New Britain herald., 1919-02-13
PENROSE ASSAILS
 HIGH WAR COSTS
Half of Outlay Just Thrown
 Away, PeDnSylVanian Says

son administration and the dem mocrat- iC congress by Senator Penrose (Pa.) yesterday. He charged that approx imately half of the vast sum appro- priated in the war had been thrown way in needless opriations
 His speech was a scorching excoria- ton of the business policy of the ad- ministration and was accepted in the senate as voicing the keynote of the republicans on economies which will be urged and the closer scrutiny of government expenditures which must be practiced if the republican con- gress soon to come into being runs true to form.
 Senator Shoot (Utah) interposed suggestions in the course of Senator Penrose's address in regard to the az gregate appropriations by the present congress.
 Senator Penrose had reviewed the extraordinary list now on the calen- dafs of the house and senate. lie had run through the list, devotlhS caustic comment to each, when Sena- tor Shoot suggested there were pend- ing in addition annual enactments which when passed would add another $1o.OO0,0O0,00O to the expenditures of the government in the ensuing ifs cal year.
 Debt May Be S2O,OOO, ,OO0,0O0. . "If they become law" said Senator Smoot 'the nation instead of having to meet $10,O00, 100000 in expendi- lures next year will have to meet $2o,000, 0,000,000.
 'The country cannot do it. If Con- gress appropriates money for all these bills which have been referred
 tha country will rise in it's might and drive from public life every man who would approve of such propositions; and I hope they will"
 Senator Smoot will be heard in greater detail today along the same lines as his interpretations of yester- day.
 Senator Penrose in his review of the protected raid on the treasury spared no branch of government and IbD school ot legislative economy i'll the general roundup. He paid par ticuIar attention to the deficiencies of. the United States railroad admin istration, asserting there had been relentless waste in that special war agency. He referred to a pending resolution calling for $10,00O,000 to enable the railroads to handle food products and the coal supply and said that the preamble set forth that the roads had been unable to accomplish this.
 "A rather reasonable statement commented Senator Penrose, "in view of the many statements of self gIoriflcatton and protestatiOn uttered by Walker D.. Hines and others, but am one of those who believe the railroads have reached deplorable, scandalous and inexpressible condl- 1ion of ineff1ciency.
 Worse Than BOlShevism.
 1T did not suppose, however, that any one was bold enough to state it in a joint resolution asking for $10,- 100000. I say in all candor I think x the Bolshevist government in Petro- grad could have run the railroads better than the representatives of the American people have run them in the last fourteen months.
 eff we undertook to estimate the losses by reason of this ineffective ad- 1i1inistration df the railroads and other activities it would, in my opin- ion, approximate sum nearly equal to the whole cost of the war.
 VI say that deliberately and ad- visedly When we consider the pro- perty that has been destroyed or the value that has been greatly curtailed or reduced-I am not going to argue the effects of it-$2, ,00O, 100000 or $3,- O00,0O0,000, wiped off the ledger by prohibition, millions of dollars wiped of, the books by the destruction of steamboat lines and short line rail roads that have been withdrawn from the transportation system, we see to, what extent this ineff1ciency has gone.'
 Senator Penrose deplored the de- preciation of railway securities. which, he said, had, by reason of ineff1ciency and wastefulness of the administra- tion, become hardly a safe invest ment for savings banks. with the re- suit that they had depreciated to an enormo ous extent in their asset value, and there had been unloading of them.
 Three Billions Wasted
 Then Senator Penrose summed I'D Ehe general schedule of wastefulness, saying the aggregate appropriations in n ensures which he had named in his list were approximately $3,O0o,o0 900, and to this there must be added the loss in the operation of the roads and transportation systems, which meant PS 800, 100000 more, and the expenses of demo utilization, which would total $500, 100000. The extrava gances, he 6aid were more than half the total revenues of the ensuing fiscal year un- der the pending revenue bill.
 Of unnecessary, ill-advised 1egisla- tton, there are appropriations running Up to $5,049, ,0O0,000 said Senator Penrose. Added to the amounts Noat1ng around hero in the senate this would total $1O,000, 100000 actually asked for by senators and representa- tives with solemn countenance and