Evening star., 1938-01-05

adord opportunity for large reductions,
is made up Of those which carry on
the normal, everyday operations Of the
Government. For example, the ma jor
part of the appropriations for the State
Department is required to pay the rea-
sonable salaries of consuls, diplomatic
agents, secretarial staffs and ministers
who represent American interests in
every part of the world.
Various Kinds Of Aid
Needed by Citizens.
The third type of expenditure is rep
resented by the major effort of the
Government to help the economic Sc
! curity Of large groups Of citizens in
every part Of the country who, for
many reasons, definitely require some
form of Government assistance. This
includes various kinds Of aid to save
farms and homes from foreclosure, to
furnish work relief for needy able
bodied unemployed, and to provide
old-age pensions, unemployment in
surance and other assistance under
the social security program. Obliga-
tions such Is these, though large in
amount, can be reduced only by de-
priving 4 very large proportion Of our
population Of benefits which modern
civilization insists on.
The final category includes items Of
public expenditure for capital i'm
provements-such as new highways,
new river and harbor projects. new
flood control, new public buildings,
new reclamation projects and other
new public works. All of these items
can be contracted or expanded to con-
form with the contraction or expan-
sion Of Government income.
This year I recommend that such
items be curtailed. First, because ex-
pected Government income will be less,
and second, because it has been amply
demonstrated that they do not pro-
vide as much work Is do other meth
ods Of taking care Of the unemployed.
Federal Highway Aid
OF $3.50, e,ooo, ,oo0 Cited.
For example, we have appropriated
as Federal aid to new permanent State
highways almost 81 SOC. 600. 900 during
the past nve years, and an equal sum
has been spent during the same period
for constructing, repairing and i'm
proving roads and streets by Federal
agencies administering unemployment
relief. These vast expenditures have
put our highway systems far In ad-
vance of what would have been nor
NAL expansion. I do not propose elm
mating Federal aid to highways, but
do ask that such aid be restored to
approximately the pre-depression fig
ures.
We have = great accumulation OF
unliquidated matching" authorize
tions for aid to States running into the
year 1s40-but the States also should
be encouraged to bring their highway
budgets back to more normal figures.
Therefore, I hope that the Congress
will start at this session to cut down
the actual appropriations used to
match State funds.
CUk tkkC ~ yCoAO w w VNAAS w
1898, the Federal Government spent
an average Of $4,000, 900 . year for
river and harbor improvements. Dur
ing the past five years We have spent
an average Of over 500. .000, 900 . year.
Meanwhile, - justified demand for
greater protection against floods has
developed. Flood protection is neces-
sary and in this budget I am curtail-
ing the estimates for new river and
harbor improvements in order to pro-
vide more money for flood emergen-
cies.
FavoFs Delaying New Projects
Until Present Ones Are Finished.
Reclamation projects have been
started which will call for future ap-
propriations of nearly 5000 100000 It
seems obvious to me, and I hope it
will be to the Congress, that no fur
ther projects should be authorized un-
til projects>now under construction
have reached q substantial stage Of
completion.
During the past five years we have
built more than 100 new Federal
buildings-almost doubling the num-
ber Of such buildings throughout the
country. It Is true that this saves the
renting Of buildings, but to Offset that
saving we are paying In many cases
far more for maintenance Of these new
buildings than We formerly paid for
leasing private quarters. Except for
meeting the problem of adequate hous-
ing Of Government departments and
agencies in the District of Columbia,
I am strongly Of the opinion that the
public building program should be re-
stricted to the comparatively small
number Of projects where the capital
investment will be returned through
savings in annual operating costs.
Erpendituyes.-The most important
fact Of this budget 10 tho reduction
Of tS3s, ,000. 900 In the estimated ex-
pendttures for the fiscal year 1880,