National Budget; Hearings Before the Committee on Consideration of a National Budget, United States Senate, Sixty-Sixty Congress, Second Session, on H.R. 9783, a Bill to Provide a National Budget System and an Independent Audit of Government Accounts, and (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1920. Excerpt: ... NATIONAL BUDGET. WEDNESDAY, DECEMBEB 17, 1919. United States Senate, Committee On A National Budget, Washington, I). C. The committee met at 10 o'clock a. m., pursuant to adjournment Senator Medill McCormick presiding. The Chairman. Will you give your name and address to the stenographer? STATEMENT OF MR. ROBERT W. BELCHER, REPRESENTING THE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE OF THE UNITED STATES. Mr. Belcher. Robert W. Belcher, representing the Chamber of Commerce of the United States; address, Falls Church, Va. It is very unfortunate that the chamber can not be represented this morning either by Mr. Clause, the chairman of its special committee on budget and efficiency, or Mr. Goodwin, its secretary. Mr. Clause telegraphed yesterday from Pittsburgh that it would be impossible for him to be here, and Mr. Goodwin is ill, and the responsibility of laying before the committee the views of the chamber has therefore been delegated to me. As preliminary, for the information of the committee and for the purpose of the record, I should like to say that the position of the national chamber on the question of a national budget is based upon the first referendum which the chamber ever held. This referendum was issued to the organization members of the chamber on the 30th of November, 1912, and the vote, which closed on January 14,1913, was almost unanimously in favor of the adoption of a budget plan for the National Government. The vote was 573 to 10. The policies of the chamber on national questions can never be determined by its board of directors. Its policies are, and always have been, fixed in one of two ways, either by a vote of the entire chamber itself at one of its annual or special meetings or by the process of a referendum to its organization members. The referendum is ...