Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1919-02-13
SCORES
WASTE OF MONEY
FLAYS CONGRESS
Funds Poured Out in Kind of
Debaucn by Reckless
Makers of Laws

Washington, Feb. 13,-In his
speech on the war revenue bill, yes
terday afternoon, Senator Penrose,
OF Pennsylvania. asserted that pend
ing bills in both houses reached
the staggering aggregate" of S10,-
QOO,000,000, He characterized most
of them as useless legislation
saying that the Democrats, and some
Republicans, appeared to have gone
upon 'debauch" TO see how much
money might be weaned from the
public treasury, and that the Amer
lean people would be amazed when
they realized how deep their legisla-
tors had planned to dip into the
government eXchequer.
The plumbers of the Admins
tration in handling the railroads. in
putting steamship lines out of busi-
ness, and in smothering other enter
prises, he said, he had entailed loss
equal to the cost of the war;" add
ing: II say in all candor, l think
the Bolshevist government in Pet
rograd could have run the railroads
better than the representatives of
the American people have run them
The government, Senator Pen
rose said. had created 274,000 new
offices during the war. involving a
salary list of S159,296,6 ,695. OF the
new men put at work, only thirty
or forty per cent. were found to be
capable of doing the tasks assign
ed to them, the others being carried
along as dead weight by the govern
ment Il say deliberately and l
have been corroborated by members
of these boards down here-dollar-
a-year men-that maybe sixty or
seventy per cent. of these offices
were needless, the result of ineffi-
cheney and improvidence," he add
ed.
He referred to the fund of ST.
S6O,OOO,0OO spent by the Shipping
Board. which money he said was
largely waste. The policy of the
government should have BEEN" he
continued, Ito have these shipt built
in existing yards and to have held
contractors rigidly responsible for
results, instead of building enormous
plants like the Hog Island Ship Yard
under wastcful cost-plus contract,
demoralizing the labor market, hir-
ing men, clerks, and mechanics at
soaring and fanciful wages"
dreds of millions of dollars had been
spent on housing of war needs. and
that the houses are now almost en-
tirely dead loss to the govern
ment.
Il want to express my regret and
concern that this bill has been the
vehicle for irrevelant legislation"
said Senator Penrose. IF that prac-
tise is TO continue, revenue bill will
become menace and danger
while it is passing through this body.
Certainly the power of taxation is
not meant as a method to regulate
the methods and habits of this ma
ton. 1t is mad enough to have 100
per cent. tax on brass knuckles be-
cause some people do not think brass
knuckles ought to be discouraged.
l shall not argue the merits of the
so-called bone dry amendment. but
certainly revenue measure ought
not to be made an agency for legis-
lation affecting the matters of po-
lice and the sobriety of the COM
munity.
Instead of the bill carrying ss,-
600, 100000, the finance committee
of the Senate was able to reduce 1t
to 6,000,000,000. A large part OF
that reduction is more apparent than
real, because there must be made
up the loss of revenues from in
toXicating beverages.
But the average sentiment was
that the bill should pass, until
throughout the country men began
to wake up to the wasteful expen-
ditures of Congress for every kind of
chimerical bill imaginable. People
began to say-and l have reference
to the sentiments expressed in
thousands of letters received by me
What is the use in raising reve-
nue. If it is to be poured like water
out of bucket into the gutter -
shat nation. however wealthy. can
stand expenditures like these?
Only the other day the Senate
passed S100,000,000 appropriation
Tor the so-called famine sufferers in
Europe. Nearly half the Republicans
voted against the bill. Many who
voted for it did so with the greatest
reluctance. There was no informa-
tion before the Senate, only a vague
telegram from the President; no
definite information as to how the
money would be spent.
e Money has been poured out in a
kind OF debauch by those who seem
to have lost all idea of what ST.
00.000.000 means. l wish merely
to allude to the most casual survey
I have made of propositions floating
around in this chamber and in the
House of Representatives. all of
which have the purpose of extract
ing money from the public Treasury
without any authority of a budget
system, apparently without any con-
sultation with anybody else. in
crafty the whim. the caprice, or the
fad of some theorist without any
basis of investigated fact: and vet
many of these have passed this
body notwithstanding the protest of
a few of us"