The Denison review. [volume] (Denison, Iowa) 1867-current, 1910-01-12

|Evv WEDNESnA1 w. IAeNIIIAlR
SEES exceed the current revenues, the
same bill which provides the appro-
|priations provides for new taxes or
new loans to cover the deficiency. In
this country all the branches of
government report to the secretary of
the treasury what they claim they
need for the next year and he sends
all these es mates to congress-.
There they are split up among various
committees. In the house there is one
committee. that on ways and means,
which has charge of revenue bonds.
and eight other committees report the
appropriations. Each of these eight
committees is working separately on
the subjects assigned it, and hereto
fore no one has been charged with
seeing that the receipts and expenses
balance.
This loose system has been in vogue
for many years. Fortunately most
o the time the revenues have been 50
great that this slipshod method has
worked no great damage, but year be-
fore last we spent about fifty millions
more than the revenues and last year
about ninety millions more than the
receipts, while in the five months of
this fiscal year we have run behind
over forty millions.
This proof of the viciousness of the
system impressed Judge Smith with
the nee essity for reform and he de-
vised plan and succeeded in getting
it through both houses of the congress
and signed by President Roosevelt,
under which when the secretary of the
treasury receives the estimates for
expenditures, if they exceed the re-
venues, he must send all the estimates
to the president and the latter is
called on to inform congress how they
can be reduced with least injury to
the public service, so as to bring the
expense within the revenues; or if he
does not deem such reduction feasible,
to recommend such new loans or taxes
as will cover the deficiency.
In other words the new law pro-
vides that if the president allows his
subordinates to ask more than is in
sight he let's congress know where he
expects to get the money.
It was not the belief of the author
of the bill that the president would
ever in fact tell congress that his
subordinates had asked too much and
to cut them down, or that he would
ordinarily advise new loans or taxes.
To advise congress that his subordi-
mates had asked too much would be a
condemnation of his own appointees
and of his own administration. To
advise new loans or taxes in time Of
peace and prosperity would not be
good politics. The belief was, that
confronted with this duty, he would
call his cabinet about him and tell
them that he did not wish to repudiate
them by telling congress that they
had asked too much, nor could he for
political. if no other reasons, advise
bond issue or new taxes for ordi-
nary current expenses. and that,
therefore, they must put their re-
quests for appropriations within the
revenues.
The estimates just sent to congress
are the first under the new law and
are a remarkable evidence of its
success. The country and govern
ment are growing and national ex-
penses have normal growth. yet the
first estimates after the passage of
this law are eighty millions below the
estimates for last year and forty-four
millions below the amount actually
appropriated for last year. Congress
will doubtless make some further saw
ing below the estimates, ard it is safe
to say that the new plan has in the
first year of it's operation saved the
people not less than fifty millions and
there is every reason to expect it will
save similar amount every year in
the future.
This is the first step in one hundred
and twenty years of American history