The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1919-06-16
WHY NOT A BUDGET?


Almost every appropriation bill
submitted to the present congress has
been pared mercilessly by the commit
tee. Many millions already have been
cut from the estimates. If the appro-
priation bills be passed as amended
by the committee government expen-
ditures will be greatly reduced. The
fact that these reductions have been
regarded not only as possible but ad-
visable emphasizes anew the necessity
of a budget system for our national
finances.
For several years both parties have
been pledged to this principle, but no
tangible results have been seen either
in suggested plans or proposals for
legislation. There has been much talk
of the necessity of economy by the
government. The outcry against
heavy taxation will not grow less as
time goes on. But as long as govern
ments spend money there must be
some means of raising it. The senti-
ment of the country is not likely to
take kindly to successive bond issues
in time of peace for new national ex-
penditures. The enormous increases
in federal. state and municipal expen-
ditures have led to all sorts of devices
for raising revenue, while the obvious
need of economy has been overlooked
entirely except in platform pledges.
The trouble is that economy is i'm
possible without system. The present
method of making separate approrri-
meet them is the sheerest guesswork,
and the waste is incalculable. 1t is
the cause of inefficiency and the chief
element in the biennial pork" barrel
which has been so unnecessary a drain
on the resources of the country 1t is
as absurd as attempting to cut gar
ment without measure or pattern, and
without regard to the amount of cloth
available. No successful business man
works along these lines. and any cor
poration that followed such methods
would soon be in the hands of a re-
ceiver
The budget plan is not an untried
experiment. The British government
has put the budget system into prac-
tice, and the results have shown ex-
tremely satisfactory gains both in the
efficiency of public expenditure and
in economy. Each year the chanceI-
lor of the exchequer submits detailed
statement of the governments needs
for the coming fiscal term, and this
gives the country ample opportunity
for criticism and suggestion. In this
way the people are shown how their
money is to be spent. and taxpayers
are not suddenly shocked by unexpect-
ed appropriations to meet partisan or
sectional requir ements. No minister
of finance would dare submit esti-
mates that were not pared down to
the bone and which were not devised
in the interest of the public welfare.
With appropriations passed piece
meal, each considered on it's individual
merits, and big bills carrying hundreds
of millions rushed thru in the closing
such thing as economy because every
element of system and coordination is
violated.
The framing of a sound and prac-
teal budget system will do more to
carry the country thru the reconstruc-
ton period without financial distress
than any other measure that could be
adopted. 1t is as vital to the COM
merce and industry of the country as
sound banking system. No nation
can go on making needless dr-::::S on
the energies and resources of its peo-
pie without counting eventual disaster.
Even the United States, with all its
developed and undeveloped wealth, is
not proof against the wasteful leakage
that results.