APPROPRIATION BILL FOR 1934 HEARINGS BEFORE THE SUBCOMMITTEE OF THE UNITED STATES SENATE SEVENTY-SECOND CONGRESS SECOND SESSION ON H. R. 14199 BILL MAKING APPROPRIATIONS FOR THE MILITARY AND WAR DEPARTMENT APPROPRIATION BILL FOR 1934 TUESDAY, JANUARY 31, 1933 UNITED STATES SENATE, SUBCOMMITTEE OF THE COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS, Washington, D. C. in The subcommittee met, pursuant to call, at 10.30 o'clock a. m., the committee room, Capitol, Hon. David A. Reed, presiding. Present: Senators Reed (chairman), Bingham, Nye, Dale, Grammer, Kendrick, McKellar, Copeland, Hayden, and Cutting. The subcommittee thereupon proceeded to the consideration of the bill (H. R. 14199) making appropriations for the military and nonmilitary activities of the War Department for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1934, and for other purposes. STATEMENT OF GENERAL DOUGLAS MACARTHUR, CHIEF OF STAFF The Chairman (Senator REED). General MacArthur, we shall be glad to hear your views on the Army appropriation bill. General MACARTHUR. Mr. Chairman and gentlemen of the committee: The War Department appropriation bill, now before you, aggregating $348,855,721 in amount, carries $270,954,499 for the support of the military establishment. This latter sum is approximately $66,000,000, or 20 per cent, less than the amount provided for military purposes in the fiscal year 1931. The appropriations for that year were the last unaffected by the depression. The sums carried in the current bill are but little more than the record postwar lows established in the fiscal years 1924 and 1925, when two important factors combined to reduce Army expenditures to an extraordinary degree. Skeletonization had just been completed in our military forces, resulting not only in a sharp reduction of direct appropriations, but in surpluses in supplies and equipment that became available for current maintenance. The second important cause for the reduced expenditures of those years was the fact that the Air corps Act and other statutory increases requiring greatly augmented expenditures were not yet effective. Compared to foreign practice a very small portion of our National Budget is devoted to Army maintenance. Each of the major foreign powers, with the exception of Great Britain, requires eligible individuals to serve in its peace-time army on a compulsory basis. Under the conscript system pay for the individual enlisted man is insignificant, and per capita costs of the military establishment are minimized. The American Army is organized under the admittedly expensive volunteer method, in spite of which a smaller proportion of the national revenue is devoted to current military activity than in any other major power. For many years we have devoted some 1 |