Evening star., 1924-09-21
Capital Sidelights
BY WILL p. KENNEDY.

service or out or IL. he mas a won
derful vision of this country which
just now is particularly timely and
appropriate to quote, since the esti-
mates for appropriations for all &C
tivities of the Government for the
next fiscal year have just been sub
mitted for his wise.
Gen. Lord says that he has vision
to see the broad slopes of our de-
nuded hills and mountains again
clothed in the glorious majesty of
stately forests. He has vision to see
the hamiets, villages, towns and cities
OF our country bound together by
broad ribbons Of faultless highway,
over which rumble the ponderous
trucks Of commerce and over which
speed the limousines of the rich and
the fivvers of the more moderate cir
cumstanced. He has vision to see
imposing public buildings adorning
the public squares of our populous
communities. He has vision to see
our bays and rivers bearing unvexed
on their placid bosoms the commerce
of this and other countries, pointing
to the last word in river and harbor
construction. He has vision TO see
every last arid foot of land converted
into an Eden of productive fertility.
He has vision to see this wonderful
country, by the expenditure of Fed
eral billions, transformed into
Utopia of comfort. convenience and
beauty. He has vision to see all this
and then some one hands him
Treasury statement and he wakes up.
1t has been said that the director
of the Bureau of the Budget, in car
ryinG out the executive policy OF
retrenchment, should have the hide
Of a rhinoceros and a backbone of
steel and a. heart of flint.
ects visioned above, Gen. Lord en-
phasizes, must be provided for. but
only to the extent that the condition
of the Treasury and the plight of the
taxpayer will warrant
There is another interesting pic
ture in Gen. Lords mind just now,
crowded into which are more indi-
vidual items in mass than have ever
been seen jumbled together at any
time. anywhere in the world. His
minds eye sees in a nightmare
the heterogeneous conglomeration of
things that all of the 10 departments
and 33 independent esta blishments
and the legislative and judicial
branches of the Government state
they need money for out of the Fed
eral Treasury.
To pay interest on the public debt,
and provide through the sinking fund
for its gradual redemption; to settle
claims; hire help; buy supplies and
equipment of every kind and char
acter known to commerce, from tacks
to locomotives and from drugs to
dirigibles; to purchase railroad tic
kets and postage stamps; rent build
ingS; manage hotels, hospitals, priS
ons, soldiers homes, steamships,
canals, experimental farms and ma
tional parks; dredge rivers and har-
bors; encourage irrigation and con-
troll immigration; conduct relief
work; develop commerce: regulate
railroads; compensate injured Fed
eral employees; conserve the public
health: promote the welfare of the
laborer: issue patents; foster the
arts and sciences; direct the affairs
of state; pay pensions and compen-
Sation to war veterans, and provide
for their insurance and vocational
education: save lives and salvage
arid lands; care for the Indians; build
roads; erect monuments; finance cor
porations, railroads and farm loan
banks; pay the expenses of the legis-
lative establishment: administer JUS
tice and enforce the laws; preserve
the national forests; wage constant
warfare against the warble fly the
sheep tick. the boil weevil and other
pests; maintain and Army and Navy
for the national defense; operate
through the Post Office Department
the largest communication system in
the world; and do the thousand and
one other things that are considered
necessary in the actual operation of
this great organization doing busi-
ness under the firm name of the Uni
ted States of America.
Faced by President Coolidge's an
nouncement with finality that we
must pay as we go and that bal
anced budget would continue to be
the unbeatable and unalterable policy
of the Government, Gen. Lord con-
fess ses that he recalled with profit
the story Of a famous field mar
shall who had assigned a difficult task
to subaltern. The officer explained
at some length how the duty as
signed him was impossible of per-
formance. The field marshal heard
his explanation courteously and when
he had finished said: Il believe that
you have expressed as forcibly and
cogently as any one could the i'm
possibility of performing the task as
signed you. Now go do it."
The story of Gen. Lords fight to
balance the budget, to fulfill the PreSi-
dents wishes and justify the confidence
placed in him, is drama in which
pennies and millions play their impor-
tant part-a drama of hope alternating
with disbursement of daily and hour
ly study of growing receipts and swell
ing expenditures, of interminable anx-
ious calculations, and record of hon
est effort on the part of many of the
Government departments and estab-
lishments to cut down expenditures.
X
Thu anna11inr ioonrapoa of
people in this country regarding their
Government and about how Uncle
Sans business is conducted at the
Capital of the Nation was we'll illus.
trated to DR.. w. w. Stockberger, scien-
tific specialist and classification officer
for the Department of Agriculture in
seeing that each of the employees of
| the department gets justly proper
toned pay for the character of work
done under the new reclassification of
salary schedules in the Federal service
DIR. Stockberger was travelling in
the far West and had been in con-
ference with the manager of a series
of large ranches on the Pacific Coast
They were driving through Sacrament
to when this big business man said to
the doctor: Il suppose you see the
President often when you are in
Washington" DR.. Stockberger replied
that he saw the President maybe twice
in year. The business man expressed
surprise, saying: why, I thought you
saw him every day-aren't your offices
with his in the White. House?"
DR.. Stockberger was dumfounded.
His mind quickly toured the two-score
buildings, exclusive of miles of green
houses, occupied by the activities of
the Department Of Agriculture in
Washington. Then he asked his COM
panion- How large a building do you
suppose it would take to house all the
Government offices in Washington?