Arizona republican., 1921-12-08
NATIONAL BUDGET
 PLAN OUTLINED BY
 JOHN T.PRATT HERE

Before 200 representative business 1 men of tEe city, John T. Pratt, chair | man of the natio' al budget commit tee, spoke yesterday on the work of the budget comm ittee and the reforms which have been effected in the na- tion's business by Gen. Charles G. Dawes His address was delivered at luncheon at the Y. M. c. A, and was a clear and forceful examina- tion of the worE which has been un- dertaken by General Dawes, support ed by the national budget committee which is made up of business men and others who are in favor of an efficient regulation of government expenditures.
 MT. Pratt said in part: Our national government can be spoken of as the greatest business in the world. The executive responsi- bility for this enormous business en- terprise, which goes under the name of the United States of America, is perhaps the most tremendous thing possible.
 Congress cannot in and of itself think nationally. because the proper viewpoint and the proper machinery to carry out that viewpoint are lack ing. Just take my present trip as an example. In St. Louis was warned of a strong local movement to spend S40,000.00 of governmental money to deepen and widen the Mississippi river. In Duluth, five days later, l sat next to the chairman Of the Min uesota state commission, backing the project of our government joining with the Canadian government in a s270.O00,000 project to build a deep sea canal. connecting the Great Lakes with the At,ant4c ocean. Unless my memory is at fault, I will find similar projects on my trip to the Gulf states and along tne Atlantic seaboard. In the states of Washington and Oregon here and in Arizona and New Mexico there are irrigation prospects, under way.
 Assuming that all these projects are meritorious, the old way, and the only way up to date, to get them authorized by appropriation bills was to make a drive on your local sena- tors and congressman. Everybody knows that there are bureaus in the executive departments at Washing ton filled with permanent civil serV- ice employees who are doing nothing else but studying and working on our national needs for better waterways and more and better irrigation. These peFsonne- have to think nationally. Why in the name or common sense and business sagacity don't our peo- pie take up their local national prob 1ems with | ie executive departments and not with their congressmen? The problem is right up to the people of this country. Do you prefer exec utive planning, direction, study ana control of our great national prob lems, or do you prefer to throw them into the maelstrom of the log rolling, vote swapping pork barrel, wasteful methods under which the national house of representatives and our sen- ate have been in the habit of acting?
 And now for the remedy:
 ..The national budget bill was passed in June, 1921. It creates bureau of the budget under direc- tor of the budget, in the office of the secretary of the treasury. but directly responsible to the president. The duties of the bur au are to compile and revise (note the word) the esti- mates of the executive bureaus and departments, and to submit the same to the president, to be by him trans mitted to congress on the opening day of each session. he budget is to contain summory statement, ac- companied by supporting schedules, showing the estimated revenue and expenses of the government for the next fiscal ye.tr. For the year 1921 only, an alternative budget is to be presented. showing how the budget bureau would like to submit it's fig ures. For years there have been a number of general appropriation bills, 15 in number I believe. They are not well grouped functionally. For exam pie, the war department now gets its money under five distinct bills The alternative budget for 1921 will undoubtedly follow the functional standard, which Is the method used in countries operated under budget systems.
 Gen. Charles c. Dawes of Chica-