Evening star., 1947-04-20
Representative Taber
Swings savagely
At the Budget

/ no Cl1dllAidll VI tllC I1OuoC APpio-
priations Committee this veteran
Republican Representative from up
state New York is carrying tre-
Imendous burden. He is initiating
every move to cut the Truman
budget-$37 500 .O0O, 600 for the fiscal
year 194s-by 100000, 900. That is
/ the size Of the cut ordered by the
House. The Senate voted instead
for a $4,5oo 600, 900 reduction in the
presidential budget. The two houses,
it is expected, will ultimately sup
port a compromise slice in the
neighborhood Of $3.50, ,Oo0,0
/ Made Impressive Start.
| Probably no man better equipped
for the economy drive could have
I been found either on the Republican
or Democratic side of the House.
John Taber has been a member of
the House for nearly quarter of a
century. During all that time he
has been a member of the Appro-
priations Committee.
/ It is an unusual thing for a fresh
man member of the House to spring
Immediately into the powerful
money spending committee. But 1t
happened in Taber's case. The late
Martin Madden of Illinois, Repub-
| lican, was chairman of the commit
tee when Mr.. Taber came to WASH
ington in December, 1923, to take
his seat in Congress. None of the
older Republican members of the
New York delegation was available
for the vacancy in the Appropria-
tions Committee which Taber ulti-
mately filled.
representative Wainwright, a New
Yorker, too and another freshman
member of the House that year, had
been in the Army during World
War I and had two years as Assist
ant Secretary of War. He indicated
he was willing to serve on the Ap-
preparations Committee, provided he
could be a member of the subcom-
mittee dealing with appropriations
for the War Department. Chairman
Madden, however, was accustomed
to settling the question of subcom-
mittee assignments. Mr.. VAIN
wright, he said, would not get the
War Department assignment, and
that was that.
Familiar With Military Funds.
The late Theodore Roosevelt, jr.,
who became a general in the Second
World War, was Assistant Secretary
of the Navy at the time. After Mr..
Taber, through no effort of his own,
had been appointed to the Appro-
priations Committee, Mr.. Madden
did accept suggestion from Roose-
velt that the New York Congressman
would be good man to serve on the
subcommittee dealing with naval
appropriations. So Mr.. Taber was
member of the naval subcommit-
tee for 10 years. More recently he
served as a member of the War De-
/ partment subcommittee for four
years. So the chairman of the COM
mittee is thoroughly conversant
with Army and Navy appropria-
tions.
/ This is important. For undoubt-
edly there will be slashes in some of
the budget estimates for the military
and naval services. Chairman Taber
insists they can be made without
injury to the national defense; that
the new coordination of the mill
tary services-in one department.
proposed by the President will make
possible some savings. Also there
are number of yards and posts
for the Navy and for the Army,
which are merely political" in the
sense it is to the advantage of mem
bers of Congress to have them
where they are, spending plenty of
money They are not all essential,
and if Mr.. Taber has his way, they
will go. That is the kind of slash
in expenditures, however, which will
be followed by screams of pain.
| Plenty of Opposition.
| Democratic taunts and charges
that Taber cannot cut the Presi-
dents budget by six billion, or even
three billion dollars, roll off the
broad back of. the appropriations
chairman. He'is confident, he says,
that when all the appropriation bills
have been put through the cuts Will
have been made. He doesn't fool
himself however, over the desperate
contests which will be made by the
! Democrats-who do not want the
budget cut with a resultant loss of
hundreds of thousands on the Fed
eral payroll-and by special pressure
groups.
| These pressure groups include
! farmers, veterans, reclamation, labor
and river and harbor improvement
groups. There are others-but these
are principal ones, They all want
Federal money-the money that
comes out of the pockets of the tax
payers-for innumerable projects
and services. Many of these projects
and services are worthy. The ques-
ton, however, is whether the Ameri-
can people can afford to pay for
them.
Snorts at False Economy
Mr.. Taber takes no stock at all in
the charge made by President Tru-
man In his Jefferson Day address
| that to cut the budget below the