The Washington herald., 1920-04-11
ny ELISHA HANSON.
Copyright. lssS.)
ARTICLE No A


ARTICLE NO. 4.
The United States entered tho
world war without q carefully pre-
pared fiscal policy. II went through
the war without such q policy. II
came out without one. And II 10
still without one. The DEVELOPMENT
or such a policy unquestionabiy is
the greatest single problem which
confronts our government today
greater, even, than the railroad
question, the condition Of unrest and
the high cost OF living-for, contin-
gent upon its solution Is the So
luton Of all OF the other inter
related difficulties Of domestic re-
construction.
All Asked for More Money.
Every department OF the govern
ment seized upon the war to get
money out of the treasury for this
activity or that.
Or the various departments, the
war Department unquestionably
was the greatest spender. But now
that the war is over. IL Is. well to
ask ourselves why the expenditures
of the Department Of Commerce,
with steadily decreasing normal
commerce. should have increased 40
per cent. and why those OF the De-
partment of Labor should have
jumped 400.
II Is impossible to analyZe all of
the expenditures OF all of the de-
partments at this time. 1t Is q fact,
however. that none of these depart
ments had a carefully worked out
fiscal program; that the administra-
tion had no such program for all
OF them. and that the spending OF
money was entirely unrelated to the
method of raising II.
We now have some very definite
Information concerning the expendi-
lures by the War Department.
Millions Were Wasted.
Leaving out the political bias of
the latter, II Is an unquestioned fact
that millions, probably billions, were
wasted by the War Department by
reason of its fiscal unpreparedness
What was lost by reason of our mil
itary unpreparedness Is another
matter still.
Brig. Gen. Fl. NJ. Lord is the d.
rector of finance In the War De-
partment. Only a few weeks ago
he appeared before the select bud
get committee OF the House of Rep
resentatives and made an argument
in favor Of a reform in our methods
OF carrying on the governments H.
nancial activities. Gen. Lord su-
pervised the expenditure of more
money during the war than any
other man in the world. Here is
what he had to say Of his task:
Tho War Department since April
s. 1917. has had appropriated for its
use $24.304.3ss.343.s7.
The War Department entered
this war without any fixed and de-
termined or carefully digested and
prepared financial system. 1t was
impossible under the statutory or
ganization existing to have such a
system.
bureaus in Competition.
There were at the beginning five
statutory bureaus, each indepen-
dent of the other. each making it's
own contracts, doing its own pur-
chasing, and making its own dis
bursements-doing its own account
ing. with as many different meth
DDS as there were bureaus. AS a
result, they were competing with
each other in a field in a market
where the supplies in many cases
for which they were competing
were restricted in amount. Later
on. under the Overman act. these
five Independent bureaus were In
creased to twelve. each proceeding
in the same way"
Imagine 1t! Think of any great
financial organization, the United
States Steel Corporation. for in
stance. dividing itself up into five
Independent concerns. each one of
them going out into the open mar
kct and competing with all the
others.
True, during 1918. some sort of a
reform was achieved, but at the
present time. the reorganization