Evening star., 1926-02-01
WASHINGTON OBSERVATIONS
BY FREDERIC WILLIAM VILE

No business meeting" of the Gov
iernment, like the one President Coolidge
and Gen. Lord addressed on January
80, ever takes place without rearouS-
ing the ire of certain sections Of Con
gress over the budget law. From those
quarters the cry is sent up that Con
gress, by the budget. is effectually
robbed of its constitutional preroga-
tive of controlling public expenditure.
But in the same breath that these
lamentations are uttered the croakers
admit that the process was one Of
self f-emaSculation when Congress eS-
tabliShed the budget. As matter of
fact, the director of the budget is very
much the boss of the Federal money
show. Departments and congressional
committees propose. But the Budget
Bureau disposes and very frequently
opposes. The real fight for appro-
priationS used to be waged on Capitol
Hill. Now ii has to be fought in the
modestly furnished little rooms at the
south end of the Treasury Building.
in which Gen. Lord rules with his
beneficently iron hand.
y y x
No question is more often canvasscd
when the budget system is discussed
than that of Gen. Herbert NJ. Lord =
future. Uncle Sam paid him $4,000
for saving S60,000,000 last year. AS
Lord himself has now disclosed great
private business enterprises are ready
to hire him away from the Govern
ment at any time and probably on
his own terms. His friends know that
| he has for more than q year faced
| the possible necessity, in his own inter
ests, of considering these siren songs
Doubtless Gen. Lord tomorrow could
step into the employ of any one of
score of American corporations and
sign contract for five or ten times his
Federal salary. He could easily earn
so fat an lncome-earn it. no doubt
five or six times over-by grating
on to private business some of the
Government economy kinks he has SO
relentlessly applied at Washington. If
! and when Lord leaves the budget, it's
! safe to say that it will not only be
larger emoluments that will influence
his decision. He must be pretty
! tired of the critical sings and
arrows so necessarily shot at
man who is guilty only of doing
his duty. letting the cheeseparing
cRips fall where they may.
i: K x y
This observer spent the week end
at Pittsburgh. All political Pennsyl-
Vanla was assembled there, headed by
| Of State Senator Harris, a powerful
and popular figure in PENNSYLVANIA
q. .. p. affairs. The entire Legisla-
ture adjourned from Harrisburg to
Pittsburgh to do farewell honor to
Senator Harris, who made a fortune
| out of vaudeville theaters. Pittsburgh
| on a sunny day isn't much smoker
| nowadays than Washington, and con-
tends that never does it generate as
much natural gas as the Capital.
Mills and factories, which dot the
banks of the Allegheny and the Mo-
nongahela endlessly, are now using,
by State law, smoke destroyers that
seem to be turning Piratetown into a
community where Gods sky is visible
about as often as anywhere else.
Pittsburghers think of organizing a
drive to abolish their national nick
| name of the Smoky City.
x x X X
Washington's most inveterate send
er of regrets, at these recurring peri
DDS of dinner epidemics, is William
Howard Taft. Practically ever since
he became Chief Justice of the United
| States, five years ago, Mr.. Taft has
declined to go out nights except on
the most important provocation.
lMost Of his friends in official and