MESSRS. LOUIS C. CRAMTON (CHAIRMAN), COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. SIXTY-SEVENTH CONGRESS, FOURTH SESSION. MARTIN B. MADDEN, Illinois, Chairman. CHARLES R. DAVIS, Minnesota. LOUIS C. CRAMTON, Michigan. PATRICK H. KELLEY, Michigan. EDWARD H. WASON, New Hampshire. WALTER W. MAGEE, New York. GEORGE HOLDEN TINKHAM, Massachusetts.. BURTON L. FRENCH, Idaho. MILTON W. SHREVE, Pennsylvania. ELIJAH C. HUTCHINSON, New Jersey. HENRY Z. OSBORNE, California. FRANK MURPHY, Ohio. JOSEPH W. BYRNS, Tennessee. THOMAS UPTON SISSON, Mississippi. JAMES P. BUCHANAN, Texas. JAMES A. GALLIVAN, Massachusetts. JAMES F. BYRNES, South Carolina. BEN JOHNSON, Kentucky. CHARLES D. CARTER, Oklahoma. MARCELLUS C. SHEILD, Clerk. II HEARINGS CONDUCTED BY THE SUBCOMMITTEE, MESSRS. LOUIS C. CRAMTON (CHAIRMAN), BURTON L. FRENCH, FRANK MURPHY CHARLES D. CARTER, AND JAMES F. BYRNES, OF THE COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS, HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, IN CHARGE OF THE INTERIOR DEPARTMENT APPROPRIATION BILL FOR 1924, ON THE DAYS FOLLOWING, NAMELY. TUESDAY, DECEMBER 5, 1922. INTERIOR DEPARTMENT. PLAN AND SCOPE OF HEARINGS. Mr. CRAMTON. We are opening the hearings on the annual appropriation bill for the Department of the Interior for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1924. This is the second bill drawn exclusively for the Department of the Interior, including all the appropriations for the operation of that department and none other for the fiscal year 1924. Inasmuch as the same conditions prevail in the Treasury of the United States now as did when the bill for the fiscal year 1923 was drawn, there remains the same need for the greatest possible economy. This subcommittee will feel it to be its duty to consider the bill along the same lines as the bill for the fiscal year 1923. That is to say, it will be the purpose of the subcommittee to keep the bill down to the lowest possible figures for the proper continuance of the work of the department. It will be our desire to eliminate waste and extravagance, if we can find any such things, although, generally speaking, we are satisfied that the department is particularly free from any charge of that kind. It will also be necessary probably in the view of the committee, to postpone work that is in itself very desirable, but which the committee feel must be postponed because the condition of the Treasury makes the demand for economy urgent that is, where such work can wait without serious loss. This being substantially the same committee that considered the bill last year, I might as well be frank in saying to the gentlemen who represent the department in justifying the items included in the bill, that wherever an increase is desired or asked by the department in the figures now presented to this committee, it will require a particularly clear showing of the necessity to justify such an increase in the eyes of the committee. I might say to you, Mr. Acker, as the representative of the Interior Department, that in the conduct of these hearings we will be very glad if the head of each bureau or institution of the department, as he appears before the subcommittee to open the hearings for his par 1 |