Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1914-01-24
SPENDING UNCLE SANS
MONEY.
W.-Making Up Appropri-
alton Bills.
By Frederic ]. Haskin.

Since the Constitution provides that all
bills for raising revenue shall originate
| in the House of Representatives. the ccm-
| mittee on appropriations of the House in
many respects is the most influential
committee of the entire Congress. 1t
holds the purse strings on six of the great
supply measures. namely. the legislative
executive and judicial bill. the sundry
civil bill, the Notifications bill, the Dis
trict of Columbia bill, and the pension
and deficiency bills. The military affairs
committee appropriates for the army. the
| naval affairs committee for the navy. the
agricultural committee for the Depart
ment of Agriculture and the post office
| committee for the postal service.
| During the first seventy-six years of the
government the ways and means commit
| tee OF the House handled all financial
| legislation. including the raising of reve-
| nue. as well as its expenditure In 1865 a
| movement began for the vesting of au-
| thority over banking and currency ques-
tons in separate committee and the
transfer OF the consideration of appro-
| priations to a new committee. Thadde is
Stevens. who was. as chairman of the
ways and means committee. then the re-
publican leader of the House, followed
| the power of money control to the COM
10,
first chairman. He felt that it would
always be the committee of constant life
and action. and that while the ways and
means committee. through tariff legisla-
ton, might occasionally be of paramount
Importance, the post of greatest influence
was the appropriations chairmanship This
has proved consistently true The post
has been the stepping stone to fame for
thirteen men: Thaddeus Stevens, Elihu
B. Washburn. Henry L. Dawes James A
I a 10 doll
kins of Tennessee. Frank Hiscock of New
York, Joseh G. Cannon W. s. Holman,
Joseph d. Savers of Texas, James A.
Hemenway of Indiana. James A. Taw-
ney and John J. Fitzgerald of New York.
the present chairman.
To this committee is referred the book
| of estimates Immediately on its submits
sion to Con-
Book of Estimates gress by the
Sent From Treasury. De, neefe r OF
Those portions of the volume pertaining
| to matters without the jurisdiction of the
appropriations committee go to the prop
| or committees. but the bulk of the volume
| finds its way promptly into the hands of
| the appropriations chairman, Representa-
| tive John J. Fitzgerald of New York.
and the committee clerk. James C..
Courts.
| Chairnen may come and chairnen may
| go In this committee, but Mr. Courts
goes on forever. and is conceded by all
| chairmen to be probably the most valua-
BILE e1nploye of the entire government.
| The merit of his services has been par
| TALLY recognized by larger pay than is
| received by any other committee clerk in
| Congress. In all it's history the commit
| tee has had but two clerks, Robert j.
Stephens, from 1865 to 1883, and Mr..
Courts. from 1883 to the present time
| Chairmen of appropriations committees
| attain great renown for detailed knowl-
edge of governmental activities, but their
| wisdom is meager compared to Mr..
| Courts, who makes up the committee
prints of all the bills. These closely fol-
| low the book of estimates. showing at IA
glance the increases, the decreases-if
| there be any. which is rafe-and all
| changes in the language of the proposed
laws. 1t also shows the appropriations
under each heading for ten years back
1t is interesting to note that although
| Mr.. Courts is a Tennessee democrat, his
| tenure of office was undisturbed under
| the republican regime of Speakers Reed
| Henderson and Cannon.
| Dividing the members of the committee
into subcommittee, Chairman Fitzgerald
| charges each
Members Divided with the prep
Into subcommittee. ara ara''o ~, ., d
| liminary prints are submitted and Off
Gals of the several departments sum-
moned to explain the reasons for the re-
quests made upon the appropriating au-
| thority The commissioner of corpora
tions Is questioned concerning the pro-
jected inquiries which will consume S475,-
| 600 in 1915: the director of the astrophys-
ical Observatory explains why he will re-
quire $4,000 instead of $4,000 to continue
| the determination of the effect of varia-