Excerpts of the President's News Conference

Here is a very interesting suggestion that I should discuss the administrative and political problems in the forthcoming two years. That I would hardly be able to do. There is one problem that I have to keep under constant emphasis, and that is economy and government expenditures. I think that in the past few weeks I have detected some evidences that in the coming session of Congress a good many efforts are going to be put forth to secure considerable expenditures of money. I think all problems requiring large expenditures of money ought to be very carefully considered before we embark on new enterprises. You will recall that we have provided a public building bill, which it is estimated will take about $25,000,000 a year. We are enlarging our river and harbor appropriation so that for the current year it carries $50,000,000—which is more I believe than at any time since the war. And I think, as I have said, that I detected in the air, as they say, the formation of plans to make a raid on the Treasury. Now, it is very important that this country keep down its expenditures. If it will do that, I think a great many other problems will solve themselves. But I have been over that so constantly in my addresses and in these newspaper conferences that I do not want to reiterate it now. In that connection, I learned this afternoon that one of those rather customary stories that start this time of the year and keep up until the Army and Navy appropriations have been made is about to be printed that the budget is going to require a large reduction in the Army. There is no foundation for that story.