Milford chronicle., 1920-02-06
UNCLE TED'S
BED TIME STORIES
Current Events for the Children
and Grown-Ups, Too
HOW CONGRESS- is SAVING
THE PEOPLES MONEY

. Jack as he and his sister and Uncle wer
seated around the big table after dinner
That is a question Jack, that can b
answered in a few words or | can tel
you quite a story about it. The fact tina
: Congress is planning a program of econ
: omy simply means that after the Repub
licans came into power in both the Sen
ate and the House at Washington, they
: made up their minds that they woulC
, save all the peoples money they possibly
could. Before, all during the war, and
even now, the various government de
partments which, of course, are still un-
der the control of President Wilson and
the men appointed by him, have wasted
money right and left"
But how can Congress save this mon
ey?" asked Ruth.
In this way" answered her Uncle
Each year, every government depart
ment makes up a list of the things it will
need for the following year, with the
cost; that is they tell Congress just
how much money their particular
Dept wants. Then those requests go to
various committees of the House TO be
talked about While these committees are
talking about the requests, which are
made into the form of bills, they have an
opportunity to cut down the amount of
money asked for before it goes to the
House to be voted on. That is what the
present Congress is doing. Another big
help is the Republican legislative steering
committee of the House, which lately has
! been meeting twice a week to hurry the
work of passing these bills and at the
same time cut down the amount of money
as much as possible. This committee is
determined to hold down all appropria-
| tions (for that is what these requests are
called) because they do not want to make
it necessary for us to have another Bond
campaign"
Have they saved any money so far?"
asked Jack
yes indeed they have, Jack When
the rivers and harbors bill was reported
from committee it was discovered that
the committe had cut down the estimates
more than $3O,0O0,O00 and left but S12,
100000 of the amount asked for. You
see the present administration, from Pres
ident Wilson down, instead of helping
Congress save money so that the people
won't have to pay bigger taxes and buy
more bonds, keep on wasting it and
throwing II alUullQ AAhN 81 AlliAA NaANAs
That makes the work of the Republicans
in Congress very hard. They know the
taxes are too high already and they want
to cut dowa but they simply can't do IT
so long as the Democrats keep on wasting
the peoples money Another saving was
made by the foreign affairs committee OF
the House. They reported the diplomatic
and consular appropriations bill with
total of $S,S43,0 which was more than
So 100000 less than the State Department /
asked for. The House committee on pub /
lie buildings voted not TO have any pub /
lie buildings bill this year. This means no I
new post office buildings and court houses I
but it also means the saving of millions /
of dollars. When the appropriations /
committee reported the second deficiency
bill IL carried 4 total of
$99, 1914 ,S42 which was more than $50
09a,000 less than ,le amour; asked An
other big saving will be made ON the Sr-
nv bill Secretary Baker wanted a peace
army of 100000 men but the commit
tee has cut down the number to
about $4,000 men and this will mean
a big reduction in the amount of mon
ey necessary for the army during the
next year.
I'm order to give you some idea OF
what these Republican members of
the House are trying to do and how
they feel, l am going to read you
parts of letter written to me by Rep (
Martin B. Madden, of Illi-
lois. Mr. Madden is a successful bus
ness man and he is working hard to
save all the money for the people OF
his country that he can. The cost OF
living, says Mr.. Madden, is out of all {
proportion to what l think it should t
De. l have spent many sleepless
lights in an effort to see how rem q
,dy can be found. l am firmly con- i
inced, however, that the remedy is j
lot in legislation, except to the extent
hat legislation effecting expendi
ures on the part of the Government
nay reduce the cost of taxation and
tabilize conditions. The President, {
Ometime since, thought he had a rem o
dy and came to Congress and sought
egislation which was promptly grant S
d, but the living cost instead of go
ng lower has gone higher every day o
ince The trouble with legislation
n the subject of living costs is that c
very time it is enacted the executive /
ranch of the Government seeks large
preparations to put remedies into Il
lrce. That involves the employment
{ a lot of inspectors and regulators a
-ho neither inspect or regulate, and p
le only effect such legislation has
GEMS to be to increase the cost of b,
wing to the extent that the appropri- d;
tons are made to cover the cost of
le execution of the law. pl
I'm another place in this letter he al
lys: The orgy of extravaganza prac-
ced by the present national admin to
tration has never had a counterpart tn
Y hope was that when the war was to
Ter there would be some manifesto
on on the part of the administration So
reduce expenses and become econ
nical, but in this l was mistaken; of
Id while there were hundreds of WI
ousands Of people on the Govern
ent pay roll as a matter of necessity w
lring the war period, it was my hope
at they would be dismissed as rapid i'll
as it was possible to dismiss them RI
ter the war closed. In this again I
as mistaken. I have tried and am
ying, in fact / am doing nothing else m,
It that, to force the Government to HI
derstand the necessity for economy. mt
a time like this when everybody in I'M
e United States is compelled to m'
nch and scrape and save to make to
tn ends meet the Government should tn
Id the way in saving, but that is stl
t the case with this administration. NJ;
)wever, the Republicans of the tn
,use and Senate have made up their pu
nds to cut every appropriation to Co
e bone and to practice economy to up