govern
ment has been exempt from most lavish
expenditures of public money. Could
the facts have been brought out in the
summer months, when Washington is
quiet and there is little newspaper ma
terial here. the disclosures in the APP
preparations committee would have at
tracted almost as much attention as the
disclosures in the postotfice depart
ment few years ago. There has, TO
be sure, not been such criminal viola.
tions of law, but there has been quite
as much extravaganza and it has been
quite as widespread.
DEMOCRATS TO FIGHT.
ITnlnul ltaI1,r ba na,nnnrntia f,p1iti-
clans will gather items about these
things and work them over during the
Congressional campaign. Then they
may excite the voters somewhat. Ordi-
narily it is supposed that the auditors
of the Treasury will stop expenditures
that are not specifically authorized,
but the evil has rested largely with
Congress in making appropriations for
lump sums. Soon after the Spanish
war heads and chiefs of departments
discovered that lump sum appropria-
tions were very convenient, far more
easy to handle to their liking than
specific appropriations for given pur-
poses. They asked Congress for these
lump appropriations and Congress
granted them with generosity
The scientists in the agricultural de-
partment were given goodly sums, for
instance, with which TO conduct gen
eral investigations and they went out
investigating all over the world. The
chiefs of the navy department, were
given large sums, under general terms
for naval expenditures, and when an
appropriation for given purpose was
too small, they transferred money from
some more general fund.
So the thing has gone on. The enor-
nous expenditures for the army and
navy are in some part due to that prac-
tice. Scandals grew in the depart
ments that were too careless. The
minority party in both branches of
Congress was weak and under sue
cessive crushing defeats, showed little
spirit in crying out against the abuses
Neither Congress nor the country paid
much attention when they did protest
This Congress will do much towards
putting appropriations on a more hon
est basis, but the task is one of
unusual magnitude. 1t will take two
or three Congresses to put expendi-
lures back on as careful a basis as they
were prior to the Spanish war.
WAR ON ROOSEVELT.
Nothing in the present very eventful
session of Congress has demonstrated
more emphatically President Roose-
welt IS determination to have strong
and vigorous railroad rate law, than
the events of the past week. Under
the determined pressure from infu-
ential opposition quarters, he has more
than once, during January and Febru-
ary, been pushed near to the wall and
behind the maneuverings is a good deal
of history not printed in the news
papers. Over his head the opposition
Republicans have been constantly
brandishing the threat that he was
going to split the Republican party in
to two factions. They knew there was
no threat likely TO have greater infu-
ence with the President. 1t has been
used more than once heretofore to
check some of his important plans.
Two years ago, about this time, when
the possible candidacy of the late Sena-
tor Hanna was assuming considerable
proportions, a few influential Republi
can senators, who by no means liked
Senator Hanna, began quietly to get in