Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1912-01-17

pie a definite annual program of busi-
hess to be financed. 1t should be in
lhe nature of prospectus both of
revenues and expenditures. 1t should
comprehend every relation of the gov
eminent to the people. whether with
reference to the raising of revenues or
the rendering of service.
In many foreign countries the an
nual budget program is discussed with
special reference to the revenue to be
raised. the thought being that the rails
Ing of revenue bears more direct rela-
ton to welfare than does government
Expenditure Around questions of
source of revenue political parties
! have been organized. and on such
questions voters in the United States
have taken sides since the first rev.
snue law was proposed.
Citizens Interest In Expenditures.
! In political controversy it has been
assumed generally that the individual
citizen has little interest in what the
government spends. In my opinion.
this has been a serious mistake, one
which is becoming more serious each
year. Now that population has be-
come more dense, that large cities
have developed, that people are re-
quired to live in congested centers. that
the national resources frequently are
the subject Of private ownership and
private control and that transportation
and other public service facilities are
held and operated by large corpora
tons. what the government does with
nearly $1,OOO.O00.OO0 each year is of as
much concern to the average citizen as
is the manner Of obtaining this amount
of money for public use. In the pres
ent inquiry special attention has been
given to the expenditure side.
We want economy and efficiency. We
want saving and saving for a purpose
We want to save money to enable the
government to go into some of the
beneficial projects which we are de
barred from taking up now because
we cannot increase our expenditures
Projects affecting the public health
new public works and other beneficial
activities of government can be fur
thered if we are able to get dollar o.
value for every dollar of the govern
ment's money which we expend.
Continuance of the Commission.
ask the continuance OF this com
mission on economy and efficiency be
cause of the excellent beginning which
has been made toward the reorganiza
ton of the machinery of this govern
ment on business principles. l ask
because its work is entirely nonpar
tisan in character and ought to appl.
to every citizen who wishes to Civ
effectiveness to popular government
in which we feel a just pride Thi
work further commends itself for tn
reason that the cost of organization
and work has been carefully consider
ed at every point. Three month
We're taken in consideration of plan
before the inquiry was begun: ST
months were then spent in preliminar
investigations before the commissio
r,s5 organized. Before March 3. 1911,
when l asked for a continuation @
the original appropriation for the cul
rent year, only $4,000 had been spen
1t is a matter of public record tina
the three largest insurance companie
in New York when under legislativ
investigation spent more than $500
> 900 for expert services to assist tn
administration to put the business o
, a modern basis, but the economies tn
first year were more than tenfold tn
: cost 1 am informed that New Yorl