Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-05-12
Government Expense Issue
Starts Warm Controversy

Senator Borah's reply to the advice
from President Hoover that Congress
should hold governmental expenses In
check has created a warm controversy
which Is shared by the public. The
Senator protests against the demand:
Of bureaucracy, and Is supported ir
some comments, but it is also pointed
out that this congressional critic has
| shared in the demands for expenditures
and there Is much dispute as to the
primary responsibility.
"A bureau once established is always
thereafter with u.s." complains the
Champaign News Gazette. ut cannot
be gotten rid of. If it is held to NOM
inal expenditures. the public has indeed
won victory. But wrong as they are
they will continue to grow unless this
angry public opinion forecast by the
Senator, grows and maintains itself IN
til 1t is felt" The Port Huron Times
Herald holds that, 'as Senator Borah
has suggested, it is likelyg to go on until
the 123,000,000 people of the United
States get mad about it."
THE popular indignation which Mr.
Borah foreSeeS Will rise against a great
Federal bureaucracy" according to the
st. Louis Post-Dispatch, will not, in
works Of the Government, which not
only supplement the work of the States
but oftentimeS supply their omissions
The true case. and the one against
which the people are already rising, is
against those unnecessary excreScences
of Government which often invade the
States but accomplish nothing Mr..
Borah is himself an ardent supporter of
the most fragrant Of these, the Prohibi-
d. Tl,-1I la ia n.
Is heavy contributor to those excessive
costs which he aScribes to executive de-
partmentS."
Senator Adrich long ago predicted"
recalls the Lexington Leader, that he
could save the Government $4,000, 900
year, which seems a small sum now,
II the departments could be put upon
q strictly business basis. No doubt
many hundreds of millions could be
saved today if reorganization could be
effected. This Is the very thing Mr..
Hoover has been working on for years,
while he was Secretary of Commerce
and since he became President He has
accomplished more than any of his
predecessors in this direction. But he
has been able to make progress only
within narrow limits because Congress
has failed repeatedly to give him the
necessary authority
\ X
The Senator's statement that 1.-THE
Government has no right to exact from
its taxpayers one dollar beyond the
amount necessary to run the Govern
ment, wisely and economically expended"
is quoted by the Birmingham News with
the comment. THAT is one principle of
government that all too much has been
disregarded in this country, not only by
the Federal Government, but by many
If not all of the States. Instead of
holding down expenditures to essentials
and raising only the amount Of revenue
required to defray the necessary ex-
penses of government, the tendency has
been increasingly to raise appropria-
tions In general as high as possible and
to make new appropriations that are
not always for purposes that may fairly
be claSSed as essential"
ut is high time that the taxpayers
rebel against Federal support for bu-
reaucracy assuming to usurp the func-
tons Of the States" declares the In
dianapolis Star, with recognition, how
ever, of the fact that Congress cannot
escape blame" and the further sug-
gestiOn that at the very time Senator
Borah was demanding an abatement Of
bureaucratic spending a conference at
Washington was censuring Congress for
failure to approve Sufficient financial