In my opinion the Government can do more to remedy the economic ills of the people by a system of rigid economy in public expenditure than can be accomplished through any other action.  The costs of our national and local governments combined now stand at a sum close to $100 for each inhabitant of the land.  A little less than one-third of this is represented by national expenditure, and a little more than two-thirds by local expenditure.  It is an ominous fact that only the National Government is reducing its debt.  Others are increasing theirs at about $1,000,000,000 each year.  The depression that overtook business, the disaster experienced in agriculture, the lack of employment and the terrific shrinkage in all values which our country experienced in a most acute form in 1920, resulted in no small measure from the prohibitive taxes which were then levied on all productive effort.  The establishment of a system of drastic economy in public expenditure, which has enabled us to pay off about one-fifth of the national debt since 1919, and almost cut in two the national tax burden since 1921, has been one of the main causes in reestablishing a prosperity which has come to include within its benefits almost every one of our inhabitants.  Economy reaches everywhere.  It carries a blessing to everybody.

The fallacy of the claim that the costs of government are borne by the rich and those who make a direct contribution to the National Treasury can not be too often exposed.  No system has been devised, I do not think any system could be devised, under which any person living in this country could escape being affected by the cost of our government.  It has a direct effect both upon the rate and the purchasing power of wages.  It is felt in the price of those prime necessities of existence, food, clothing, fuel and shelter.  It would appear to be elementary that the more the Government expends the more it must require every producer to contribute out of his production to the Public Treasury, and the less he will have for his own benefit.  The continuing costs of public administration can be met in only one way—­by the work of the people.  The higher they become, the more the people must work for the Government.  The less they are, the more the people can work for themselves.

The present estimated margin between public receipts and expenditures for this fiscal year is very small.  Perhaps the most important work that this session of the Congress can do is to continue a policy of economy and further reduce the cost of government, in order that we may have a reduction of taxes for the next fiscal year.  Nothing is more likely to produce that public confidence which is the forerunner and the mainstay of prosperity, encourage and enlarge business opportunity with ample opportunity for employment at good wages, provide a larger market for agricultural products, and put our country in a stronger position to be able to meet the world competition in trade, than a continuing policy of economy.  Of course necessary costs must be met, proper functions of the Government performed, and constant investments for capital account and reproductive effort must be carried on by our various departments.  But the people must know that their Government is placing upon them no unnecessary burden.