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Show REPUBLICANS MUST MAKE GOOD ON THEIR ECONOMY PLEDGES Administration leaders in and out of 'Co.ngress are' severely to be condemned for their effort to rush through Congress the left over appropriation bills of the last Congress without the application of the pruning .knife, put into the hands of the Republican party at the last election by the American people, with instructions to use it at the earliest possible moment. Administration leaders are insisting 'that in view of the fact that President Wilson refused to call Congress into session ses-sion until the closing days of the fiscal year, the thing to do is to adopt the appropriation appro-priation measures prepared at the last session of "Congress, without ' material change, or stand charged with a failure properly to support the administration and the government- If the people had been satisfied .with the financial methods of the old congress they would not have chosen a Republican majority for the new congress. By a majority ma-jority of more than a million the people voted a change; not merely a change in the faces in Congress and in the names of the leaders, but in the methods of doing do-ing business which today threatens this country, with tax burdens beyond the disposition dis-position or the ability of the people to bear them. Naturally the Democratic leaders wish to induce the present congress to track the old Congress in every possible particular. partic-ular. If appropriations equal or exceed those of the last congress for the peace activities of the government they ' 'will make an issue of this in the next campaign. cam-paign. Moreover, by the continuance of expenditures on the present scale, a vast army of deserving Democrat office holders hold-ers will ke kept on the public payroll. The idea is held out by the administration administra-tion politicians that the larger the appropriation appro-priation put through by a given committee, commit-tee, the more credit will go to that committee com-mittee for having succeeded in increasing governmental expenditures along the line in which that committee is especially interested. in-terested. But the sum total of such achievements by all the committees of Congress will be increased, rather than decreased appropriations. The Republican pa,rty must adopt in Congress an "about face" on the policy of tossing millions of the people's money about as a matter of personal courtesy or local interest or merely in 'fulfillment of bad precedents which should be thrown on the dump heap. If they do not do this they will ineitably suffer the same punishment pun-ishment which lias been given the Democratic Demo-cratic party because of the complete abandonment ab-andonment of the taxpayers viewpoint in making appropriations of public funds The startling fact stands out that there are as many civilian government employes employ-es in Washington today as there were on the day the armistice was signed. The only way in which the magnitude of government gov-ernment expenditures will be curtailed is to cut off the appropriations which furnish fur-nish the warrant for extravagance. The responsibility in this matter is squarely behind the Republican majority in Con-: gress and the effort of administration politicians to drag out this badly shpp-worn shpp-worn cry of "loyalty" to the administra-t tion in support of every scheme of public extravagance, is intended to get in the ground work for the cry of hypocrisy di- Vected against the Republican campaign slogan of "economy and efficiency in government" gov-ernment" upon which the election of 1918 was won. Appropriations necessary to 'the operation of government economical- ly administered should be promptly made; appropriations not immediately necTssary to that end should be carefully scrutinized scrutin-ized and in every possible instance reduced" reduc-ed" or eliminated. National Republican. |
