Belington progressive. [volume] (Belington, W. Va.) 1912-1927, 1914-12-17

a very small thing. 1t affects ouly a
single item of appropriation. But
many human lives and many great en-
terprises haEg upon it. It is the mat
ter of making adequate provision for
the survey and charting of our coasts.
1t is Immediately pressing and exigent
in connection with the immense coast
line of Alaska, a coast line greater
than that of the United States them
selves, though it is also very import
ant indeed with regard to the older
coasts of the continent. We can not
use our great Alaskan domain, ships
will not ply thither, if those coasts
and their hidden dangers are not thor
oughly surveyed and charted. The
work is incomplete at almost every
point. Ships and lives have been lost
in threading what were suppose to
be well-known main channels. We
have not provided adequate vessels or
adequate machinery for the survey
and charting. We have used old yes
sells that we're not big enough or
strong enough and which were so near
ly unseaworthy that our inspectors
would not have allowed private owners
to send them to sea. This is matter
which, as have said, seems small, but
is in reality very great. It's import
ance has only to be looked into to be
appreciated.
Before / close may say few
words upon two topics nuch dis
cussed out Of doors, upon which it is
highly important that our judgment
should be clear, definite, and stead
fast?
One of these is economy in govern
ment expenditures. The duty Of econ
omy is not debatable. 1t is manifest
and imperative. In the appropriations
we pass we are spending the money of
the great people whose servants we
are,-not our own. We are trustees
and responsible stewards in the spend
ing. the only thing debatable and up
on which we should be careful to make
our thought and purpose clear is the
kind of economy demanded of US.
assert with the greatest confidence
that the people Of the United States
are not jealous of the amount their
Government costs if they are sure
that they get what they need and de-
sire for the outlay, that the money is
being spent for objects of which they
approve, and that it is being applied
with good business sense and manage
ment.
Governments grow, piecemeal, both
in their tasks and in the means by
which those tasks are to be perform
ed, and very few Governments are or
ganized, ! venture to say, as wise and
experienced business men would or
ganize them if they had clean sheet
of paper to write upon. Certainly the
Government Of the United States is
not. / think that it is generally a.
greed that there should be system
attic reorganization and reassembling
of its parts so as to secure greater
efficiency and effect considerable saw
ings in expense. But the amount of
money saved in that way would, be-
lieve, though no doubt considerable in
itself, running, it may be, into the mil
lions, be relatively small small, /
mean, in proportion to the total neces-
sary OUTLAWS Of the Government. 1t
would be thoroughly worth effecting,
as every saving would great or small.
Our duty is not altered by the scale
of the saving. But my point is that
the people of the United States do not
wish to curtail the activities of this
Government; they wish, rather, to en-
large them; and with every enlarge
ment, with the inevitable increase of
expense. The sort of economy we
ought to practice may be effected, by
a careful study and assessment OF. the
tasks to be performed; and the money
spent ought to be made to yield the
best possible returns in efficiency and
achievement And, like good stewards
we should SO account for every dollar
of our appropriations as to make it
perfectly evident what it was spent
for and in what way it was spent.
1t is not expenditure but extrava-
gance that we should fear being criti-
cized for; not paying for the legiti-
mate enterprises and undertakings Of
q great government whose people COM
mand what it should do, but. adding
what will benefit only few or pour
ing money out for what need not have
been undertaken at all or might have
been postponed or better ard more &C.
onomically conceived and carried out.
The Nation is not niggardly; it is