New-York tribune., 1921-12-06
Bureau are placed at $50, ,208,1eo, "a
compared with $5s,o3c,7y0 for this


compared with S5s,oS2,7s0 for this
year.
Estimates for independent agencies
include: Federal Traoe Commission,
S94S.500; Interstate Commerce Com
mission, $499h,240; Housing Corpora
ton, $1,267 ,453: Railroad Labor BOARD.
$50; Alien Property Custodian.
$500, ,4So; Civil Service Commission.
Sb96.595 and Employees Compensation
Commission and Compensation Fund,
$2,7sS, 900.
Report by Director Dawes
Accompanying the budget as sent to
Congress is detailed report from
Director General Dawes AS to the oper-
alton OF the Budget Bureau since its
establishment, five months ago, and
some pointed comments as to means Of
continuing its efficient operation. Dis
cussing the reception or the budget by
Congress, General Dawes says:
ut is to be expected that since the
preliminary estimates have been made
under pressure by the Executive for
proper retrenchment, where consistent
with efficiency. it will not be necessary,
as heretofore, for Congress to make
radical cuts upon the estimates of the
budget with any uncertainty as to what
will be the result as it effects efficiency.
The President of the United States,
when he sends the budget TO Congress,
Is presumed to send it with all the re-
ductions in expenditures which can be
effected without due Impaircment of
governmental business processes. In
the preparation of the budget he has
had at work an authorized agency in
the bureau, not only in ascertaining
the reasonableness of desired appro
priations, but in continually. imposing
~ erac h~ 1,va NJ tNvSt tn - "
reduction in the estimates wherever
proper and possible"
General Dawes says he feels that the
estimate for expenditures for 1923,
upon which the budget is based. 'will
not be increased except through appro
priations initiated by Congress or by
the Executive as result of emergency
or unforeseen conditions arising after
the preparation of the budget"
Would End "Revolving Funds"
Reiterating his recommendation that
Congress Immediately repeal all out
standing continuous appropriations and
revolving funds" General Dawes says
the method of appropriating money
heretofore followed "has resulted in
condition Of things under which it is
almost impossible for either the Execu
tive, Congress or the Secretary of the
Treasury to have before them a true
picture of the fiscal condition of the
government at any particular time"
'The whole habit of making continu-
Gus appropriations to which the gov
ernment has been committed in the
past" he adds, "is only al encourage
ment to a lack of scrutiny of public
work by the head of the department
under which it is carried on, and an
encouragement to shiftlessness and
carelessness on the part of the subordi-
mates more directly concerned in it.
This system of preparing the budget
will confine the attention of the Execu-
tive, of Congress and of the public to
the one great important question, to-
wit, the relation of the money actually
to be spent by tic government to the
money actually to be received by the
government in any given year, all its
outstanding obligations and indefinite
commitments, projects and enterprises
considered. This will enable Congress,
with more intelligence. to determine at
any time both the necessity for re-
trenchment and the ability of the gov
ernment to engage in additional prof.
ects to be initiated by Congress out
side Of the budgetary provisions.
Lacked Business Plan
Likening the Federal government TO
o business corporation, General Dawes
points to these faults" which he says
existed:
The president of the corporation
She President o. the United States)
gave practically no attention to its
ordinary routine business.
The administrative vice-presidents
members of the Cabinet> were allowed
to run their several departments as if
each separate department was an indie
pendent authority in all matters Of
routine business.
Because of lack of any outlined
business plan no system existed for
making purchases or in selling ma
terial along business lines under uni
fed policy.
No balance sheet of the corporation
as whole was ever prepared.
The treasurer kept no accurate ac-
count of the contingent obligations OF
the various Federal departments, thus
resulting in money being drawn from
him continuously in excess of the esti
mated annual running expenses.
The corporation, in effect, seldom re-
considered an unwise project entered
into by any department.
The administrative heads of the de-