ADDRESS, SALVATION ARMY AUXILIARY LUNCHEON

BALTIMORE
November 17, 1959

The task of preparing a government budget would be much simpler
if we could rid ourselves of some of the misconceptions about taxes and
the public treasury. The public treasury is not just a big chest of money
to be dipped into to give everybody what he wants. And taxes are not a
nuisance imposed upon the people to make their lives unhappy.

Taxes regarded realistically are the money the people spend for the
services they want their government to render. The public treasury is
the total of the money collected to be spent in rendering the services the
people want.

A nation or a state is like the individual—it is never rich enough to
supply all its wants at one time. Like the individual, therefore, it must
be selective. It must determine what its needs are and arrange to satisfy
them in the light of the amount of money it has to spend for them. These
decisions are difficult for the individual; they are infinitely more difficult
for the state. But they must be made, and this is one of the toughest prob-
lems confronting those of us who are responsible for the preparation of
government budgets.

What are the people's needs? How much can they afford to spend to
satisfy them?

In my reading recently, I came across a statement made by the Budget
Director of the United States. He said:

"I think we ought to face up to the fact that, if we ever accept the
principle that the sum of all demands against the treasury—by govern-
ment agencies or by the people across the country—constitutes a require-
ment that we must meet, then we will go broke just as surely as you
would go broke, personally, if you tried to meet all the desires of the
members of your family. "

The wisdom of that statement is apparent to anyone who has ever
labored over a governmental budget. Demands for services of all types
and varieties are presented every year to the executives and lawmakers
who must pass judgment upon them in the preparation of a budget.
Some of them are legitimate, a few of them not. Some of them can be
postponed and some of them must be met immediately. Some of them
must be met in full, some can be scaled down. But as the Federal Budget

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