BUENA VISTA 



979 



BUENOS AIRES 



1760 the term was first commonly applied to 

 the financial statement itself. 



The procedure in the British Parliament is 

 typical of all countries in which a budget 

 is prepared. The Chancellor of the Exchequer 

 submits to Parliament a yearly statement of 

 the expenses for the coming year and the 

 means for raising revenue. The figures are 

 usually compared with those of the preceding 

 year. If the estimated revenue is smaller than 

 the expenditures planned, the budget includes 

 suggestions for increasing the revenue. In Can- 

 ada the same procedure is followed, the budget 

 being presented to the Dominion Parliament by 

 the Minister of Finance. 



The theory on which a budget is based is 

 that the executive officers of a government are 

 best qualified to determine how much money 

 is needed and how it shall be spent. The 

 people's representatives in the legislative de- 

 partment merely give their consent. The 

 budget appropriates a grand total, and indicates 

 approximately how much each department of 

 the government will receive, but just how this 

 share shall be disposed of is an executive, not a 

 legislative, function. 



In the United States this process is reversed. 

 The United States, properly speaking, has no 

 budget. Congress makes all appropriations and 

 determines how every dollar shall be spent. 

 The executive departments may make sugges- 

 tions, but they have no voice in the decisions. 

 Congress is at liberty to spend all it wants to 

 spend, then it must find the revenue to pay the 

 bills. If the United States had a scientific 

 budget system, Congressional appropriations 

 would be restricted. The theory of the Amer- 

 ican system is that the elected representatives 

 of the people know how much they want to 

 spend, and that the executives are hired to 

 spend it. 



The American system, on the whole, is more 

 wasteful. It gives more opportunities for ap- 

 propriations which are not vitally necessary but 

 are due to political expediency. Economists 

 and financiers, and some recent Presidents of 

 the United States, as well, have recommended 

 the adoption of a budget system, but Congress 

 has taken no action. 



BUENA VISTA, bwa'na vees'ta, BATTLE OF, 

 an important battle of the Mexican War, 

 through which the United States gained control 

 of Northeastern Mexico. It was fought on 

 February 22 and 23, 1847, near Buena Vista, 

 at the upper end of a long, narrow, mountain 

 pass called Angostura Heights. There the 



American general, Zachary Taylor, had sta- 

 tioned his force of 5,000 men, who were pro- 

 tected on one side by high 'cliffs and on the 

 other by deep ravines. For two days a Mex- 

 ican army of 20,000 under Santa Anna made 

 desperate attempts to drive the Americans 

 from the heights, but they were beaten back 

 in every charge and finally driven from the field. 

 The Americans lost about 750 in killed and 

 wounded; the Mexicans, about 2,000. Taylor's 

 victory at Buena Vista made him the hero of 

 the hour, and the next year he was elected 

 President of the United States. See MEXICAN 

 WAR. 



BUENOS AIRES, bway'nohs i'raz, or bo' 

 nus a'riz, the capital of Argentina, known by 

 reason of its beauty, its fashion and its cos- 

 mopolitan character as the "Paris of Amer- 

 ica." It enjoys several distinctions, for its 



LOCATION MAP 



In the small corner map the black space rep- 

 resents that part of Southern South America 

 shown In the larger map. 



population of 1,329,697 in 1911 not only makes 

 it the largest city in the world south of the 

 equator but the second largest Latin city in 

 the world, Paris alone surpassing it. In 1914 

 the number of people was estimated at 1,560,- 

 163. Rome, with its thousands of years of his- 

 tory and with the civilization of Europe all 

 about it, is not half so large as this com- 

 paratively-modern city in a continent which 

 until recent times has scarcely been ranked 

 with the progressive parts of the earth. 



Location and Appearance. Though Buenos 

 Aires is situated 175 miles from the mouth of 

 the Rio de la Plata, it is in effect a seaboard 

 city, for the river at that point is thirty miles 

 wide and the silt has been dredged out so 

 that large vessels may approach the city. The 



