The Washington herald., 1920-04-21
Nations Saving Would Total ,
Billion Dollars Each Year
Under Budget Plan, Estimate
Advocates of New Fiscal System Say 1t Would
Effect Great Economy Without I'm
pairing Governments Efficiency.

adoption of a permanent and bene-
hcial reform. The country was en-
gagged in the war at the time: IL
was giving practically it's whole
thought to the prosecution of the
war to victory, with little thought
to the cost of the war.
Since the war has ended, how
ever. and the tremendous cost has
become known to the people, and
they have been brought to o real
ization of the enormous burden
which they must carry this year.
next year. and for many years there
after. not only the people but Con-
gress itself has taken a very vital
interest in Senator McCormick's
suggestions of 1918. Since those
suggestions were made Mr.. McCor-
mick has been graduated from the
House, into the Senate. where -
september he was made chairman
of the Special Committee for Con-
sideration of National Budget.
Early Report Expected.
This Committee expects to report
to the Senate before April l a COM
prehensive measure for the crea-
tion of a national budget and in
dependent audit system for the ex-
ecutive departments. The House.
under the leadership of Representa-
tive Good. already has passed a bill
providing for the possible creation
of a budget at some time in the fu-
ture and for an immediate change
in the plan of submitting the esti-
mates and auditing the expendI-
lures OF the government. but in the
opinion of real advocates of budget
20 hn
great step in advance, falls short
of the actual accomplishment mt need
ed.
Faith in Present System.
At present. every bureau chief
furnishes his superior officer or de-
partmental head with estimates as
to the financial needs of his bu-
reau for the ensuing year. After
the head of the department has re-
ceived the estimates of all his bu-
reaus he transmits them to the Sec
retary of the Treasury. And when
the Secretary of the Treasury gets
all OF the departmental estimates
In hand he prints and binds them
in volume and sends them to Con-
gress. frequently, the bureau chiefs
their needs and sup
Elemental estimates are reuuIreo.
More often, however, they process
on the theory that Congress will
cut them down anyway. so they ask
for more than they need in the ex-
pectation of getting about what
they actually require. The weak
ness OF the system lies in the fact
that there is not. within any of the
departments, any official whose
ch1ef business is to review the cs-
Inmates of the bureaus for the pur-
pose of eliminating unnecessary
items. before they are submitted to
the Secretary of the Treasury and
by him to Congress. and in the ad-
ditional and more important fact
that the Secretary of the Treasury.
who has to go out and get the
moneys to meet the expenditure, has
nothing whatsoever to say about
the manner in which those moneys
are to be expended. There is no
one in the departments themselves
to economize and there is no off,
cial in the administration to co-or-
dinate the estimates of the various
departments.
Committees Work Independently.
There is the additional weakness
that Congress, when it receives the
estimates of the departments. does
not consider them as a whole, but
splits them up among twenty or
thirty appropriating committees.
each one of which proceeds with
its work independently of all the
others.
The Mccormick budget plan Is
very simple and very clear. Insofar
as the departments are concerned,
1T sets up in the Treasury Depart
ment a budget bureau, the business
OF which Is to collect. revise, and
coordinate the estimates of the va
rfous departments. 1t provides that
each department shall have a bud
get official who shall collect the es-
Inmates from his various bureaus
and trim them of waste before
submitting them to the Secretary
of the Treasury. And it provides
further that after the Secretary of
the Treasury has completed his
work. he shall submit it to the
President, who must send 1t to
Congress with his approval In case
hak a.