Evening star., 1915-11-09
TRYING TO REFORM
j. s. FISCAL SYSTEM
Continued from First Page.)

that the clerk of the committee on ap-
preparations, for whose judgment l
have very great respect, and VINO
has had an experience away beyond
that of any man here, has thought thae
that would be the result.
'I believe that it would be easily
possible for such committee havlns
as a part of it's personnel men VINO
by previous experience as chairmen
of the various committees were fan1i-
lar with details, to consider the broad
questions without hearing all of the
people that these various committees
now hear or determining all the de-
tails And l suggest further thought
that the trouble now is with all of
our appropriations that they are not
based upon what we ought &c expend
or upon what the country ought TO De
willing to stand for in the way OF
men who have the expenditures to
make say they need or desire.
THE trouble is that we have all got
ten a reverse idea of the functions
the policy of Congress is TO be deter
mined by estimates. l insist that 1t IS
the duty of Congress to determine how
much it can afford to tax the people OF
America; and, having determined that,
then to apportfon the amounts to be
used for the various purposes that they
consider requisite and necessary"
WOulu enlarge SoulIulCtcc.
Mr.. Fitzgerald is tenacious of his
idea to restore the jurisdiction of the
appropriations committee, as enlarged,
to the status existing prior to 1885.
When the Morrison horizontal reduc-
tion tariff bill was before the Forty
eighth Congress, Mr.. Randall, the
chairman of the committee on appro-
priations. with forty other democrats.
voted with the republicans to strike
out the enacting clause and thus de-
feated the bill. Mr.. Morrison present.
Congress to distribute the appropra-
tions bills, and it was supported by
such low w-tariff advocates as Springer
of Illinois, Mills and Reagan of Texas
and Hatch of Missouri
Mr. Fitzgerald contends in behalf of
his plan: "The effect would be to con-
centrate in one committee all questions
of appropriations and leave the au-
thorizations with legislative commit
tees to which such authority properly
belongs. 1t would be the logical, sci
entific and proper arrangement. The
only thing to be determined by the
committee on appropriations would be
the respective sums to be appropriated
for various services and purposes with
in the limits of the authorization fixed
by law.
"If this method were adopted, the
consideration of appropriation bills
W NOuiu pe cOHSiCeTdDiy SlOTteHeu the
House. The various legislative COM
mittees of the House would have ample
important legislation to occupy their
abilities and their time, and it would
not lessen their Importance nor mini
mize their influence if the appropria-
tions were not committed to them.
Two of the most important commit
tees of the House-the judiciary COM
mittee and the interstate and foreign
commerce committee-do not have jur-
iSlirfi0n he iofi
the various important services and de-
partments with which they are most
closely identified, yet The duties of
those committees have not been insig-
nificant nor the legislation enacted on
their recommendation been unimpor-
tant. In fact, those committees have
recommended most of the important
legislation enacted for many years"
The session of the special committee
this morning was brief and the dis
cussion only of the most general ma
ture. Mr.. Fitzgerald has not returned
and the committee will not meet again
until next week.