Evening star., 1926-12-01

Congress does the talking, but Its
committees do the work. Usually the
committees go to work long before
Congress begins talking, and the real
business of the ensuing session IS
mapped out by them. One Of the vital
committees of the National Leglsla-
ture is the House committee on appro'
nriations. Under it's veteran chair
man. Representative Martin Is. MAD
den of Illinois, it has been consider
ing the budgets of the Federal Depart
roents for several weeks. By the time
Congress- is convened on December ..
Madden's men will have completed
discussion Of the budgets OF the treas.
urv. Navy, Interior, Agriculture ano
Post Office departments. POST OlllCe
appropriations are far and away the
biggest item, except the money requl.
sitioned by the Treasury Tor interest
on the public debt. Our postal serVlce'
which has become the largest na nnsl.
ness in the world, costs $75O,ooo,ooo
vear II employs 100000 people. 1t
erows so fast that personnel increases
70 600 or 10000 annually. The Pos.
Office is almost self-supporting g-woulo
he now except for the recent postal
pay raise"
"czar" Tom Reed, rebuking
House critic who lamented that the
national budget had reached $l,OOO,.
nno oO1 draWled out the immortal
snhorism that I'VE have become a
hillion.dollar country" Today We're
a r.billion-dollar country, roundiy.
We would probably be five or SIX
hillion-dollar country, according 70
Chairman Madden, if the executive
departments always got anything near
what they ask for. Since the roman
esnue Illinoisan became the head OF
the appropriations committee, datlng
roughly from the Inauguration OF the
budget in 1921, he boasts that ne mas
whitfield down departmental estimates
hv the imposing total of $4,000, O00,0oo.
Madden's allies and accomplces in
the dog-watch they maintain over the
treasury of the republic are zen.
Lord. director of the budget, and CON
troller General McCarl, the Worlo >
greatest expense account expert.
Mrs. Carrie Chapman Gait. general
chairman of the conference on the
Cause and Cure Of War;" whicn -
about to hold forth in. washington
thinks the Monroe Doctrine is OUT.
grown" She puts forward eaae
Theory in the current number or the
World Tomorrow, radical ln'eaiia en
tionalist organ. Contending that con
ditions have vastly changed IN Latln
America" since the doctrine was pro
claimed. and that "the growing. seli-
Conscious states of the southern contl'
nent resent it." Mrs. Gait sides with
South Americas demand that the
doctrine be .'reinterpreted and oe
made a policy Of the whole western
Hernisphere." At the last Pan-Amerl-
can conference in Chile. this country
declined to abandon its traditional
attitude that the doctrine is purely a
United States policy. The SITUATION
requires either a clear and complete
definition of the Monroe Doctrine as
a present-day policy" says mrs. Catt'
"or it's abolition. Neither is nKeiy,
since it Is so much easier to drift. Bu.
drifting is a menace to the peace ana
ca fetv' of the country" The Monroe
Doctrine will be 1913 years old tomor'
row, December 2.
Il II y \
DR.. Sylvanus G. Morley. distin-
guished authority on Middle Amer1-
can archaeology and associate OF the
Carnegie Institution at Washington.
received a letter from Mexico the
other day addressed as follows:
DR.. S.lvano G. Morley.
Carnegie Institution, D. c.,
Huachinton,
Estados Unidos.
"Huachinton" is excellent phonetic
Spanish for Washington. Spanish hav.
ing M wv" P0stmast0r GNneral