It would be
thoroughly worth effecting, as every saving would, great or small. Our
duty is not altered by the scale of the saving. But my point is that the
people of the United States do not wish to curtail the activities of
this Government; they wish, rather, to enlarge them; and with every
enlargement, with the mere growth, indeed, of the country itself, there
must come, of course, the inevitable increase of expense. The sort of
economy we ought to practice may be effected, and ought to be effected,
by a careful study and assessment of the tasks to be performed; and the
money spent ought to be made to yield the best possible returns in
efficiency and achievement. And, like good stewards, we should so
account for every dollar of our appropriations as to make it perfectly
evident what it was spent for and in what way it was spent.
It is not expenditure but extravagance that we should fear being
criticized for; not paying for the legitimate enterprises and
undertakings of a great Government whose people command what it should
do, but adding what will benefit only a few or pouring money out for
what need not have been undertaken at all or might have been postponed
or better and more economically conceived and carried out.
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