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Show The Insistent Demand of the People for a National Budget System By PAUL M. WARBURG, Federal Reserve Board The change caused by the war in the chart of the world is probably no more drastic than the transformation, born of the same cause, that has taken place in the human mind. Thoughts that were characterized as "utopian dreams" only four years ago are now being formulated into actual plans by highly practical men having both feet on the ground. The national budget idea is a case in point. Sporadic efforts in its behalf have been made for decades. Both parties stand committed to it. .But it could not take tangible form in the past because conditions and minds were not ripe for it. Now they are. The war has done away with stagnation ; it has given so gigantic a scope to our political, economio and social problems that on the one hand it has awakened from lethargy the people's mind that generally gen-erally bothers very little about the intricacies of government, and on the other it has imbued our legislators with a realization of their grave responsibilities. The problems of government are now so staggering that they are capable at least of overcoming the point of view of the local or personal interest. The angle of the bailiwick must now make room for the larger national interest. It is the conscious and subconscious recognition of these facts that in congress has brought about the crystallization of the thought that we must modernize our government's financial methods, and which on the part of the people has brought about an insistent demand for a national budget system. |