meet the needs of the latter."

What, then, can be done to reduce expenditure? It is impossible to do
more than indicate in outline the machinery by which this expenditure is
or might be controlled. During the War, for various reasons, the regular
and ordinary checks on extravagance and waste have almost ceased to
operate. The situation seems to have been getting worse until the
appointment of a Special Committee of the House of Commons on National
Expenditure in July, 1917. The Committee consisted of men with business
knowledge, and its reports have furnished valuable suggestions. On such
a subject anybody who has not direct access to documents and definite
personal knowledge of the work and expenditure of various departments,
and also some personal experience in State finance, may well hesitate to
express an opinion, and will prefer to quote the views of those who have
fuller information and better means of judging. There has been much
waste; what has gone on has even been described as a "wild orgy of
extravagance." The phrase has been used not only by irresponsible
critics, but by business men whose words carry weight. Let us call two
witnesses out of many available.

Mr. H. Samuel, in speaking of the work of the Select Committee, as late
as June 19, 1918, said, in the House of Commons, "that the Committee had
formed the opinion that in some cases the staffs of Government
departments had been swollen beyond all estimation; that they were
frequently ill-organised; that there was much waste of labour and
consequently of money in their establishments; that the Treasury had not
risen to the occasion during the War, and the Committee had regretfully
come to the conclusion that the War Office had been adopting a
deliberately obstructive attitude." Mr. Runciman on the same occasion
stated that "lax expenditure and loose control over distribution of