Taft Takes A Leaf From Wilson's Book.

New York Times 100 years ago today, August 13, 1912:
It Is About a Congressional Budget System Which the President Is to Adopt.
AN EARLY WILSON WORK
Tammany Secretary Calls and Governor Doesn't See Him — Priest Says There's no Catholic Question.
Special to The New York Times.
    SEA GIRT, N. J.. Aug. 12.— For nearly two hours to-day Gov. Woodrow Wilson, who wrote a book when he was twenty-five years old about Congressional Government in which he advocated a budget system of cash accounts, listened to the details of a plan which, it is declared, President Taft will submit to the next Congress as an object lesson in economics.
    According to Information brought from Washington by a Congressional visitor, the plan President Taft will offer is a detailed budget with the appropriation bill, the budget explanations being in such plain terms that the people on reading them can gain a clear understanding of the business programme of the Government for a year ahead. Gov. Wilson, without mentioning the fact that he knew the budget programme had been adopted by President Taft, gave it his hearty approval. He said he had been interested in the plan ever since he was a boy, and that until it was adopted there would be no way of telling what Congress was spending until after Congress had adjourned.
    The budget plan was outlined to Gov. Wilson by Congressman Swager Sherley of Louisville, Ky., who is a member of the Committee on Appropriations of the House. After the conference with Gov. Wilson was concluded, Congressman Sherley said:
    "I came up here to discuss the budget system with Gov. Wilson, because I have been interested in it for many years. I found Gov. Wilson not only an interesting but a very sympathetic listener. The situation that calls for reform in Congressional bookkeeping is simply this: Each Congress appropriates $1,000,000,000, but we never know what the appropriations amount to while Congress is making them. We are less scientific than any other Government in dealing with any other incident of the day."
    "I was much interested in Congressman Sherley's idea," said Gov. Wilson; "in fact I have been watching that matter since I was a boy. He favors systematizing the Federal income and expenditures. When I was a youngster things were not so confusing as they now are. There was merely the Committee on Ways and Means to regulate the Federal income and the Committee on Appropriations to take care of the expenditures. Now the Army Committee prepares the army budget, the Naval Committee the naval budget, the Agricultural Committee the agricultural budget, and so on. No one can tell how much Congress is spending at the time it is being spent."
    Gov. Wilson put in a fairly busy day with political callers.
    One bit of news received from New York distressed him very much. This was that Col. William F. McCombs, the National Chairman and Chairman of the Campaign Committee, was ill and had been confined to his room since last Saturday afternoon.
    Josephus Daniels was the guest of Gov. Wilson for dinner to-night. "We discussed a score of things," said Gov. Wilson after Mr. Daniels had gone back to New York. "It was mighty good of him to come down, as he saved me a trip to New York to take up matters he suggested to me."
    Judge O'Sullivan of the Court of General Sessions of New York called on Gov, Wilson to-day to present the Rev. Father Thomas C. O'Reilly of Cleveland, Ohio, who is in charge of the Catholic Diocese of Cleveland curing the absence of the Bishop in Europe. The Rev. Father O'Reilly said he had heard many charges that Gov Wilson was against the Catholic Church, and that the Catholic Church was spreading a propaganda against Gov. Wilson.
    "But I can assure you most heartily," he said, "that both charges are false. The Catholic Church is not in politics. The Church and political organizations occupy different spheres, and they will not mix any more than will milk and vinegar. If the Catholic question comes up in the present campaign, you can rest assured that it will not be brought up by the Church."
    A cheer for the "next President of the United States" resounded over the Little White House lawns at 3 o'clock, the cheerers inducing veterans of the Spanish-American war who fought in Cuba and bivouaced alongside of Roosevelt's regiment. They were members of the "Old Guard" of New York, down in force to try their trigger fingers on the rifle range.
    They shot hard all morning, and then marched to the Governor's home. They cheered, after passing in review, first  for "the Governor of New Jersey," and then for "Our next President."
    After that they marched back to the rifle range.
    National Committeeman Joseph E. Davis paid a farewell visit to Gov. Wilson prior to leaving for Chicago to open the Wilson campaign in the Western States.
    Thomas F. Smith, Secretary of Tammany Hall, called at Sea Girt, surrounded by a band of press agents. He did not succeed in seeing the Governor.
    John H. Bogart, President of the Woodrow Wilson Workingmen's Club of New York, called to ask Gov. Wilson to attend a dollar dinner to be given at some date convenient for the Governor in September at the Cafe Boulevard. Gov. Wilson accepted the invitation.
    Gov. Wilson will go to Trenton tomorrow for his usual Tuesday visit to the State House.