Speech #720043266

Then a later paragraph provides cars for the Bureau of Prohibition. In our State of Michigan. if you are going to use Austin and Ford cars to chase the racketeers and the bootleggers between Detroit and Chicago. your success will be about what it has been in the past. Then a later paragraph provides. among other things. for equipment for the carrying out of the immigration law. and makes an appropriation for automobiles. As in the enforcement of the liquor laws the enforcement of the immigration laws requires large and powerful cars. Now. I want to say that this provision is a political gesture. When I took a stand on the liquor question I decided to face the facts. and I intend to face them on any other question that comes along. I submit that to leave no discretion in anybody as to the particular car to purchase for a particular purpose is an effort at economy which in the end may prove to be costly. It is "pennywise and pound foolish." I realize that this section was not in the bill as originally drawn. but was added to it by the committee. and as I review the enormous amounts carried by this bill as appropriations for various purposes. including the appropriation for the enforcement of the liquor laws. the immigration laws. and various other regulatory provisions. and then see this picayune provision as to automobiles. I conclued that the committee may have "strained at a gnat and swallowed a camel." It will be noted that the bill under consideration makes appropriations for the purchase by the various departments of almost everything from newspapers to airplanes. and in no place does it make a limitation on the. amount to be expended for an individual item except in the case of automobiles. It will be further noted that the provision in reference to automobiles is intended to save. and actually does save. no money. for the reason that the gross amount of the appro-