Evening star., 1924-02-27
CHAPTER III.
The Bureau of the Budget: A New
D0v.

Day.
Gen. Herbert NJ Lord is director of
the budget of the government Of the
United States. He stepped in when
Gen. Charles Dawes stepped out. Lord
is former Army man. A cartoonist
would feature his chin. eyes and fore
head. He is capable, earnest and
practical. He must have imagina-
ton, too. for. as President Coolidge
said recently, Lord lis the eyes and
| ears of the executive, and the man
aging director Of the fiscal policy of
| the business organization Of the gov
, ernment."
He is not officially popular in
Washington. That is a good sign for
he must have "a backbone OF steel.
| heart of flint, and the hide of a
rhinoceros."
But let Con. Lord speak for HIM
self: II. too, have vision to see the
| broad slopes of our denuded hills and
! glorious majesty of stately forests:
( can see the hamlets, villages. towns
and cities of our country bound to-
gether by broad ribbons of faultless
highway over which rumble the pom
derous trucks of commerce. and over
which speed the limousines of. the
| rich and the fivvcrs of the more
moderately circumstanced. l can see
/ imposing public buildings adorning
| the public squares of our populous
communities: / can see our bays,
rivers and inlets bearing unvexed on
| their bosoms the commerce of this
and other countrieS-pointing TO the
! last word on river and harbor con-
| struction: l can see every last arid
| foot of land converted into an Eden
| n / vision
!, to see this wonderful country. by the
expenditure of federal billions, trans
| formed into a Utopia of comfort. con-
venience and beauty. 1 sec all this
| rising before me-and then some one
| hands me a Treasury statement, and
! I wake up. These important worthy
government projects must be pro-
vided for, but only to the extent that
! the condition of the Treasury and
the plight of the taxpayer will war
| rant"
There you have in a paragraph a
| fairly accurate picture of Lord. II
shows how his mind works.
New Watchdog of Treasury.
| Certain men in Congress in the
past have been called "watchdogs
of the Treasury Usually the name
| was given to particularly vigorous
mittee OF the House of Represent
! atives. Today the real watchdog of
! the Treasury is the director of the
| budget. That watchdog is going to
! grow larger and more powerful in the
! public mind each year
! The federal government is begin
! ming to cut its expenses. The ap-
! propriations for 1923 were 1924. 900. 900
! less than those for 1922. That Is a
real achievement. Bui for 1924 the
| than for 1923. We now have the 1925
Z! estimates. They have already been
submitted 10 Congress. They provide
J for d further reduction of sl26.0OO,
/ 900 below the 1924 figures. I'm three
years." declared Gen. Lord to the
! writer, under this continuing pro-
| gram, federal appropriations will
! have been cut more than one-half
| billion dollars"
This is the program laid out, and
| il falls to the lot of Gen. Lord. as
director of the budget, to see to II
! that the program is actually carried
| out.
! Now let's see how a budget is made
. up. Say we take the 1929 one as a
/ fair sample: ,,
: ed on the forty-three various de-
partments of the federal government
! to submit to his Office preliminary es-
! Inmates Of the amount of money each
one required for the handling of his
/ department for 1925. The estimate
was TO be In the budget bureau by
August l, 1923.
$c64, 100000 Over the Mark.
! These preliminary estimates play
| a very important part in budget pro-
! cedures. 1t, likewise. gives the bu-
reau of the budget picture of the
| financial intentions of the executive
agencies a month and a half before
the regular estimates are submitted
! in compliance with the law. August
| ] arrived. So did the various pre-
| liminary estimates.
when the director OF the budget
| came to-" as Gen. Lord expressed it,
he found that the estimates submit
; ted called for s1,964,000.000 for all
purposes. excepting only the gubliC
debt and postal service. President
Harding, on June IS. 1923. had ask ed
| all departments to reduce all esti-
mates SO that the amount required