Boston Public Library - Electric Scotland

WILLIAM B. ALLISON, OF DUBUQUE, IOWA. 131
last two subjects are concerned, he has been prominent, and
there are very few public men of his party whose opinions on
all fiscal matters are more respected than Mr. Allison's ; but
of recent years he has been chairman of the appropriations
committee, and none but the most reckless undertake to
question his statements of fact concerning the expenditures
of the government.
As chairman of the appropriations committee he has been
of very important service to the cause of sound administra-
tion. He is a wise economist. This means judicious lib-
The modern
erality as opposed to an extravagant saving.
deficiency bill, and the urgency bill, which has only recently
become one of the appropriation bills to be reckoned with at
every session of congress, would not exist, or would involve
inconsiderable amounts of if money, Mr. Allison's views about
the regular and stated bills always prevailed. The chairman
of the senate appropriations committee knows what each
branch of the public service needs for its proper maintenance,
and is willing to take the responsibility of advocating its
appropriation. The spirit in which he .
performs
this vital
public function is directly opposed to that which moves very
many members of congress, who do not appreciate their
responsibilities to refuse appropriations, and thus lower the
aggregate, when the refusal will not attract public attention
and arouse popular protest. Not many years ago the member
of the house committee who had charge of the diplomatic
appropriation bill refused to allow the secretary of state any
money for postage or cable charges, and thus threatened to
cut off the state department from all correspondence with
our representatives in foreign countries. This incident illustrates
the tendency and attitude of certain persons who seek
to figure before the country as savers of the people's money,
and who have wider reputations as economists than Mr.
Allison ; but Mr. Allison is neither sordid nor extravagant.
He does not advocate loose and unguarded expenditure, and
he is always desirous that every department and division of
the government shall have all that it needs. It is not exaggerating
to say that when he is ready to sign a report of his
committee on an appropriation bill he knows as much of the
requirements of the objects for which the proposed expenditures
are to be made as the executive officer who is at the
head of the department. And in all the years during which
he has acted in his present capacity there has not been a
whisper injuriously affecting his reputation.
Mr. Allison's influence on general legislation has been felt