The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1918-05-01

twenty billions freely. So It did
when it came to the big things
the ships, the aeroplanes, the mu-
nitions. But then our committees
began to look around for some
thing to chop-they had to prune
somewhere. It wasn't the fault
Of anybody in particular that an
appropriation for army intelli-
genee, that vital branch Of the
service which assemblies informa-
ton concerning the enemy for the
use Of the commander in the field,
got left out Of the deficiency bill
and had to be put back by the Sem
ate. Nor was it anyone's fault in
particular that the same thing
happened to an appropriation for a
branch Of the labor department,
which Is today turning the mil
lions Of men into the shipyards
and the munitions plants. It was
just an old fault showing up in q
new and very grave crisis. Con-
gress had to save somewhere. Il
could not save on the biIlion-dollar
program 80 It hit upon these two
inconspicuOus but vitality impor-
tant appropriations, both Of them
less than a million dollars, as the
proper places to begin. Under my
plan the Secretary Of the Treasury
becomes a much more important
Office than at present. The Secre-
tsry would be. in fact, the budget
maker, empowered to lay out the
nations financial program, revising
the estimates Of the departments
and at the same time drawing the
bills necessary to provide reTe-
nue.. He would not, however, have
authority to revise the estimates
Of the Navy and the War Depart
ments as the estimates Of these
two departments deal with ma
tional defense and Congress should
have the benefit Of the knowledge
and independent opinion Of our
trained officers.
President Made Responsible.
The next step provides that the
budget shall be sent to the Presi-
dent, The President would be re-
quired by law to approve and rec
ommend TO Congress the passage
Of the budget. This makes the Ex-
ecutive responsible for our finan-
cial program. At the same time,
as will be shown a little later, Con-
gress is not deprived Of its consti-
tutional right TO appropriate
money or to control finance.
So far we have substituted
government on scientific prin-
eiple for government by guess
work. When Congress gets down
to work, instead Of q thousand
unrelated appropriation bills, it
has one bill TO consider. Your
Congressman can sit down with
his copy Of the budget, with its
explanatory introduction, and for
the first time he can get 3 birds
eye view Of what the Admins
tration is planning TO do for the
year. You can see the opportu-
nifty afforded for scrutiny and
criticism. And while you are
educating your Congressman you
are also educating the people to
take a greater interest in their
Government. Very naturally, the
newspapers are going to have a
great deal TO say during the
three or four months that the
budget is being considered.
Budget Committee.
If we stopped here we would
have dons only half the job.
There are still the nine important
committees Of the House that re-
port out bills carrying appropria-
tionS. In place Of these nine
committees, there Is provided a
budget COMMITTEES. The budget
COMMITTEES would Be composed Of
forty members Of the House.
This committee would have the
power 70 propose reductions IN
estimates, but It would not have
the power TO propose increases or
70 add new items except upon the
Recommendation Of the Secretary
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