The Mitchell capital. (Mitchell, Dakota [S.D.]) 1879-1918, 1909-05-27
TO MANN THE ENDS M

According TO the statement C Sec
rotary MacEeagh IT is the iate Dion
OF the treasury department to make
thu revenue Of the g|Jveln4le.9 ,lt
the eX9 1lu!tures or bring The 81
ditures within range Of - ro.e .4e.
From time imnemorial, We - e.st
say, it has been the po'icy 81 me coy
ernment TIC make certain a5tpropria-
lions for various Department.. Zen
it was positively known that IL, re-
venue would no. anywhere near ID ct
it. 1t was never considered 6 sd
business policy by the men Who stol..i
sponsor for the method bll Their prs.
deceasors had followed hat ruie ana
there has been no end to it. Secre-
tary MacNeagh has very appropriate-
ly started a system in his department.,
the object of which is to make both
ends of the government meet in the
matter of expenditures and revenue.
The New York Tribune touches with
interest on the secretary's plan and
also gives a little history of the way
appropriations have been made in
previous years:
Secretary MacVeagh's remark
that the United States would son have
a budget system in force such as en-
lists in most European countries in
Dictates that the administration is
working out plans for making ma
tional expenditure conform more
strictly to national revenue. Hitherto
the executive department has not
greatly concerned itself with the
secretary of the treasury has trans
mitted to congress in December, at
the opening of each regular session,
an estimate of the revenue for the
fiscal yea beginning on July | OF
the following year. He has also sent
in the estimates of appropriations
needed, made up by the various de-
partment and bureau chiefs. Blu he
has not attempted to revise and re
duce the estimate of outlay to make
them correspond with the govern
ment's expected income. That UNI
pleasant duty has been passed over
to the house of Representatives, which
has often found that the sums asked
for were $4,000, 600, $75,oO0,oOO
or $500, 900, 900 in excess of the pre-
dicted revenue.
How the old system worked can
be we'll illustrated by a glance at the
history of the appropriations for the
present fiscal year, 190S-'09 the es-
Inmates for expenditures carried in
the regular appropriation bills
amounted to s925,254,O0O. The
house of representatives ruthlessly
cut down these figures to $787,oS7,-
OOO-a reduction of S13S,000,000.
The senate again raised the amounts
carried to sS61.993,000 and after
the bills came from conference com
mittee their total was sS54,203,O00
ST., 100000 less than the esti-
mates. But the deficit for 190S-'O9
will be nearly 500, 100000, so that
the estimates exceeded the govern
ment's income by $171,000.000.
For 1909-'lO the estimates were
$943, 000,0 600. The house of repre-
sentatives cut that total to $685.
900, 200. The senate raised it again
to $8S7,90S, 900, and the acts as
passed carried Ss3,91S,00 O-s6O,-
900, 900 less than the estimates. The
deficit in revenue for 1909-'10 is now
estimated at $45. 000,o 600 or over So
the demands made for appropriations
will probably exceed the govern
ments means by more than $105,-
100000.
"The administration will bring
about an admirable reform if it &c
ceeds in keeping requests for APP
propriations within the limits o fthe
treasury's resources, indicating speci-
fically-if a deficit really seems IN
avoidable-how much money should
be provided by additional taxation
and how it should be raised. 1t is
only fair that the executive and the
senate should relieve the house of
representatives of a share of the bur-
den of combating too lavish appprop-
| riations. Cooperation all along the
line will soon show whether or not
the government is now spending more
than is really needed to do the work
which the nation expects of It,"
browns in Stop Barrel
Springfield Times: The two-year-
old son Of r. den Ouden living north