The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-03-11
ANOTHER BILLION
 DOLLAR CONGRESS Appropriations Reach To- tai of $1,O25, 489,662 MIR. TAWNEY TALKS Retiring Democrats Congratulate Taft and Call for Concentration
 of Appropriation Power
 in One Committee

Washington. March 10.-Appropriations at the last session of Congress aggregated g. .o25, 9.G62, according to the statements issued today by former Representatives Tawney of Minnesota and Livingston of Georgia. who were respectively chairman z and ranking democrats of the House ap- Appropriations committee in the last con gress Mr. Tawney says this is less than S1. .O0t000 in excess of the total estimates q of President Taft on which the appro- priations are based, pays highs stribute to the executive for good faith in scrutiniz- ing estimates and computes, that the sur plus of revenues next year will be not less than s26,542, ,00o which, with any part of the treasury cash balance, may be applied z to the sinking fund
 Against this Mir Livingston says the last session record demonstrated that when the democratic party comes into complete control of the government, "this Tbflnon-dollar mark for a sessions appro- : priations. established four years ago at 5fhe first session of the sfxtieth Congress, cannot be substantially lowered if low cred at al"
 MT. Tawney renews his recommendation Y for the consolidation of the appropriat- ing jurisdiction Of the House under ~ single committee of sufficient size 10 be representative of all sections of the coun- try and of all branches of the public Iservice. Eight committees now consider : and report appropriation bills. and Mir. Tawney says no reform is more import ant.
 rri,e 1or,,,,ittsss o,, annrpnria ions which report more than half of the appropria- tions of Congress reported during the first regular session of Congress S1699s, 925 less i. than the estimates while the appropria- lions by all the other appropriating com nittees. according to MT. Tawney, were s27 931, ,402 iii excess of the estimates. MT Tawney claims that if this consolidating reform had been effected, 1t would have saxSd S6200o,0g0 at that session alone.
 Mt Tawney says one of the evils incl eent to this divided appropriated juIis- dtction is the practice of making appro- priatfons immediately available, large por- tions of many appropriation bills being in fact designed to cover up deficiencies in the preceding year. He points out that the aggregate for the past session. which includes S4, 4,0oe,000 for the Appalachian for est reserve, is, $2,50000 les sthan the ag- gregate for the preceding session of Con gress, and that the aggregate of the en- tire last Congress- which exact aggregate is not given in his statement, is an in crease of $600,00O over the preceding Con- gross.
 adr. Tawney says that in the six years of his chairmanship of the appropriation committee the estimates have amounted to S6,061, ,257,13 of which Congress grant ed all but Sl65, ,662, 264.
 Declaring that7the democrats want to gave the people of this country from the danger which threatens them because of the rampant expenditure of thelr money that has been going on for the past F years, Mir. Livingston in his statement contends that nilitarism is a menace and that democratic ascension will prevent na- tional bankruptcy. He says it is a super human task to restore expenditures to a normal level because of the enormous lia- bility fastened upon the treasury "by the statutory increase of the enlisted strength of the army and navy four-fold since MT. Roosevelt was so unhappIiy called to the executive office of the republic"
 Sounding a note of alarm against a "threatened onerous tax with all it's in- duisitorial features Mr. Livingston says that If that day comes, 'the people will rise in their might with a cry that will be heard to the remotest corners Of the