Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1910-02-24
Shares Hope That Commission to Revise Depart
mental Business Methods Will Save 100000
600 Annua||y--Favors Two Batteships per
Year Until Panama Canal Is Completed.

+ Newark, N. j.. Feb. 23-President
! Taft, the first Chief Executive to Wis
it Newark since Grant tonight ad-
dressed one Of the largest and most en-
thusiastic dinner audiences he has met
in all his travels. The banquet was
! rendered the President by the Newark
Board of Trade and more than 500
members and guests were gathered
about long tables in Kruegers audi
forum.
| Mr.. Taft took for his theme the
! Eomely subject of governmental ecol-
| ony and discussed the efforts being
made by his administration to cut down
! appropriations whenever possible. The
President said he shared the hope that
! The commission which is to be appoint
/ d to revise business methods of the
! big departments at Washington NAV
| Object q saving approXimating $101, &C.,
: 0.0 year.
The President detailed to some ex-
,,ft wherein the decreases in apo
priatiors are to be.
Speaking of the navy he said it had
cen decided to continue the policy of
two big battlaships a year up to the
time the Panama canal is completed.
The waterway will Doubt the effective
| field of the navy and Mr.. Taft said it
would then be time to consider a de-
crease in the program.
President Taft came to Newark this
fternoon by automobile from New
York. From the suburbs of Harrison
into the heart Of the city he passed
through dense crowds which the police
had some difficulty in handling. Hun
dreds Of persons crowded a little au-
tomobile in which the President was
riding with Former Governor Franklin
Murphy, seeking to shake hands with
him.
At Harrison the school children halt
/ ed the Presidents car and one little
| fellow made a patriotic speech. Mr.
| Taft responded by thanking the chill
dren for their welcome.
! Senator Lodge of Massachusetts,.
Governor Fort of New Jersey and the
| President were the principal speakers
at the banquet.
The guest list was a long one, in
| GLIDING many Of the prominent men of
| the state.
The President said:
| when 1 accepted the invitation to
come here l learned that was to have
the pleasure of being fellow guest
with my friend Senator Lodge and
that he WAS to take up the question of
high prices. a question which has &C.
cupicd the attention of all the people
and has invited the investigation into
it's causes of the Congress of the Unit
ed states and some of the state Leg
islaturcs. For my part OF the evening,
I would like to direct your attention
to a more prosy subject, to the ques-
zion Of government expenses and gov
eminent revenues and the possible
economies and what expenditures are
essential and whatever burden of tax
alton
In the first place it should be said
that we have been so far from exhaust
dnc- the resources of national taxation
and federal revenues have been collect
ed so easily and in such an amount
that we have failed in the past to adopt
a budget system which is practiced in
every other civilized country. BY a
budget system I mean a reference of
some one authority or tribunal which,
after determining what the revenues
will be must also determine what the
expenditures can be and make budget
without deficit.
I'm our legislative body which pro-
vides the revenue and authorizes the
expenditures, time was when the COM
mittee on ways and means, on the one
hand, determined the revenue of the
government, or provided the laws for
raising them. and on the other hand,
determined the appropriations and
measured the expenditures. But for
many years in our Congress these
functions have been divided. The reve-
nues are provided by the ways and
means committee of the House and the
finance committee of the Senate and
submitted to their respective houses,
while the appropriations are made by
the appropriation committees Of the
House and Senate and in too many in
stances, without apparent reference to
the revenues which are to be available
to meet the appropriations.
at has so happened that in many
years of the past the revenues have in
creased more rapidly than the expen-
ditures and there has been surplus.
During the life of the Dingley bill, the
revenues exceeded the expendi-
turec by about s25o,ooo,o 900; but the sur
plus took place in the earlier years Sc
that in 1908 end in 1909 we had a de-
cit The pinching effect of the falling
,ff Of the revenues and discontinue
ances, of the expenditures at the same
rate attracted the attention of Con-
gress, so that now preliminary duty
Is thrown upon the secretary Of the
treasury to make budget: that is. by