The New York herald., 1920-01-11
By JOHN T. PRATT,
Chairman National Budget Com
mittee.

Why does the United States need a
budget system? There are many answers
to this-there is one that should be all
sufficient.
A budget system will save money.
1t will save money for your govern
ment; it will save money for your busi-
ness; it will save money for the children
Of the generations to come
This statement is not open to argument
Even those few individuals who have set
themselves against this progressive step
cannot claim that the United States
Treasury will not be benefited in dollars
and cents by the adoption of this system
Roger w. Babson. the statistician, de-
clares that in the current year 81, 900 900, 900
could be saved il the government were
operating budget. This may be an eX-
treme figure. but the lowest estimate of
saving specifies an amount large enough
to arouse IN every citizen in the land ad
vocacy Of this law.
At the present time, with governmental
estimates running close to $4,000, 900, 600
there is absolutely no coordination among
the appropriating and spending branches.
Congress alone has 135 committees,
twenty-nine of which have the power to
originate appropriation bills
These twenty-nine committees work as
twenty-nine committees. Under budget
system properly devised they would work
as one.
Seven hundred thousand individuals are
employed by the government today. This
year they will have the spending of the
billions of dollars which will be required
to meet the carrying charges of the gov
ernnent and to take care of obligations
already contracted. They spend absolutely
without coordination, save where they
are grouped under the various administra-
tive and legislative departments.
Business Firms Use Budgets.
There isn't a successful private business
In the country that does not operate upon
the budget plan. Business men will tell
you that 1t would be financial suicide for
them otherwise. The United States gov
ernment, the largest business enterprise
in the world, has no budget. There is alb
solutely no consideration of income as re-
lated to outgo. The business man never
spends unless he knows where the money
is coming from. The government spends
and counts upon getting the money some
how or other afterward.
You would not tolerate this condition In
your own affairs, why should you tolerate
1t in the affairs of that great corporation
OF which you are one Of the no. 900 stock
holders?
Take another case--the case OF the house
wife. Does she spend without consider
alton of the amount of money that her
husband earns? IL she does, both of them
will land in the poorhouse. Some who
have tried it have landed in Jail. The
housewife runs her business on a budget.
She may not keep books, she may not
know what budget ii, but her instructive
sense of economy and the necessity of linn
tied revenue compel her to conduct her af-
fairs exactly the way our government does
not conduct its affairs.
The House of Representatives, by an al
most unanimous vote, has passed the
Budget bill introduced by Representative
Good. The Select Committee OF the Sem
ate, OF which Senator Medill Mccormick
Is chairman, has held hearings in the proc
ess or formulating n measure for the up
per chamber. This committee Will resume
its consideration OF the proposition during
the coming week
IL seems beyond peradventure that Con-
gress will pass and the President will sigr
within snort time some sort OF a budget
measure. That is the first objective in the
minds OF all good Americans who have
considered our governmental financial sit
uation. The fact that this objective is
certain TO be reached should not end
budget agitation. Really this movement
Is just getting under way.
lhcre ~ every possibility that this Con-
gressional measure will fall short Of per
fection. Human experience teaches that.
Must watch Bureaus Work.
Initial efforts at reform, financial, po-
litical or social, seldom attain that degree
OF perfection that time alone can bring.
1t is UP TO the people of this country 10
see that the Budget Bureau, whether es-
tabished as in the Good bill. directly under
the President or as I'm the Mccormick
measure, in the office of the Secretary Of
the Treasury. is operated al a non-partisan
institution developed to the highest point
OF efficiency. In short, IL is zip to the peo-
pie TO see that this Budget Bureau is not
made the football of politics. These same
people must continue that interest In their
government which the proposal Of this re-
form has excited. It Is an axiom of COM
mon sense that you cannot start an engine
and let it run itself-you have got 60 have
an engineer in the cab and you have got
to sec that the engineer docs his job.
Practically the only difficulty encoun-