The Greeneville daily sun. (Greeneville, Tenn.) 1918-1920, 1920-06-14
FAILURE Of TWO GREAT MEASURES.

President WAbn must be held responsible for the fail
ure to enact twa Of the most important measures tt
have been before The present Congress The budget bill
represented the greatest administrative reform in Amer
lean history It proydd for the application of business
principles 70 government appropriations and should have
effected vast savings in national expenditures while great
" promoting the efficiency Of administration The de-
mand for this reform was started by Mr. Taft 1t was
too revolutionary nts nature to meet instant accept
ancesbut the need Cor it has grown with time and has
been tremendously Emphasized by the enormous and
poorly controlled expenditures growing out of the war
There can be question that if the budget system had
been in operation during the war and since the country
and the people would have been saved hundreds of mil
lions Of dollars. There Is little difference Of opinion
among economic and financial authorities in or out Of
politics to the very great Importance of this reform
and the urgency of its requirement President Wilson
himself he is in entire sympathy with the objects
of the BILL yet, because of single provision affecting
the prerogative of the President which he holds to be
contrary to the constitution he vetoed the bill It is
true that he expressed the hope that Congress might find
time to remedy this defect he considered to be- but
the bill was returned to Congress on the night before
the time fixed for adjournment and while the House
rushed through amendment to conform to the Presi
dents views, the Senate prevented from doing so
by fibuster led by Senator Reed. The time left was
too short to bring the question to vote and Congress
adjourned with the measure defeated
The provision upon which the President based MS veto
was matter of little Importance in relation to the vast
potentially of the Congress was given power
in the bill to by resolution the Comp
roer General whom the President was given power to
appoint Mr. Wilson holds that the power to appoint
officers of this kind carries with it the power to remove
And he may be right but it to be assumed that Con
gress thought differently. But the point raised is MOI
that would affect the operation of the law in any
manner 1t is highly improbable that any attempt would
ever be made by Congress to remove such an officer
Tor the causes of such action clearly limited in the
BILL and justification for removal by concurrent resolu
ton would not arise in century perhaps Unless
did arise the provision objected to would in no way
interfere with the application of the law The question
OF the consttutonay of the provision could be referred
TO the Supreme Court for settlement when occasion fo
settlement appeared Or at any rate the matter coult
been deferred to the next session. when the
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was certainly need to overthrow great and urgen
measure, created with such effort, upon technical poin
of relative nsigncance Next to the transportation ac
this the most important achievement of the Con
gress and is profoundly to be regretted that SHOULD
have been defeated and by who claims to be its friend
So anxious the House to make budget Legislation
complete that it did, Tuesday of last week. what WI
had long urged but hardly dared to hope for. By
vote of 200 to 116 it changed the rules centc
in committee the authority to make all appropriations
The budget and this change of rule marked tn
most extraordinary revolution in the history of gov
ernmental administration in the United States the crown
ing achievement of years of effort and it is exasperat
ing to it indefinitely delayed because of hair-split
ting technical objection
The other referred to is the waterpower act
which the President permitted to die bya pocket veto
For twelve years WATERPROOF legislation has been one
the very important questions before the country Con
gress after Congress has wresed with the problem blu
not until the present has it been possible to reach
agreement upon act that would be fair and effective
The Esch BILL amended by the Senate and agreed upo
BY the conferees, constructive measure that wou
provide for and greatly encourage the development
water in the United States Development of rap
idly increasing need. 1t passed the House nearly yea
and the Senate last January Conference upon Sen
ate amendments delayed final action until near the en
of the session. but the measure should have been full
known to the Presid ent and the excuse for failure t
sign it is not eonvincing.-St Louis Globe Democrat
In New York 5000 liquor prescriptions were issued
compared with 100000 in Chicago This is merely OWN