Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1921-09-07
Waste and Extrava-
gance Near End, Says
Harding in Review
Achievements Of Present Ad-
ministratiOn Source of Salts
faction President Declares in
Letter to Senator Mccormick
To Be Quoted in New Mexico
Election

achievements to date of the RepublI-
can administration, particularly with
reference to congress, declared that
surveying the national situation as
whole, it is plain that we are work
ing our way out of weller of waste
and prodigal spending at a most i'm
pressive rate
The letter, made public today, was
written by the president under date
of August 20 to Senator Mccormick
f Illinois and it is understood, will
be used in the campaign in New
Mexico, where Senator Bursum, ap-
pointed to fill out the uneXpired term
of Secretary of the Interior Fall, is a
candidate for election. The letter,
it also is understood. is considered
by Republican leaders as a reply to
attacks of the legislative bureau on
the Republican congress by Chair
man White of the Democratic Ma
tional Committee and other leading
Democrats.
We have made much progress
toward retrenchment and greatly in
creased efficiency the president as
serts. Il can not but account it a
monumental accomplishment which
has marked the work of the extraor-
binary session down to the time of
its recess"
Looking to the future Mr.. Harding
IN his letter expresses the confident
hope that congress, after the recess
and before the end of the extraordi-
nary session, will adopt both the
tariff and taxation measures and that
along with these it will pass the bill
to permit funding the debt owed US
by foreign governments"
This, | hope" the president added,
will shortly be followed by arrange
ments under which = the debtor
countries will begin paying interest
on their obligations. Likewise. | am
confident that the bill facilitating the
funding of the debt of the RAILWAYS
to the United States will become law
during the extraordinary session.
thus insuring a large and Immediate
demand for employment of men now
idle"
The Republican congress proceed
ing the advent of the present ad-
ministration is credited bv Mr.
Harding with having patiently and
asslduously labored to reduce ex-
penditures" with results (which we
can summarize in the statement
that the appropriations for the cur
rent hscal year will aggregate four
and a quarter billion dollars and
that this is three quarters of a bill
non less than the expenditures for
the previous fiscal year"
me president. after reciting as
"eXtravagances incident to the war"
the expenditure of $4,000 600 By the
shipping board; between $4,000 600
and $600o,0OO for air craft. artillery
and ammunition and 81, 100000 for
the railroad administration. adds:
1t is gratifying to be able to say
therefore, that probably no other
government in the world has during
a similar period SO drastically reduc-
ed expenditures as has the govern
ment of the United States during the
past Two years on the iDsistence of
the Republican congress. Moreover.
l am happy to assure YOU that the
administrative departments are now
in full sympathy with 1.-THE program
OF rigorous and unremitting econo-
my, through which ! believe. we will
be able during the next year TO con-
vert back into the treasury so large
In
ton may be reduced to $500 600.
600 year.
Half the present total expendi-
lures of the government arises
from wars of the past. Similar bur
dens are imposed upon the tax pay
ers of other countries and a nearly
universal protest against a possible
REPETITION of gigantic conflict gives
rise to the common hope that the
conference in November may tighten
the burdens OF both armament and
taxation, not only for this but for
other lands.
Almost without exception the
governments of other countries are
faced with great deficits.
fortune and the prudence of our
congress, which permits US to bal
ance revenue and expenditure at a
time when deficits are the rule
throughout the world We shall be
greatly aided in policy of progress
lively reducing expenditure by the
budget law, Republican in origin,
design enactment and execution
= l do not hesitate to say that
in ordinary times it alone would
have been considered a highly cred
table chief product of IA years
LEGISLATIVE program. Yet in a time
of such legislative activity as the
present, it is only one among many
measures of the first importance to
be enacted. 1t was quickly followed
by the enactment Of the immigration
law, calculated both to limit the in
flow of population during a period
of depression and to hasten the day
when we may effect the true Ameri-
canization of all newcomers to our
shores.
THE series, of measures looking
to the ameiioration of conditions in
the great agricultural industries
would in other times have constitu
ted a striking legislative product of
a years session.
These include the law for con-
troll of the packing industry the act
for the regulation of grain ex-
changes, and the law for the ex