ADAMS: THE CONTROL OF THE PURSE. 22 1 



committee system is the essential part of the machinery by which' the 

 House carries on its business. An argument may be directed, how- 

 ever, against the effect of that system upon the constitutional provis- 

 ion so often referred to and upon the great principle underlying it, 

 that the people, through their representatives, should have direct 

 control of all financial legislation. 



D.— The Effect of Business Methods in Congress upon Respon- 

 sibility for Financial Action. 



In the foregoing sketch three points of particular interest are 

 brought out. First: that the struggle for popular control of the 

 purse had been fought out in England before the formation of the 

 United States government, except in so far as the American Revolu- 

 tion was a struggle for this principle, and that the people of the 

 United States inherited the right of control over taxation and 

 expenditure. This is . shown by sections in colonial charters, by 

 debates of the constitutional convention, and by state constitutions. 

 Second: events in Congressional history indicate that the House of 

 Representatives regards itself as having by constitutional right 

 supreme power over money bills, in order that control may be 

 guaranteed to the people. Third: the press of business in Congress 

 early led to the assignment to committees of affairs of every sort, 

 thus giving to a selected body of members general direction of mone- 

 tary questions, excluding, in a measure, other members from an equal 

 power of direction. 



Conceding then that the principle of self-taxation, as developed in 

 the English constitution, has been incorporated in the constitution of 

 the United States, and that Congress is today trying to secure to the 

 people the realization of that principle, it is the purpose of the re- 

 mainder of this paper: first, to indicate wherein the people have 

 failed to secure their constitutional right to the control of taxation; 

 and, second, to consider the various suggestions made for remedying 

 this evil, and to note in what respect they are available or otherwise. 



There are now in the House of Representatives forty-seven stand- 

 ing committees, eleven of which have, either directly or indirectly, to 

 deal with questions of the budget. In order to appreciate fully the 

 influence of these committees it is necessary to trace the various 

 stages through which a money bill must ])ass before it becomes a 

 law."*- At the beginning of each ses^iion the Secretary of the Treasury 

 presents his report of the financial condition of the government, and 

 his estimates of the revenue and expenditure for the coming year. 



*The BiidKet. C<)l)ilen Club Series, pp. lO."}-!-:!. 



