Clinch Valley news. [volume] (Jeffersonville, Va.) 18??-2019, 1922-07-07
APPROPRIATION
FIGURES JUGGLED
REPUBLICANS UNEASY AS TO RE-
SUIT OF NOVEMBER
ELECTIONS.
FACTS BADLY DISTORTED
Congressman eyrnes, OF South Caro-.
lima Ridlcules Claims OF Party
Of Special Privilege In Ad.
dress In The House.
BY WALLACE RAssFoRD
Especial Correspondence


Washington, D. O. u m-The
President, who proudly rode into OF.
nee In March of last year with seven
millions majority behind him, is now
so uneasy ms to the result of the com.
ing November elections that he and
his Director OF the Budget, General
Dawes. juggle appropriation figures
and boldly distort the facts In their
efforts to fool the people into again
voting for the party Of special priv.
lege. The Presidents claim to saving
$l,60O,000,OO0 in the past year was
taken up in the House the other day
by Congressman Byrnes. OF South Car.
olina, and shot full Of holes. Mr.
Byrnes said:
The President announced to the
country that we will this year reduce
our expenditures $1,000, 100000 below
the expenditure for the last fiscal year.
Well. the expenditures for the last As cal
year which were authorized by a Re.
publican Congress were the largest
ever authorized in time of peace in
the history Of the country. II now,
four years after the war, there was
not q tremendous reduction in erpen.
ditures there would be little hope for
the preservation OF the government.
My regret Is tina. the President In
Issuing this statement did not call at
tention to the fact that for the year
1916, the last year prior to our enter
Ing the war when we were engaged In
measures Of preparedness, our ex.
penditures did not amount to more
than S1.115, 100000, and that the esti-
mate he now makes as to expendl-
lures this year is s3.s22,372 900, or g.
S07,881,326 more than was spent un-
der the Democratic administration for
the last fiscal year prior to the war.
Il regret that he did not call at
tention to the fact that while the
Budget Bureau claims these bogus
savings of sl36, 100000. the fact Is that
the same departments have 10 date
secured from the Congress deficiencies
or supplemental appropriations
amounting to 1914 ,691, O40.65.
''The Secretary OF the Treasury
does not keep up with this political
game. He issued statement that we
are facing deficit, and then along
comes General Dawes, who says that
we have saved billion and half
dollars. The President, IL he has any
confidence in him at all, ought to urge
the Congress- to declare dividend to
the taxpayers of America. and we
would all be entitled to share. I
favored the Bureau of the Budget.
There was real work for the Director
Of the Budget to do. but the Bureau OF
the Budget has never functloned as
Congress intended 1t should. The Blu.
reau submitted estimates for an
amount larger than the appropriations
for the current year and before the
subcommittee of the Committee on
Appropriations no one appeared to de-
fend his estimates. The director con-
tented himself with these has eless
claims OF savings. 1t is nothing but
bunk-political bunk. (Applause)."
Mr.. Byrnes then went on to show
some of the specific instances where
the President and General Dawes had
made claims of saving-claims SO east
ly disproved that the President ap-
pears in childllke and ridiculous at
titude before the country, II we as
sumo that he was SO easily misled by
Dawes political smoke-screen. Mr..
Byrnes said, in part:
HE says that $500 was saved out
of an appropriation for the widow of
Senator Proctor, Of Vermont Away
back in 1908 when Senator Proctor
died this money was appropriated for
his widow. She declined to accept it,
and the good lady has long since gone
to her reward. 1t remained upon the
books to her credit, but nobody else
could get 1t, and General Dawes says
he saved 1t this year. Who was try.
ing to get it? tLaughter).
There is 100000 saved in enlarg-
ing the Capitol Grounds. Do you re-
member in the distant past that ap-
preparation was made for charging
the Capitol Grounds? It has been on
the books, and 1t stays there. There
fore. IL is saved out OF the current ap-
preparations this year. l wish my
friend from Kentucky, Ben Johnson,
were here, because 1t would bring
back memories of the past to him.
The trouble with this statement is that
it goes throughout the country and
some people are misled by 1t. They
are misled into believing that there ls
saving of s112, O0O,O 900, now increased
to $135. 100000, when there Is not any
saving, and. as a matter Of fact, it is
only saving on paper. 1t Is nothing
but a political saving; It will never
relieve the taxpayer.
"Then there Is the Panama Canal.
Why, my friends, he has saving in
here OF 1864 in the original appro.
:priation for digging a canal from the
Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean. appro-
priated when the proposition was first
urged for digging canal from the
Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean. He says
"A man while fishing fell into tho
a