The Buffalo Bulletin

REPUBLICAN SEWARD

Washington, Nov. 28. There has been such partisan bickering concerning the amount of estimates for Federal fiscal expenses, the amount of appropriation—one hundred thousand dollars to Republican Publicity Association, through its President Hon. Jonathan Bourne, Jr. "But the real test of the Republican record will be determined by the treasury reports showing actual cash spent. There can be no camouflaging that. As everybody knows, the Federal fiscal year ends June 30. The Democrats were in charge of expenditures up to $491,011, or for eight fiscal years ending June 30, not only months of contracts but the whole year therefore except to be held accountable for any of the expenditures for that year. But for the year beginning July 1, 1921, and ending June 30, 1922, the Republicans will be accountable, except that, of course, they cannot avoid paying indebtedness incurred by the previous administration. "A national debt is binding regardless of the political party that incurred it. We have, for instance, an annual interest charge of approximately one billion dollars which the nation must pay for a number of years to come whichever party is in power. The amount of this payment is something that the Republican party cannot be held accountable for, for it was the Democratic party that managed the business of the war. The fighting in Europe was non-partisan, but the letting of contracts, the adoption of fiscal policies, the purchase of supplies, the erection of buildings, the transportation of troops, etc., were kept closely under the control of partisan Democrats or Wilsonites of some other party affiliation. The payment of the debt or the interest on the debt, or the payment of obligations left over from the Wilson regime, cannot be charged to the present administration. That is so plain a proposition, that no one will dispute it. What the country can, should, and will do is to hold the Republican party responsible for as clean management of this business so far as it goes to normal administrative hours. Back to normal was one of the Republican campaign cries, and the party can properly be held responsible for the speed with which it accomplishes that desirable result. No one could expect, or did expect, that the nation would be brought back to normal in a day or a month or a year. It would be the utmost folly to disband every war agency instantly, leaving many records in a tangled mess. That is what some Democratic bureaus and commissions would like, for then it would be impossible ever to check up on their management of affairs—or to ascertain how much money they spent or how they spent it. To dump the records in storage boxes with no system of filing, would be an encouragement to other administrations to conduct business in the same grossly wasteful and inefficient manner that the Democrats conducted it for eight years. One of the best guarantees of good management in the future is the demonstration that no political party can waste government funds and go unexposed and unpunished. The fiscal year 1921-1922 will end June 30, four months before the Congressional elections. There will be plenty of time for the Democrats to inspect the record of actual expenditures for that year of Republican control and to point out specifically the amounts of money which were spent and which they think ought not to have been spent. They will find the Republicans ready to defend that record and to compare it with the record of the preceding administration."