Evening star., 1936-10-18
Changing the Rules.

There is an old Negro camp meeting
song which expresses sound skepticism
In the refrain, Heaven, heaven every
body talkin' bout heaven amt goin'
there" After Governor Landon's Chi
cago speech on the spending policies Of
the Roosevelt administration, President
Roosevelt suggested something of the
same sort. Everybody talking about the
budget, he said, has not read one. AS
for himself, he said, he had read budgets
rs thick as a mail order catalogue.
And so has Herbert Hoover. In his
Philadelphia speech Mr.. Hoover came
before his audience in the spirit of a
man who has been searching thick
budgets with the utmost diligence, read
ing the fine print with a magnifying
glass, marking the page with one finger
where a total appears in bold type and
turning with ruthless avidity to the less
conspicuous columns in agate, signing
with satisfaction as he notes the deadly
comparisons.
He had reason for doing So Hoover,
0 most conscientious man, had figura-
lively WINGED four years ago when he
heard his administration denounced for
spending at "the most reckless and ex-
travagant pace I have ever been able to
discover in the statistical record of any
peacetime government anywhere, any
time" He had lodged the verbal brick
bats - desperate" futile" false, "
"spendthrift," gamble" bankruptcy"
"muddle." "appalling'-hurled at him by
his political opponent.
So he carefully seasoned his Phila-
delphia speech with the sweetness of
revenge, along with the tart statistical
sauce mixed from the ingredients found
in a careful search of Mr.. Roosevelt'S S
bookkeeping department at the Treasury.
"If an income taxpayer or any cor
poration kept books like this administra-
tion-that is. if they showed similar
morals in juggling their accounts-they
would be put in Jail" Or driven from
the temple, perhaps, as economic royal
lists masquerading in ey-changers'
clothing?
The Roosevelt administration, said
Mr. Hoover has not only failed to play
the game according to the rules but has
changed the rules between innings.
Whereas the Republicans are credited
with an error, the same play is recorded
as hit for the Democrats by the pleas
ant-voiced radio announcer. A foul by
Mr.. Hoover is set down as a fence-bust-
ing home run, scoring four runs, by Mr.
Roosevelt. 1t all depends apparently,
on who is keeping the score and what
scoring system is being used.
Mr.. Hoover wrung considerable juice
from a dry subject in his demonstra-
tions of the trick arrangements by which
one budget is set apart from another by
careful emphasis on emergency" ex-
penditures, and regular expenditures are
then reduced by deducting emergency
expenditures from the totals. There
may be explanations of this sort of book
keeping. But the theme of Mr.. Hoover's
speech was that it represents juggling
with figures to misrepresent the real
picture. That motive, as Mr.. Hoover
says, is intellectually dishonest If one
wishes further examples, let him turn
to the two statements of expenditures
as given by the chairman and the rank
Ing minority member of the House Ap-
propriations Committee at the close of
the past Congress. All the figures NAV
be there, it is true, but the arrangements
differ as night from day.
Government statistics should be above
reproach. When they are colored with
politics, they lose their claim not only
to respectability, but to public conf
dence. Especially is this true in rela-
tion to statements of expenditures of
public money. The Treasury's answer
to Mr.. Hoover's bill of particulars will
be awaited with considerable interest.