The President's News Conference

ARMISTICE DAY SPEECH

THE PRESIDENT. I have sent the Armistice Day speech to the printer, and you will have it this evening, I think--obviously for release on next Tuesday.

PRELIMINARY FIGURES FOR THE 1931 BUDGET

We have the preliminary figures in for the budget, and I thought that might interest you--that is, for the budget for 1931.

It is a little difficult to make comparisons, but the original appropriations for the year 1929-30, that is, the present fiscal year, together with the deficiency appropriations and other sums available, amount to $3,941 million in round numbers, and in addition to that $150 million capital for the Farm Board.

The budget for 1931 in round numbers, that is the next fiscal year, is $3,830 million, but does not include provision of further capital for the Farm Board, as they have not been able so far to make an estimate. It does include their administration expenditures. Those figures, that is, $3,941 million for the present fiscal year, and $3,830 million for the next fiscal year are on the same basis, because I have taken the Farm Board out of the first and have not put it in the second. In other words, the amount for the present fiscal year is $3,941 million, plus the $150 million for the Farm Board, and the estimate for 1931 is $3,831 million but does not include any capital for the Farm Board.

The budget will provide for an increase of expenditures on the waterways and flood control of about $10 million directly, and indirectly the construction of those works benefits by the completion of the Ohio to the extent of $4 or $5 million, which gives somewhere in the neighborhood of $15 million applicable in addition to the normal on the waterways. In order to get that clear, we have increased the rivers and harbors appropriation by $5 million, and have increased the flood control by [p.371] $5 million, which makes $10 million, and we have the benefit of the transfer of Ohio expenditures, which allows us to expedite other works to the extent of about $15 million over and above this present fiscal year.

The budget provides for the full 5-year increment to the Army aviation program--next year being the 5th year in the 5-year program as established by Congress. There has been some lag in appropriations for that program during the last 4 years, and we are proposing to take up this lag in the year following, that is the 6th year, if Congress approves, but we are not attempting to take up the whole lag in the 5th year.

We ought to have the completely detailed figures for you in the course of about a week. But I thought that preliminary might be of some interest.

And that is all I have on my mind.