The responsibilities of the Government, in both domestic and international
affairs, have increased greatly in the past decade. Consequently, the
Government is larger than it was before the war, and its general operating
costs are higher. We cannot shrink the Government to prewar dimensions
unless we slough off these new responsibilities--and we cannot do that
without paying an excessive price in terms of our national welfare. We can,
however, enhance its operating efficiency through improved organization. I
expect to make such improvements under the authority of the Reorganization
Act of 1945.
The appropriations which I am recommending for general government for the
fiscal year 1947 are 1,604 million dollars under existing legislation. This
is an increase of 458 million dollars over the total of enacted
appropriations for the current fiscal year, but a substantial part of this
increase is due to the fact that the appropriations for the fiscal year
1946 were made prior to the general increase of employees' salaries last
July 1, for which allowance is made in the anticipated supplemental
appropriations for 1946. The recommended total for 1947 for general
government, like the estimates for national defense and other specific
programs, does not allow for the further salary increases for Government
employees which, I hope, will be authorized by pending legislation, but-the
tentative lump-sum estimates under proposed legislation contemplate that
such salary increases will be effective almost at once.
Expenditures for general government in the fiscal year 1947 are expected to
continue the slowly rising trend which began in 1943. This category
includes a great variety of items--not merely the overhead costs of the
Government. It includes all the expenditures of the Cabinet departments,
other than for national defense, aids to agriculture, general public works,
and the social security program. It includes also expenditures of the
legislative branch, the Judiciary, and many of the independent agencies of
the executive branch. Consequently, the estimated increase in 1947 in the
total of general government expenditures reflects a variety of influences.
Now included in general government are certain activities formerly
classified under national defense. Some of these, such as certain functions
of the former foreign Economic Administration and the War Manpower
Commission, are still needed during the period of reconversion; others are
in the process of liquidation. A few wartime activities, for example, the
international information and foreign intelligence services and some of the
wartime programs for controlling disease and crime, have become part of our
regular government establishment. Expenditures for these former wartime
functions explain about 40 percent of the increase in expenditures for
general government.
Other increases are for civil aeronautics promotion, the business and
manufacturing censuses, and other expanded business services of the
Department of Commerce which have been referred to above; the forest and
Soil Conservation Services and other committees of the Department of
certain conservation activities of the Department of the Interior; and the
collection of internal revenue in the Treasury Department.
The necessity for reestablishing postal services curtailed during the war
and advances in the rates of pay for postal employees have increased
substantially the estimated expenditures for postal service for both the
current and the next fiscal year. It is not expected that this increase
will cause expenditures to exceed postal revenues in either year, although
an excess of expenditures may occur in the fiscal year 1947 if salaries are
increased further.
Expenditures for our share of the administrative budgets of the United
Nations and other permanent international bodies will increase sharply in
the fiscal year 1947, yet will remain a small part of our total Budget. The
budget for the United Nations has not yet been determined; an estimate for
our contribution will be submitted later. Our contributions to the food and
Agriculture Organization, the International Labor Office, the Pan American
Union, and other similar international agencies will aggregate about 3
million dollars for the fiscal year 1947. The administrative expenses of
the International Monetary fund and the International Bank will be met from
their general funds.
We have won a great war--we, the nations of plain people who hate war. In
the test of that war we found a strength of unity that brought us
through--a strength that crushed the power of those who sought by force to
deny our faith in the dignity of man.
During this trial the voices of disunity among us were silent or were
subdued to an occasional whine that warned us that they were still among
us. Those voices are beginning to cry aloud again. We must learn constantly
to turn deaf ears to them. They are voices which foster fear and suspicion
and intolerance and hate. They seek to destroy our harmony, our
understanding of each other, our American tradition of "live and let live."
They have become busy again, trying to set race against race, creed against
creed, farmer against city dweller, worker against employer, people against
their own governments. They seek only to do us mischief. They must not
prevail.
It should be impossible for any man to contemplate without a sense of
personal humility the tremendous events of the 12 months since the last
annual Message, the great tasks that confront us, the new and huge problems
of the coming months and years. Yet these very things justify the deepest
confidence in the future of this Nation of free men and women.
The plain people of this country found the courage and the strength, the
self-discipline, and the mutual respect to fight and to win, with the help
of our allies, under God. I doubt if the tasks of the future are more
difficult. But if they are, then I say that our strength and our knowledge
and our understanding will be equal to those tasks.
As printed above, references to tables appearing in the budget document
have been omitted.
***
State of the Union Address
Harry S. Truman
January 6, 1947
Mr. President, Mr. Speaker, Members of the Congress of the United States:
It looks like a good many of you have moved over to the left since I was
here last!
I come before you today to report on the State of the Union and, in the
words of the Constitution, to recommend such measures as I judge necessary
and expedient.
I come also to welcome you as you take up your duties and to discuss with
you the manner in which you and I should fulfill our obligations to the
American people during the next 2 years.
The power to mold the future of this Nation lies in our hands--yours and
mine, and they are joined together by the Constitution.
If in this year, and in the next, we can find the right course to take as
each issue arises, and if, in spite of all difficulties, we have the
courage and the resolution to take that course, then we shall achieve a
state of well-being for our people without precedent in history. And if we
continue to work with the other nations of the world earnestly, patiently,
and wisely, we can--granting a will for peace on the part of our
neighbors-make a lasting peace for the world.
But, if we are to realize these ends, the Congress and the President,
during the next 2 years, must work together. It is not unusual in our
history that the majority of the Congress represents a party in opposition
to the President's party. I am the twentieth President of the United States
who, at some time during his term of office, has found his own party to be
in the minority in one or both Houses of Congress. The first one was George
Washington. Wilson was number eighteen, and Hoover was number nineteen.
I realize that on some matters the Congress and the President may have
honest differences of opinion. Partisan differences, however, did not cause
material disagreements as to the conduct of the war. Nor, in the conduct of
our international relations, during and since the war, have such partisan
differences been material.
On some domestic issues we may, and probably shall, disagree. That in
itself is not to be feared. It is inherent in our form of Government. But
there are ways of disagreeing; men who differ can still work together
sincerely for the common good. We shall be risking the Nation's safety and
destroying our opportunities for progress if we do not settle any
disagreements in this spirit, without thought of partisan advantage.