Show SCONOlirES UT GOVERGSTECENT EXPENDITURES At the very close of his message the president said V The estimate of the expenses of the government by the several departments should have your careful scrutiny V While congress may not find it an easy task to reduce the expenses of the government gov-ernment It should not encourage their increase These expenses will in my judgment admit of a decrease in many branches of the government without injury to the public service It is a commanding duty to keep the appropriations appro-priations within the receipts of the government and thus prevent a deficit That is about the only recognition and that indirect the president makes that the revenues of the government are not adequate to its expenditures Will congress heed this admonition to reduce expenses at least not to increase in-crease them Congressman Shafroth of Colorado is in full sympathy with what the president says on this vital question of expenses In a recent interview in-terview he expressed his intentions as regards reducing expenses He has several sev-eral measures he proposes to press at this season but there is one he will press above all others He said Another measure that I propose to I press at the coming session is a bill introduced by myself in which it is provided that whenever the expenses of the government exceed its receipts the secretary of the treasury shall be authorized to deduct 20 per cent from the salaries of all officials and employees employ-ees whose salaries are 1200 and upward up-ward and 10 per cent on all salaries below that amount The purpose of my bill is to stop the practice of making appropriations in excess of the estimated esti-mated receipts I have seen bills appropriating ap-propriating 75000000 passed in ten I minutes ten minutes debate being allowed al-lowed on each side Another thing that it would stop is the persistent lobbying of government officials for increase of salary and enlargement of office forces This is a constant recurrence at every session and is one of the most serious seri-ous difficulties with which congressmen have to contend I think that if congressmen con-gressmen had before them constantly the possibility of being compelled to sacrifice 80 per month until the deficiency defi-ciency was covered they would be more careful about exceeding the estimated receipts of the government in their appropriations ap-propriations and if government officials offi-cials from the heads of bureaus to SOO clerks were obliged to face the contingency con-tingency of being required to give up a portion of their salaries they would not be so persistent in their demands for increase in salary and for the creation crea-tion of new places for friends and relatives rel-atives His object is laudable but the means by which he would accomplish it are wholly impracticable He can hardly know his fellow congressmen if he thinks for a moment that they would give the least support to his plan In the first place he bases it upon their selfishness assuming that they will be anxious befor all things to provide for their own welfare Supposing that I this is the case is it reasonable to assume as-sume then that they will jeopardize I those interests by adopting a sliding I scale of salaries dependent upon the state of the revenue Having fixed their own salaries the congressmen would hardly be likely to be willing to sacrifice all government employees upon the altar of reduced salaries I The great saving must come if it can be made to come at all in the general gen-eral appropriation bill Whenever the practice of bribing various parts of the country with great appropriations is discarded and the using of the taxes for political purposes indirectly to be sure then will there be hope of effecting effect-ing economies in government expenditures expendi-tures but scarcely before |