REPORTED TO PASSED THE REPORTED TO PASSED THE LAW, 1910-11 Statement by Mr. Tawney, chairman of the House Committee on Appropriations $13,417,136.00 $13,330,276.00 $13,512,636.00 $13,522,636.00 95,322,707.55 95,297,707.55 95,440,567.55 95,440,567.55 11,012,960.99 10,608,045.99 5,817,200.00 8,513,757.90 8,798,478.00 9,920,934.68 5,817,200.00 9,931,934.68 9,266,528.00 34,158,767.00 1,856,649.87 1,856,249.87 Advances to reclamation fund, reimbursable from receipts of reclamation fund Total, regular annual appropriations Permanent annual appropriations Grand total, regular and permanent annual appropriations 33,897,815.00 33,853,295.00 34,044,357.00 34,207,017.00 1,855,249.87 1,855,249.87 35,351,746.50 41,732,313.50 REMARKS In comparing the executive estimates with the congressional appropriations, allowance should be made for the fact that the Secretary of the Treasury does not include post-office receipts in his estimates, but only the postal deficiency. In the statement of appropriations the post-office receipts are included in the amount of the appropriation, which was made on the assumption that $233,058,572 would be supplied by postal revenues. Adding this amount to the estimates transmitted by the Secretary of the Treasury, the total is raised to $917,190,769, as against appropriations made by Congress for that fiscal year amounting to $1,026,537,500, according to Senator Hale's statement, or $1,027,133,446, according to Representative Tawney's statement. Detailed comparison between the estimates and the appropriations is impossible, because the appropriations are not accurately classified, and the cost of any particular service may be scattered through various appropriation bills. Demands successfully resisted when one bill is under consideration may be slipped into another bill. For instance, when the Legislative Appropriation bill was under consideration in the Senate, March 24, 1910, an item appropriating $1800, for the salary of a professional masseur was so severely criticized that it was dropped.' But on June 21 the masseur was provided for by an item inserted in the Deficiency Appropriation bill, appropriating $1800 to pay the salary of an "attendant in charge of the bath 1 See ante, page 92. ing rooms in the Senate Office Building." Conditions are such that it is impossible to ascertain the exact cost of any branch of the public service. In this respect the contrast between congressional appropriations and those made by the British Parliament is very striking. In the latter, the cost of every public office is exactly set forth. I have at hand the estimates for 1907. They are grouped in seven classes, and the subclasses of each group are numbered, with a page reference, on turning to which one finds full particulars as to the expenditures under that head, including the number and pay of employes. In addition, a full index is provided, to which one may turn for reference to any item on which information is desired. As an example of the completeness of this index I give a small extract from the entries under the letter A, as follows: Agricultural Statistics, Great Britain. Agricultural Statistics, etc., Ireland etc. Fourteen long pages are occupied by a minute index of this character, set in double columns. There is nothing like this in our budget statements. Compared with the exact and minute system of English budget control, our methods seem like the ignorant and disorderly practices of barbarians. |