Now we have a two-fold obligation,—I may say three-fold. We have the obligation to the men, to give them proper care. We have the obligation to the Treasury to see that that care is not conducted at an outrageous expense; and we have the obligation to the Nation to see that the moral standpoint of the communities in which these men are being cared for, is not degraded as a result of our attempt to help the men; and the only way you can stop that is to prevent the men while in the care of the Government, from having unlimited right to spend the money allotted to them out of the Treasury of the United States. It would be far better for them, far better for the community, for the nation, far better for the future of all if we could arbitrarily take the money away from them while they are in our control; place it on deposit, and see that it is applied for some useful purpose for their families after they leave our care. We can do it. We have the power. Have we the courage? I think we have, and if you will join me, we will do it! (APPLAUSE)
I think the men themselves will be happier. Their organizations will be more pleased. You will have some grumbling, but you will have it anyhow. Far better to have the grumbling when the men are sober than otherwise. Far better to have the grumbling when men are likely to be contented than when they are discontented; and I don’t know of any individual more happy than he who knows that when we get through with the treatment we are giving him he can look forward to having a bank account somewhere.
You know we are liable to destroy the usefulness of this man. The citizenship of the future may depend upon our actions, and we must be careful. The obligation is ours today; it must be somebody else’s tomorrow; but the transfer of obligation from one man to another ought not to make any difference. Any man afraid of the obligation to do this work ought to be transferred, because he is not fit for his job. Public office is just an opportunity to serve; that is all. The man who is in public office, who trims his sails to meet every passing wind is not fit for the job. He must have courage, integrity, purpose in life; and the man who cannot do the things that are dictated by conscience and right in a great public office ought not to be returned to it. The man that cannot feel the consciousness of his own rectitude, but rather the political bee buzzing, is not fit for a public office; and the men who are in the great service in which you men are employed have obligations, wonderful obligations, wonderful opportunities.
We depend upon you for the outline of the plan that we must follow in our treatment of this great army of patriotic men that have come back, eyeless, legless, armless, and sick in many other ways; but we must also depend upon you to cooperate with us in an effort to prevent the looting of the public Treasury and the reduction of the moral standpoint of the nation.
You need not be afraid to suggest. We should like to have your suggestions. We invite them; we welcome then. You need not be afraid to criticize; we are glad to have that. But we want you not only to remember that money is a factor as well as a help, but we want you to learn how to spend money. Most doctors do not know how, especially Army doctors. I have discovered that. I don’t blame them. Their minds run along other lines, but somebody has to watch this side of the case.
Now one thing we ought to remember is that the estimates for the expenses of the Government of the United States for the fiscal year, 1923, sent to the Congress amount to 167 million dollars more than we have got; and since these estimates came, 50, 60, 70 million dollars more have come, adding that much more to that which we have not got. I just want to say to you, gentlemen, right here that it does not make any difference how many estimates come, there won’t be a bit appropriated beyond the revenue, and I don’t care from whom the estimates come.
Our job is to represent the tax-payers. Somebody must visualize the nation. You men visualize the thing before you; you see the local picture. We see more than that; we see the whole picture; and our job is not only to see that the rights of those under our care are protected and preserved, but that the rights of the people who are not under our care and under whose care we are, are protected. We represent the tax-payers of the nation. They have been mighty patriotic; they have been liberal; they have not grumbled; they have paid the price; they have paid it with courage; and they have shown their patriotism. They have shown their unselfish devotion to liberty. They are willing to meet any expense that may be imposed for the proper care of those who fell before the bullets of the enemy; but they want and will insist upon proper supervision of the expenditures.
They have a right to that. They have a right to relief from the burdens of taxation to the extent that we can help to give them that relief; and it is your job and mine and that of every other man in the government service,—whether he be a dollar-a-year man or whether he be given fifty thousand dollars a year for the privilege of service,—to do everything in his power to make the people of America feel that they are not misrepresented in anything we may do.
The expenses of the Government for 1919 were nineteen billions; for 1920, seven billion, five hundred; for 1921, six billion, five hundred; for 1922, four billion, thirty-four millions; but a billion, eight hundred and forty-five millions of that are in three fixed charges, i.e., nine hundred and seventy-five million dollars a year for interest on the public debt, which did not exist before the war; three hundred and eighty-one million dollars a year for the sinking-fund, which did not exist before the war; four hundred and eighty-nine million dollars a year for the care of the men that you are here to represent, for their hospitalization, allotments, allowances, insurance, and so on; so that we have that fixed charge in these three items that never existed before. Our Government in the future is bound to cost twice what it ever cost before, and so we have everybody in the United States watching every dollar of expenditure.
We have seven million tax-payers now that pay out of their incomes,—seven million people watching what we do. Before the war we did not have any of these people. They did not care what you did; how much money you spent, or where you got it. They did not have to pay it; it was not being paid directly. Now it is paid direct, and the more tax-payers you have got paying into the Treasury, the more account you have got to have of what you do with the government funds.