SENATOR MARTIN SOUNDS WARNING
Senator Martin Sounds Warning Virginia Representative Calls the Attention of Senate to Fact That Twenty Billions Have Been Appropriated and Urges Careful Scrutiny The following arc some remarks by...
...It is not necessary...
...Over $20,000,000,000 in five months...
...This appropriation of $750,000 is among that number...
...We have not undertaken to meet all the things that are desirable, but we have endeavored to appropriate every dollar that is necessary for the successful prosecution of the war, and little else...
...There is no doubt about the fact that even when we scrutinize the estimates we can not form a very intelligent judgment about many of them...
...Senator Martin Sounds Warning Virginia Representative Calls the Attention of Senate to Fact That Twenty Billions Have Been Appropriated and Urges Careful Scrutiny The following arc some remarks by Senator Martin of Virginia delivered on the, flow of the V. H. Senate...
...At the pace we are going, if the war lusts another year $50,000,000,000 will be required...
...scrutinize them as closely as we can, and that duty becomes more intense every day and every hour that the war proceeds...
...We have turned down many appropriations that have been pressed upon us by Senators who thought they were wise and proper, but exercising our judgment as fairly as we could, I say we have had to turn down quite a number of them...
...President, I ask the indulgence of the Senate for just a few moments, rather because, being the chairman of the committee, I did not wish it to appear that I am indifferent, to the expenditure of so largo a sum as three-quarters of a million dollars...
...Twenty billion dollars have been appropriated in about five months for the prosecution of the war...
...It has not been six months since Congress declared war on Germany...
...This bill came here from the House, and it had not been here more than three days before we received over $400,000,000 of additional estimates that had not even been presented to the H6use...
...It was the opinion of the Committee on Appropriations that this appropriation of $750,000 is not necessary for the successful prosecution of the war...
...Additions Are Made It is appalling to me to see the freedom with which money is being called for by our administrative departments and is being appropriated by Congress...
...There may be a very few instances when appropriations might not come within that definition, but they are to meet some peculiar and exceptional conditions that were controlling, and we had to yield to them...
...The resolution declaring war passed on the 6th day of April...
...It has come to be a perilous situation...
...President, I am willing to consider all the estimates, and I am determined, so far as my vote goes, to appropriate every dollar that is necessary...
...After careful consideration the Committee on Appropriations did not believe and do not believe now that it is essential for the successful prosecution of the war...
...our allies in Europe...
...It can be dispensed with...
...If we are going to set up an independent department to do everything, to perform each and all the several duties that are confided to them, they had better go out of business, and we had better have a general agency to do everything that is devolved upon them by the laws of the land...
...No such outlay has been made by the European countries whose very life is involved in the struggle...
...We have had quite a number of deficiency bills during this session of Congress, L hope to God this is the last...
...Although the House had passed the bill carrying over $7,000,000,000, I say, in less than three days we received estimates for over $400,000,000 in addition...
...And where is it to come from...
...but the time has come for us to scrutinize most closely the extravagant—I am almost tempted to say the reckless—estimates that are pouring in on us from the administrative departments of the Government...
...Cut it is our duty to...
...We have tried as far as we could to hold this bill to that single purpose...
...We must keep within due bounds and we must not appropriate money that is not essential...
...We are compelled to shut our eyes and appropriate a great deal rather than take the hazard of denying to our soldiers something that may be necessary for the defense of the country on the battle fields in France...
...This is an item which in my judgment is not absolutely necessary...
...Would Call Halt In my opinion, Mr...
...and do not think I hazard anything when I say there has not been a day from that time down to this moment when additional estimates have not come to us from the administrative departments of the Government...
...President, it is not necessary...
...Its loss will not be materially felt...
...All the departments of the Government have the power to employ labor, and they have money and use agencies for the purpose of employing labor...
...I hope the Senate will vote down the amendment...
...Since that time, speaking from memory, in a general way, I believe Congress has appropriated about $20,000,000,000...
...We have attempted in the preparation of this bill to be guided by that principle—to give every dollar that is necessary, hut to scrutinize as closely as we could and not to make any useless and extravagant appropriations...
...But in God's name do not let us do it unless it is absolutely necessary...
...and I have never been more certain of anything in my life than I am hero today when I say that it would not have a particle of influence on the prosecution of the war...
...It has been my purpose, and I am sure it has been the purpose of every member of the Appropriations Committee to appropriate every dollar that is necessary for the successful prosecution of the war...
...we do not need to appropriate the $750,000 in order that the war may be successfully prosecuted...
...but they are few and far between...
...We must call a halt in extravagance...
...if it is necessary to prosecute the war...
...There is no doubt about the desire of Congress to meet all reasonable demand...
...If we keep on, we had better turn the whole resources of the country without any thing more than three lines over to the administrative departments of the Government and let them take what they need and spend what they choose...
...Is our country to be impoverished for generations...
...We have appropriated and expended money with an extravagance, or at least with a liberality, that is unknown tv...
...As chairman of the appropriations committee Senator Martin took occasion to warn senators against extravagance in the tremendous appropriations noio being made.—The Editor...
Vol. 9 • September 1917 • No. 10
