The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1935-12-05
ASKING FOR TOO MUCH
(From the Baltimore Sun, Dec. ~


In the first month or six weeks of the
New Deal there was much talk of econ
omizing. We were told that by judi
cious pruning of the budget the Roose-
welt Administration had saved the tax
payers something like $1,100,000,000.
But even while this news was coming
out of Washington other announce
ments were heralding the launching of
the biggest peace-time spending pro-
gram in the country's history, spend
ing spree that not only swallowed the
billion-dollar Saving" but left the
Treasury with an ever growing deficit.
Now it develops that the Admins
tration apparently had hoped to spend
even more than it has done to date.
At any rate, it has, almost from the
very beginning, asked for more money
than it has been able to get rid of. And
so we find, to quote Mr.. Wards dis
patch of yesterday, that "more than
third of the $11 ,059, 709,839 'emergen-
cy' funds appropriated for public
works, work relief and direct relief
since the inception of the New Deal
remains uneXpended." 1t should be
pointed out, of course, that this total
includes appropriations for the cur
rent fiscal year, which has seven more
months to run. Nevertheless, it is eX-
pected that the Administration will
have an uneXpended balance of 81 ,200,-
0O8,16 at the present rate Of spend
ing.
Something can be said for this prac-
tice of asking for too much. If the
country were prosperous and the Gov
eminent had abundant revenues, it
might conceivably be wise policy to
leave the executive branch with a
sufficiently ample margin to provide
against emergencies or unforeseen de-
velcpments. On the other hand, it
should be obvious that if such a prac-
tice were generally followed it would
encourage extravaganza. Strong of
will must be the bureaucrat who can
put behind him the temptation to spend
extra money so generously placed at
his disposal.
There is nothing in the record, how
ever, to support the supposition that
the Administration has been asking
for too much in order to build up a re-
serve against emergencies. Rather
would it appear that it has overesti-
mated it's spending capacity. This has
been notably true in connection with
the $4,000,000,000 work-relief pro-
gram, from which, incidentally, most
of the anticipated balance of $780,
100000 at the end of this fiscal year
will come. During the dabate in Con-
gress last winter and spring the point
was raised again and again that the
Administration could not proftably
use $4,00O,000,000 for the purposes in
Dictated, and had, indeed, not adequate
plans for spending that much money.
But Administration spokesman con-
tended that $4,00O,OOO,OOO represented
a bare minimum of what was actually
needed and declared that under the
Roosevelt program (of which few con-
crete details were divulged) much
more than that could be proftably
spent.
1t is interesting to recall that at one
time a proposal to cut the work-relief
fund to $2,00O,O0O,0OO was favorably
received in Congress, but was firmly
opposed by the Administration. Had
the latter been willing to split the diff
ference, a compromise fund of $3,000,-
100000 could have been obtained, and
that sum, as it now develops, would
have been just enough to finance the
work-relief program. But the White
House carried the day. And it is now
beginning to realize that it asked for
about a billion dollars too much. 1t
may assert that it has actually "saved"
this much through prudent manage
ment, but the facts will show that the
Saving" will have come almost Who'll
ly from lack Of foresight and made
.quate preparation.