Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1935-09-06
ROOSEVELT ORDER
CREATES FURRY
Previous Instruction for Ac.
counting and Later Can
r. collation. Is Recalled.
BY DAVID LAWRENCE.


the budget is balanced.
For this reason the latest action of
President Roosevelt, ordering all the
emergency agencies of the Government
to submit their administrative ex-
penses" to the director of the budget,
takes on unusual significance.
Unfortunately there is no check
upon the expenditures by the emer-
gency agencies for expenses other
than administrative" in fact, all
the emergency agencies put together
probably wouldn't spend half-billion
dollars for strictly administrative pur-
poses. The big expenditures involv-
ing many billions are those over which
the Bureau of the Budget has no
control, and it is these which are caus-
ing concern.
Orders Often Rescinded.
Every now and then the Roosevelt
administration reveals an interest in
the subject of proper auditing of the
Governments books and proper means
of getting estimates in advance of
incurring obligations, but also, every
now and then the President reScindS
the orders and the situation is left
mot much better than it was before.
There is no secret about this be-
havior, as it is all written in the public
records, but it is regrettably true that
the public does not read Executive
orders" or note the inconsistencies in
them or there would have been a
widespread protest against the man
-ner in which the present administra-
ton refuses to centralize in one place
the problem of getting estimates from
emergency agencies and planning
them so that public opinion may know
how the money is spent-not after
1t has happened, but before the au-
thorizations or obligations are in
Cured.
Accounting Is Ordered.
Here is the record:
On January 3, 1894, President
Roosevelt in addressing Congress said:
up to now there has been no CO.
ordinated control over emergency
expenditures. Today, by executive
order, have imposed that necessary
control in the Bureau of the Budget.
Heretofore, emergency expenditures
have not been subject to audit by the
controller general of the General Ac-
counting Office. Today I am, by
executive order, reposing in him the
authority to conduct such an audit
and to continue to audit each such
expenditure. Hereafter, therefore. just
as in the departmental expenditures,
there will be emergency expenditures,
q pre-budget and post-audit."
Wide-Sweeping Order.
On the same day, January 3--The
President issued the executive order,
No. 6548, and it was wide-sweep-
ing. 1t provided that mo fur
ther obligation shall be incurred for
the expenditure of any emergency
appropriation or other available emer-
gency fund, including the mourning OF
obligations through the issuance of
securities or otherwise by the several
departments, independent establish
nents and Government agencies, in
Guiding corporations without capital
stock which are owned by the Gov
eminent, and corporations with cap
,ital stock of which so per centum or
more is owned by the Government,
until estimates of expenditures for
such appropriations or funds for the
remainder of the fiscal year ending
June 80, 1894, and the fiscal year end
ing June 80, 1885, shall have been
approved by the Director OF the
Budget"
q rha n,Iv evcaptiopS uere the
Treasury Departments own securi-
ties and those Government corpora
lions which were in existence prior
to January 1, 1882.
Douglas Quits Post.
But on January 6, 1934-not more
than three days later-the President
issued another executive order, No.
$3.50, In which he specifically re
voked and rescinded" executive or
der No. 6548, which is quoted above.
It was this reversal which caused the
resignation of Lewis Douglas as d.
rector of the Budget.
The executive order issued on Janu-
airy 6, supplanting the previous one,
merely required that all Government
agencies, regular and emergency, shall
hereafter submit to the Director OF
the Budget a weekly report contain
ing an itemized statement of all allo-
cations of funds made during the
preceding week"
The difference is that, in the one
case, the Budget Bureau was to have a
look at expenses in advance, and. in
the other, it was to do only the his
torical recording of expenditures after
they had already been authorized. No
public explanation has ever been
given by the President of why he re-
voked the pledge he gave to a joint
session of Congress for q check in
advance Of expenditures through the
Budget Bureau.
Seven Agencies Affected.
The neyt step was the issuance of
an executive order on August 5, 1885,
which required seven of the emer-
gency agencies to submit to the Di-
rector Of the Budget estimates of
amounts to be expended for admin
istrative expenses"
Then, on August 10, six more Gov
eminent agencies were placed under
the same executive order, and finally.
on September 4, the remaining emer-
gency agencies had their admins
trative expenses" subjected to the
Budget Bureaus approval.
Coincidentally Secretary Of the
Treasury Morgenthau has emphasized
that the director of the budget is not
an cficial of the Treasury Depart
ment, but is responsible directly to
the President.
Just why the administration has
suddenly got busy only on the matter
of administrative expenses" of the
emergency agencies, after lapse of
nearly two years, when it publicly
pledged to put all expenses Of the
emergency agencies, administrative
and nom administrative. under the
director of the budget, is as yet un-
i1,ed