Salt Lake Tribune | 1918-09-18 | Page 3 | Congress Asked for War Funds

CONGRESS JBKED FOB HMDS ! Department Requests Additional Addi-tional Sum of $7,347,000,- 000 for New Army. WASHINGTON, Sept. 17. Congress was j asked by the war department today to provide $7,"4T,000.000 in addition to previous pre-vious estimates for carrying out the en- j larged American military program for the coming year. The new estimate is based upon p'ans j for having nearly 4.000,000 American sol- j diers in France by next summer and an- umirr million in u a i rung ai nuiiif. x brings tiie money sought lor the array in j the fiscal year 1019 up to more than j twenty-four billion dollars. ; Ordnance estimates of $3."iS5,S7i,660 are 1 the largest items in the bill now pro- i posed. They include fortifications, field artillery, small arms, motor cars and am- ) munitions. ! Quartermaster corps seeks approxi- ' mafely $2.500,000, 00. The chemical warfare section asks for 5l9S.aOO.000, which is a new item in army appropriation bills. The air service, which j is now separate from the signal corps, i seeks $17S.7G0.o68. Previous appropriations for the air service for this fiscal year amounts to $S8 -i.OuO.OOO, while the total appropriations ap-propriations for aircraft since the United States entered the war amount to ?i'.30o,ooo,ooo. ; The total expense of the government during the year arc expected to be between be-tween thirty -five and thirty-six billion dollars. Appropriations now total ?-!),-7!)l,2-ll,7i3, including $3,162,6&0,3-16 of contract con-tract authorizations. In addition the shipping board is expected expect-ed soon to ask for several hundred million. An effort will be made, it is understood, to provide for some of the new estimates by authorization, thus holding the gov- j ernment cash expenditure during the I year. Increases asked for today indicate the possibility of a change in the pending war revenue bill when it reaches the senate. sen-ate. Consumption taxes, according to congressional leaders, seem the most likely to be inserted for raising additional revenue. A subcommittee of the house appropriations appro-priations committee will begin hearings i on the bill tomorrow anrl ir was an- i nounced that General .March, chief of staff, Provost Marshal General Crowd er and Adjutant General Harris will appear. Chairman Shirley said he hoped that the full committee could report the measure meas-ure in ten days or two weeks.