The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1922-09-30
TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
Information Bureau
FREDERIC J. HAsKIN, Direcsor.
Washington. ID. @.
PROBLEMS OF THE BUDGET.

| termine whether or not our form Of
government Is adaptable to this
method of scientific finance. For
many years the congress has been be-
sieged with proposals to enact e. bud
get system as a means of instituting
economies and placing receipts and
| expenditures of the treasury in such
a form tina. uncertainty would be
taken out of the government fiscal OPP
erations. Such system was instituted
| something over year ago and has
been in operation.
| Gen Charles G. Dawes was the first
| director general of the budget. With
| characteristic vigor he effected econ
omies in operation of the vast govern
ment machine, cutting out duplica-
J tons and saving waste in scores OF
ways. It is difficult to determine what
| is saved in governmental operations
because what might have been spent
is so vaguely potential q quantity that
| 1t is not readily susceptible OF re-
duction to figures. 1t is generally ad-
mitted, however, that General Dawes
administration of the budget cut down
| waste and extravaganza to the extent
of many millions of dollars.
On the first of July General Dawes
turned the bureau of the budget over
to Gen. H NJ. Lord. General Lord
is man of equal If not greater vigor.
He has found some fault with details
of his predecessors administration and
| hopes to make even greater savings.
He has intimated that while much
| has been done in the way of economy,
the big task of holding the expenses
| down lies still ahead of the bureau OF
the budget.
Recently the several executive de-
partments, boards, bureaus, and COM
missions submitted to the bureau esti-
mates of appropriations for the en-
suing year. These figures were large
ly in excess of what the director OF
the budget thinks safely can be al
lowed if a balance is to be maintained
between receipts and expenditures.
The estimates have been sent back
for revision and a maximum figure
quoted to each department within
which its estimates must stay.
The budget director is proving oD-
durate. He will not relent and give
the various department heads larger
allowances. Every executive in the
government has pet schemes requiring
appropriations and they all fight
equally hard for them. The director
of the budget looks the income of the
government squarely in the face and
If the estimates of appropriations ex-
coed the income, he says mo" very
decisfvely.
! May Appeal to Congress.
i The next step of the offended de-
partment executive is to go straight
to congress-. The budget bureau will
not allow him funds to carry on inn
portant experiments, for instance.
He interests some members of con-
gress and gets special bills introduced
lappropriating the desired sums. This
procedure is followed all down the
line.
This is where the crisis appears.
The bureau of the budget puts its O.
K. on the restricted, regular items for
maintenance and operation. These
expenses are calculated to take up the
whole income of the government.
ton bills, with long and often con-
vincing arguments in their favor, call
ing for millions of dollars in addition.
Will congress hold the expense down
to the budget estimates or will it pass
the extra appropriation bills? If the
appropriations are confined to the
budget, the budget system wins. If the
extra appropriation bills are passed,
the budget system is practically
strapped because it's effectiveness is
rendered void. The very theory of a
| budget system is to keep within GER
tain fixed limits, balancing income
and expenditure In such a system the
toes of a good many government Nof-
ffcials are trod upon rather ruth
lessly because items must be slashed
from the estimates to make the fig
ures balance. If congress calmly
walks around the budget and adds
: various kinds of special appropriation
bills, the whole purpose of a budget is
! defeated and the same situation OBJ
tains as before the budget bill became
a law.
The question will be threshed out in
congress this winter and it is expected
there will be fireworks in the process
/, The president strongly upho1ds the
budget system and has declared I'M
equivocally that appropriations OF
| 40
, ment income. He has adopted the
economy of Micawber the famous
5 character in Dickens whose homely
l discussion of the budget idea aptly ex-
presses the situation. He says, in ef-
feet: Income, $2,005; expenditure
$4,000 means happiness. Income
:. $4,000: expenditure. $2,005 means
misery"
President Backs Budget.
The president takes the same view
and will insist that the American gov
1 eminent seek to have a surplus OF
revenue rather than an excess of ex-
4 penditure. Micawber's analysis related
!, to the affairs of an individual family
but the case is not greatly altered
D when nations are concerned. For q
mans expenses to exceed his income
4 means he must run in debt and bor-
|, row. paying interest. For a govern
ment to spend more than its income
n means the same thing. There is moi
the element of personal misery which
q Micawber speaks of, but there is sub
stantial national embarrassment which
may result in personal misery of the
9 unthrifty nations individuals.
Practically the sole trouble with
1.-THE European nations which now are
having such grave financial diff
r culties is that they went on a wal
a spree and spent vastly more thar
q their income. That is the case with
| G fNr 20 rr
with Poland and, in a lesser degree
with England. They spent more thar
: their incomes and now they must Dor.
, row. Their currencies have depre
- ciated because they have not KEEP
e their bulge balanced. This has re
: suited in loss of trade and in ruinou.
# prices for the necessities of life. They
represent instances in which the un