Evening star., 1935-10-06
Text of Hoovers Speech Western C. O. P. Convention


s700, 0,000, 600 Of additional revenues and
100000, 900 of additional reductions in
expenditures were urged, and again,
after months of delay, we're refused
altogether.
1t is not overstatement to say that
had the Republican principles of bal
ancing the budget been accepted in
1881 and 1882, the final stone in the
foundation of permanent recovery
would have been laid three years ago
instead of deferred for years hence.
Recalls Democratic Pledge.
do not need recall the promises so
vigorously put forward by the Demo-
cratic platform, the Democratic candi-
date, and the Democratic orators in
the campaign Of 1932-the promises
that they would balance the budget,
and reduce expenditures by $l,O0O,-
100000 a year. I may suggest that
our opponents in 1882 would have re-
ceived far less votes had they disclosed
to the country their intention to in
crease the expenditures by $14,000,-
100000 in four years; or had they dis
closed that they would maintain a
deficit of $500, 100000 per annum:
that they would increase the numbers
of the Government bureaucracy by
100000 persons and create 5000 paid
committees and commissions. They
would have lost still more votes had
they informed us that they would
abandon the gold standard; that they
would devalue the dollar by Al per
cent; that they would repudiate Gov
ernment obligations; that they would
seek to circumvent the Constitution:
that they would attempt to socialize
and regiment Americans. 1t is per-
haps not an overstatement that on the
now demonstrated principles Of this
administration, they could not have
won the election of 1882.
But the wreckage of representative
governments is strewn with broken
promises.
I do not need to tell any one within
the sound of my voice of that huge
waste in Government expenditures
that is going on. Every one of you
know instance after instance of waste
and folly in your own city and village
1t appears day by day in the head
lines of your papers. Think it over and
multiply it by all the thousands of
other towns and communities in the
United States and get the appalling
total.
"Army of Spenders."
I would call your attention to the
numbers and potentcy of the army
of spenders which has been created
According to the reports of the Civil
Service Commission, there we're about
$4,000 civilian employees in the
Federal Government at the end of the
Coolidge administration. There we're
about SOS 900 at the end of the Hoo
yer administration. There are $780,
900 today. And this does not include
some 100000 part-time paid men,
bers of some 5000 committees and
agencies Of one sort or another who
all spend money. Nor does it include
the people on relief The whole sys-
tenn OF non-political appointments
under the civil service, which had
been steadily built up by every ad-
ministration for years, has now been
practically ignored. Almost this
whole addition of 100000 new people
on the Federal pay roll constitutes
the most gigantic spoils raid in our
history. Even Andrew Jackson ap-
pointed less than 10000.
Whenever you increase the num-
bers of political bureaucracy you not
only have to pay them, but they are
veritable research laboratories for
new inventions in spending money.
Bureaucracy rushes headlong into
visions Of the millennium and sends
the bill to the Treasury. And there
are three implacable spirits in bureau
cracy - -perpetuation, expansion
and demand for more power. More
over, they also serve to help win
elections.
The Roosevelt administration is now
clutched in the meshes of the gigantic
spending bureaucracy which it has
created. Even with expenditures of
some S8,000,000,0Oo annually, with
deficits of about s3,500,000,00O, there
is to be no breathing SPELL in spend
ing, as witness the $4,000, ,00O,0 of
new appropriations just passed by
Congress. One administration writer
kindly assures us that the budget will
be balanced four years hence, in 1899.
That happy ending no doubt marks
the end of anything to spend.
Attacks Congress.
incidentally, the Congress supinely
surrendered one of the hardest won
battles of human liberty-the con-
troll Of the Nations purse.
When we protest at those expendi-
lures we are met with the sneer,
Would you let the people starve?"
No. Never. 1t was, in fact, a Re-
publican administration that in 1880
announced that no American should
go hungry or cold through no fault
Of his own. 1t organized the relief
so effectively by cooperation Of the
Federal Government with the State
and local authorities that the public
health actually improved during that
whole period. And here let me pay
tribute to the thousands of devoted
men and women who gave of their
time and energies to conduct that re-
lief over three long years. Theirs
was no political objective Nor was
it their object to spend the peoples
money to prime economic pumps, nor
to make social experiments which de-
layed real jobs. Theirs was a solici-
tude that those in distress from no
fault of their own should be tided
over until productive jobs returned.
Real relief is imperative, but its
necessary and generous cost unmixed
with other objectives would be but a
minor part of this $4,000 ,0O0, 900 per
annum. The presumed purpose of this
spending has been to secure recovery.
And we may we'll inquire what has been
accomplished toward finding real jobs
in productive industry and commerce
by this roaring torrent of Federal
spending and deficit. The best meas
ure of the depression is the number
of unemployed. Justly, take the date