"Economy"

The $1,115,000,000 tax bill enacted fortnight ago failed to balance the Budget even roughly, by about $350,000,000. To fill up this gap Congress was expected to effect special economies of about $250,000,000 and reduce appropriations by $100,000,000. Last month the House of Representatives was presented with a $263,000,000 economy bill. When the House finished with it, the measure represented an estimated saving of somewhere around $40,000,000. Last week when its turn came to save in a big way, the Senate also faltered, lost its nerve.

The Senate's Economy Committee, with President Hoover's aid & counsel, produced an omnibus bill to cut costs by about $238,000,000. The step-by-step shrinking process on the Senate floor: Lost Savings Reason

$4,000,000-Exemption of salaries of $1,000 or less from a general 10% pay cut estimated to save $122,000,000.

$48,000,000-Elimination (vote: 63-to-14) of all cuts for Veterans' allowance and compensations.

$30,000,000-Substitution (38-to-26) of President Hoover's 30-day payless furlough plan for Government employes in place of the 10% wage cut voted earlier.

$82,000,000-Total

These changes reduced the total of the Senate's savings to $156,000,000 or less. Critics of the bill pointed out that it contained a duplicate provision on annual leaves without pay which would shrink its total by another $22,000,000.

The substitution of furloughs saving $58,000,000 for pay cuts saving $118,000,000 loosed a storm of Democratic abuse against President Hoover. South Carolina's Byrnes charged that the President had agreed to go along with the Economy Committee on the pay cut plan but at the last minute his "pride of opinion" caused him to revert to his furlough scheme and to succeed in inducing the Senate to reverse itself and adopt his less economical proposal. 'The bill has been wrecked," cried Senator Byrnes, "and it has been wrecked by the President of the U. S."

Tennessee's McKellar accused the President of "bad faith" on economy. Arkansas' Robinson, Democratic leader, fulminated:

''The economy program has broken down. Our work has resulted in a disgusting failure, in view of all the talk that has gone on about cutting the cost of Government. We've done little and we don't know what we have done."

The Senate sent its bill to conference with the House. Last month that body killed the Hoover furlough plan by a two-to-one vote.

The Senators next turned their attention to a stack of appropriation bills from which some $200,000,000 had to be shaved if the Budget was to be leveled up. First shaving: $3,000,000 off a $389,000,000 War Department supply bill.

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