Evening star., 1935-01-11
When Is Pork?

President Roosevelt called in House
and Senate Democratic leaders yester-
day to explain to them that he wished
no "earmarking" of any part of the
$4,000, 100000 work relief appropria-
ton he has asked. Rumblings of
revolt from Capitol Hill had reached
the White House The President acted
promptly. 1t has been tradition in
the past with Congress that it holds
the purse strings. The power that
goes with spending money is tremen-
dous. The member of Congress who
could go home and demonstrate how
many thousands of dollars he had
wangled from the national Treasury
for his State or district was in posi-
ton of advantage. Now comes the
President with a demand for $4,000
100000 with no strings tied to it; the
Chief Executive will spend the money
where he sees fit and for what purpose.
1t was, and is, pretty big dose for the
congressman to swallow.
Big money bills in the past, sponsored
by Congress, for river and harbor i'm
provements, public buildings, road con-
struction and the like, have been
dubbed pork barrel bills. Sometimes
the criticism of these measures has
been most severe from the Executive.
In these pork barrel measures every
dollar was earmarked for special prof.
ects, pet projects. OF course, the
81 900 100000 is going to be spent for
special projects, pet projects some OF
them, but the selection of the projects
is not to be made by Congress. That
will be left to the Chief Executive and
his agents. How much pork" there
will be in the barrel is likely to be
discussed later, perhaps in campaign
years.
All this huge sum, for public works
here, there and everywhere, is to be
expended in the name of relief and re-
covery. Because there is need of re-
lief and recovery, it is urged, the four
billion-dollar appropriation bill soon to
come to Congress cannot properly be
called a pork barrel measure. A great
many things, however, have been done
in the name of relief that smell
strongly of pork. After all, pork will
fill an empty stomach perhaps as well
as anything else.
Not unnaturally, members of Con-
gress do not like to have it said of
their money-spending efforts that
they are all pork, whit the Executive
can spend the same money for the
same kind of thing and in the same
places and be credited merely with
a benevolent attitude. They do not
see the justice of the differentiation.
On behalf of the Executive it is
urged that the great need of relief
and its quickly changing aspects
make it imperative that the Presi-
dent shall have an absolutely free
hand in spending the four billion dol
lars. 1t is argued, too, that the Presi-
dent does not wish to spend all this
money and hopes that it will not be
necessary. If his hands are not tied,
he will be able to halt the spending
when he believes it is no longer
needed and private industry has re-
absorbed enough of the workers to
make an end to spending. Many bill
lions of dollars for relief of one kind
or another have been provided dur
ing this administration. If they have
not all been expended it is because of
the great difficulty of spending such
large sums, obviously, since there are
still so many millions of workers on
relief rolls.
The President has obtained from
the Congress many powers. This
latest demand for the money-spending
power, however, touches the legislators
on the raw.