Speech

To the automotive fleet of the White House was added a Lincoln.* In it, the President and Mrs. Coolidge drove to Continental Memorial Hall, two blocks southwest of the White House.

Since the Government has put in a budget system there have been eleven regular (usually semiannual) meetings of the Federal "business" organization. The new Lincoln took the President to speak before the twelfth. His keynote: "What needs to be done should be done." Extracts:

Efficiency. "We are often charged with inefficiency. But . . . the facts demonstrate that, measuring efficiency by the aggregate of the product these last years, there is no business body more efficient than the business organization of the Federal Government."

Armament. "The public debt has a direct connection with the question of military preparedness. To the extent that we are able to reduce our public debt and to eliminate the vast charges of interest thereon, to that extent are we adding to our military preparedness. . . . What we need, and all that we need, for national protection is adequate preparedness. I am for adequate military preparedness. It is a question which I always give the most serious thought in my recommendations to the Congress in the budget message. As Commander in Chief of the Army and of the Navy, the Chief Executive of this nation has an emphatic responsibility for this phase of our welfare. As a nation we are advocates of peace."

Spending Money. "It is significant that the Congress has not granted the total amount requested in any single budget. It is pleasurable and easy to give. It is difficult to withhold. If the Treasury vaults were thrown open and its accumulated capital drawn upon until not a dollar were left, even then would we not be able to satisfy the demands that probably would be made from various groups and from various localities. And who will say that these demands may not "have justification? Projects that eventually will be resolved into completed works, purposes and policies that in time to come must be adopted and financed, if accepted in their entirety today, would throw a tax burden upon the people that would cripple business, check prosperity and convert our annual surplus into an annual deficit. What needs to be done should be done. ... If I err in my judgment I prefer to err on the side of saving rather than on the side of spending."

*President Taft had a White Steamer. Since then, Pierce-Arrows have been most popular at the White House.