OCR Text |
Show REDUCTION OPPOSED BY COMMITTEE WASHINGTON, Dec. 22 (U.R) President Roosevelt in a letter to Chairman Wilburn Cartwright, D., Okla., of the house roads committee, warned warn-ed congress today that it must "accept full responsibility responsibil-ity if it exceeds the budget in appropriating money for highways. high-ways. Mr. Roosevelt sent the letter to Cartwright an authoritative sources said he has given congressional congres-sional ' leaders general assurance that his legislative program, jettisoned jet-tisoned in the special .session, will be substantially unaltered for the regular session. The letter, made public by Cart-wright Cart-wright was in reply to one in which Cartwright had disclosed that h.3 roads committee was opposed op-posed to reduction in the federal fund for aiding state highway construction as requested by the president in a special message to congress. Letter Published The president said: "Also, may I tell you that if we had all the money i'n the world r to spend I would gladly go ahead with road building in every county in the United States on an even greater scale than we are doing at the present time. "But there arc two factious which I know you will consider. "The administration is making an honest effort to cut the budget down to a figure whivh will closely close-ly approximate the estimated tax receipts. That means that we ougnt to put on appropnauons which may be desirable but which are not essential. Where to Cut? "That brings me to the second problem the problem of what Einstein would call 'relativity. Where can it be cut? That is a matter, first, for the president to make recommendations, and secondly, sec-ondly, for the congress to decide whether the rccommendationo for cuts should be carried out or changed by substituting different cuts. "As you know, up to 1919, the average amount of federal aid to road building in the United States wo-s less thn $100,000,000 a year and now under authorizations and approprin tions it will run to between be-tween $200,000,000 and $300,000,-000. $300,000,-000. "Also, as you doubtless know, money spent on federal aid highways high-ways takes very few people directly direct-ly off the relief rolls. . .locul farm to market, roads give a far higher percentage of relief employment than the federal aid roads. "Therefore speaking again of 'relativity,' if I have to get the budget down to a certain figure, obviously I must eliminate the proposed expenditures which give the most work. "The congress has a perfect right constitutionally to exceed the budget, but, if the budget la exceeded, obviously the congress must accept full responsibility and obviously the democratic-members, democratic-members, which has such a large majority in the congress, mu.st equally accept the full resopnsibil-ity." |