Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1923-06-21
A REMARKABLE PERFORMANCE

How many would have braved the
risk of being thought credulous in
prophesying last year. when the de-
1icit on July lst was sS23,000.000 that
i. would be converted to surplus
around 5000, 900. 900 by July /, 1928?
We were accustomed to talk of
economy; we chortled over the pro-
fame emphasis laid unsparingly Oh the
Job by General Dawes; we wished
well of his successor, General LORD
and though we recognized that he
being a Maine man might be depend
cd to render q good accounting. new
crthelcss there were hungry congress-
men lurking around the corner for
soria of the loot to take home to their
constituents.
President Harding set about con-
founding skepticism and has done it,
Or seen that it was done. There was
a reduction of around 1856, 100000 in
the expense of the various bureaus.
when everyone knows that one of the
chief matters uppermost in the nor
NAL bureaucratic mind is how to
spend all possible so that the appro-
priation won't be reduced the year
following. Some of them must have
thrust tradition into the background
and Loyalty supported the administra-
ton in it's effort to reduce expendi-
lures.
country that the financial millennium
hasn't yet arrived, and anyone at all
familiar with the workings of nation
g! affairs at Washington will hardly
dispute him. Nevertheless the per-
Torrance is quite remarkable and
President Harding is set on ascer-
tanning just what the irreducible min
imum of public expenditure may be.
lie insists that the good work must
go on and he declares that way
must be found to avoid the thirty mill
lions deficit shown in the estimates of
expenditures for the next year.
This he stressed in his talk with
the heads of the Governments bust
ness organization at a recent meeting.
He called attention to unexpected re-
Ceipts, such as the receipts from the
new tariff and the funding of the
British debt which have materially
helped, but he reminded them that
''the coming fiscal year will afford us
q real opportunity to demonstrate our
ability to carry on the policy of econ
Omy in the conduct of business and
retrenchment of expenditures. He
recognized the unpopularity sure to
be incurred by this effort but express
ed his faith in the sober reflection of
the people and that they would in the
end approve.
This unpopularity would have de-
tered a weaker executive from the
undertaking, but President Harding
has, not flinched. Being a practical
man he succeeded in obtaining at the
outset that which was essential to
success a budget wisely planned. Es-
Inmates cannot always provide for the
unexpected but in the main this ap-
pears to have been done, a feature to
which he alluded: action by Con-
sress on the estimates for 1924 there
fore amounted to practical ratitica-
ton of the budget and the supple
mental estimates. This in itself shows
how carefully, how painstakinSly
were the estimates prepared, and is
a source of much qualification to the
Chief Executive. 1t is the first time
in many years that executive requests
for appropriations and legislative
grant have been in practical accord.
1t has been truly unusual per-
fornance and in striking contrast to
the conditions Of poor and wasteful
mana cement which preceded it. The
country will indeed be ungrateful If
j: does not register its approval of
this important achievement.