Evening star., 1923-03-20
NEW BOOKS
AT RANDOM
THE FIRST YEAR OF THE BUDGET
OF THE UNITED STATES. BY
Charles G. Dawes. Harper &

"The First Year of the Budget of
the United States" reports an enter
1 prise in which every citizen of the
entire commonwealth has personal
and partaking interest. Taxes in
one form or another provide the bulk
Iof the capital for running the vast
business of the government. In pro-
the one hand, or to his good fortune
of inheritance, on the other. each
citizen contributes to this capital. 1t
behooVes him, therefore, to be IN
formed and to be keen, not only in
respect to the general use of this
money. but in respect as well to the
methods applied to it's use Gen.
| Dawes book, in its accounting of the
budget plan, points to the beginning
of a new era in government business
methods.
| For more than a century and
quarter the government of the United
States transacted business much after
the Main street fashion. During this
period industry took possession of the
country-took possession of the
Iworld. Inventions, science applied
10 the natural products Of earth and
sea and air, an ever-increasing ease
| of communication and contact-these
Iexpandcd industry and business enor-
mously in their powers and uses and
| complexities. In order to function
| III any degree adequately business
was driven to learning the great and
esS. ntiai lesson of organization. This
lesson taught, first. tnat any consid-
cradle business must have at its head
single source of direction ahd
power, single co-Ordinating force.
single responsibility for the whole.
Such headship is the prime element
iof organization. This principle ac-
cepted, subordinate parts settled
property into the general scheme BY
their own logic. Each took it's own
upon the place or use of any other.
So, working separately, and yet In
the best sense working all together
under the single head, industry came
TO achieve its modern triumph OF
maximum results with the corre-
spending minimum Of lost motion or
waste of any other sort. During this
| long period government business also
grew in volume and compleXity. But
| the business efficiency of the govern
ment Jagged far behind that of prl-
vate enterprise. That was TO be eX-
pected. It's cause lay In the inner
encies of democracy. Finally, how
ever. the government was ready 10
make use Of the business principles
developed by private initiative and
| experience. In pursuance Of this
readiness Congress passed the budget
| law. And TO secure a functionInG
I
budget bureau. What Congress did
do, in fleet. was to form vast bust
| ness corporation. at its head the
President Of the United States.
! When. over in France. Gen. Per
shing found himself in a dilemma
| over the condition Of the Army supply
service. he called for help upon
Charles q. Dawes. an American busi-
ness man OF experience and achieve
ment. What the latter did in this
situation was to fit down over the
supply service thorough going
! business organization that, under his
own control. co-ordinated diverse parts
and centralized authority. So when
Congress created Il budget bureau
jGen. Dawes. by right of inheritance,
| as it were-certainiy by right of
| notable achievement in similar
field-waS asked to head that bureau
as its first director.
! The book in hand gives fun &C
counting of the formation of the
budget bureau; of its development
into a going concern: of the character
and extent of it's first year of service.
! In part this record is official in sub
essential facts-condensed. summa-
rized tabulated. "A picture of the
whole business Gen. Dawes him
self would be likely to call il. In
another part-and this an impressive
and characteristic part-it is a run
ming comment: notes set down along
| the way, and turned over bodily here,
/ TO show the daily aspect of OUTLOOK
on through the full first year OF
budget functioning. The book. as
whole, opens up for general inspec-
tion not only the things accomplish
ed by the budget bureau. but it sets
! out the things desired by il, that
! the future is counted upon to secure.
| The outstanding fact of the report
; the one for the man who contributes
to the working capital OF govern
ment business to remember-is that
the budget plan. merely by virtue OF
tits efficiency. is an instrument of true
economy, giving u full dollars worth
for the dollar itself.
| x X
There are certain points. easy to
misunderstood, about which Gen.
dawes is both positive and clear.
One is that the prime purpose of the
budget system is not to cut down
expenses in the government business.
1t might easily stand-and 1t Will
stand upon ooccaSion-for increases
il advocates and promises rests chiefly
upon the elimination of wastes of
leYery kind through centralized con-
troll of the properly co-ordinated
lparts of the government business
house. 1t rests, in word. upon an
iorganization of modern pattern and
deficiency. Another point is that the
budget bureau is merely an instru-
!ment OF the routine business OF the
government, having no single point
of contact with the great bulk of leg
islative or executive affairs. Again,
1.-The budget bureau. in its essential
purpose, is an agency which Congress
created to secure for itself such in
formation as would back its appro-
lpriations with the sound Judgment of
business acumen as well as with a
righteous sense of federal needs.
This information must. in order to
be of value, have a special charac-
iter-that is. it must be impersonai,
lfree, full. reliable, clear of any spe-
ciaI slant whatever constructive,
also. in content and sRirit. Once IN
hand il serves both Congress and the
President--the former i'll its work OF
appropriations. the latter in his ca
ipacity of directing and controlling
head of the corporation conducting
the routine business of the govern
ment. AS was the case in France
with the supply service of the Ameri-
can expeditionary force. so here IN
1.-THE government there was an estab-
ilished way of doing things. This
indicated an agglutinative growth, a
icollection rather than an organism,
depressed in independent depart
\ ments, subject to the unavoidable
ilosses of such a formation. Again, as
lin france, 1t was the work of Gen.
Dawes to fit down over this aggre-
cation of parts a straight-out bust
iness scheme, co-ordinating diverse
lelements and centralizing authority
in order to do away with wastes and
Ito promote an efficient functioning of
1.-THE government business concern.
All this, mind you, for the sole pur-