Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1920-08-09

tages Of democracy in government
need not be recounted. 1t has been
held By experts that it involves the
disadvantage of disbursements, au-
thorized by the law-making power,
without sufficient knowledge of the
need of the service, or the posi-
bilities of extravaganza. The answer
to this il the budget system. No
successful business enterprise of
any size can operate without It.
For a hundred years, the fed
eral unit, and the states as
well. made appropriations without
determining the difference between
department need and caprice, at the
same time paying little attention to
the relation as between income and ex-
pense. Many Of the states have adopt
ed budget system, and with a success
that carries no exception. Efficiency
has been mproved-departmen re-
sponsibility has been conferred. and
economies have been effected. The
same can be done by the federal gov
eminent. The system will reveal at
once, as it did in the states, vast
surplusage of employees. 1t awakens
individual interest. encourages greater
effort, and gives opportunity for talent
to assert itself. The normal course of
least resistance develops in govern
ment bureaus hardpan, which retards
progress. When the reorganization is
made, pay should be commensurate
with service. Many federal depart
ments whose ramifications touch the
country generally have lost valuable
men to business. This has badly Grip
pied postoffices, the railway mail serv-
ice and other branches.
I am convinced after considerable
study of the subject that the expense
of the government can, without loss
Of efficiency, be reduced to a maxi
mum of four billion dollars, including
sinking fund and interest on the ma.
tional debt. When we enter the League
of Nations we should at the same time
diminish our cost for armament. To
continue expenditures in either the
war or the navy department on a vast
scale. once our membership in the
league is assured, would seem to be a
very definite refutation of the advan.
tages of the world plan which we be-
lieve it possesses. An appealing fund.
amental in the league method is the
reduction of ornaments. We canno,
afford to do it until other nations dc
likewise If we do not enter the
must be spent for ornaments. If we
go in, and l believe the people will in.
sist on it. then we can count of econ
omies.
Since the last national conven
tons OF the two great parties. a world
war has been fought, historic, unprec.
edented. For many. many months
civilization hung in the balance. In
the despair of dark hours it seemed as
though a world dictator was inevitable
and that henceforth men and women
who had lived in freedom would stand
at attention, in the face of the drawn
sword of military autocracy. The very
soul of America was touched as never
before with a fear that our liberties
were to be taken aways What Ameri.
ca did needs no reiteration here 1t is
known of all men. History will &C.
claim it-poets will find it an inspira.
ton throughout the ages. And yet
there is not line in the Republican
platform that breathes an emotion OF
pride, or recites our national achieve.
ment. In fact, if man from Mars
were to depend upon the Republican
platform or its spoken Interpretation
by the candidate OF that party as his
first means of information, he. would
not find syllable telling him that
the war had been won, and that Amer
lea had saved the world How un-
generous, how ungracious all Of this
is; how unfair that mere group of
leaders should so demean themselves
in the name of the party of Lincoln
and Mckinley and Roosevelt.
The discourtesy to the President is
an affair of political intrigue. History
VIII make it odious. AS we'll might it
be directed at wounded soldier of the
war. One fell in the trench. the
strength of the other was broken in
the enormous labors of his office. But
others were ignored-the men and
women who labored at home with an
industry and skill that words can
not recount! What of the hands that
moved the lathe by day and the needle
py night? What of the organizations
superbly effective. that conserved food
ana led the world--that carried nour-
ishment TO the very front trench in the
race or helfs furies-that nursed the
wounded back to life-that buried the
dead in the dark shelter of thelnight-
that inspired business men and arti-
sans of all parties to work in harmo-
ny? What of the millions of men.
women and children of all creeds. re-
ilgions and otherwise. who stood in
the ranks as firm as soldiers overseas.
undivided by things they once quar-
relied about? What of the government
itself, confirming the faith of our
fathers as sufficient to meet the storms
OF time? Why the sneer at labor with
the yelled charge that it was a mere
Stacker? The spectacle is sufficient to
convince any unprejudiced man that
the Republican leaders who have taken
charge of their party and nominated
It's candidate are no more possessed
OF the spirit of the hour than they
were in 1912 when they prccipitated a
revolution within the rank and file of
a great organization. If further proof
were needed. the action Of the present
congress supplies it. Not a construc
tive law can be cited. Money and time
were wasted in seeking to make a mil
ltary triumph an odious chapter in his
tory-and yet is it not significant that