Government activities can only exist by reason of the law, and so it will be proper to consider perhaps or discuss briefly the application of the law with reference to the activities that are being conducted, of which you, each of you, are a part. The responsibility for whatever the Government may do in this or any other matter rests largely upon the Congress. I have hastily gone through the legislation that has been enacted in the last few years with reference to taking care of and providing for the ex-service men, and during the war for their dependents, and for those who might become incapacitated or disabled from any cause. There has been much legislation, demonstrating that the Congress is keenly alive to the importance of the situation. There has been one act after another, and hardly an act but what has been amended within a very short time after its enactment. The recent law is what is known as the Sweet Bill, the law under which we are now operating. Within the memory of many who are here present the appropriations for all purposes of the Government were under a billion dollars, and there is being and is appropriated at the present time nearly half of that amount for the purpose of caring for the hospitalization, etc. of these ex-service men. Am I correct, Colonel Forbes, in the amount of money that is being appropriated? It is a vast and large sum of money, and it is the duty of those charged with the responsibility of expending that money to see that we get a hundred cents’ value for every dollar that has been appropriated. This requires economy and efficiency, and this gathering and this organization which General Sawyer is the chairman, was created for the purpose of getting better results from the moneys that are appropriated by the Congress; and you, each and every one of you, have been brought here, as I understand, for the purpose of coming in closer contact with those who are charged with the responsibility, in the first instance, of administering the expenditure of this large sum of money; and you owe to this responsibility exactly the same responsibility as does Colonel Forbes or anyone else occupying a higher station than you may occupy. Therefore, I am confident and I am certain that when this conference shall have concluded, every person that has come here will go back to his respective place where his duty requires him, with a better understanding and with a more determined disposition to try and render better service and get really more for the money that is being expended for the purpose for which it is being expended. Speaking of legislation, we shall undoubtedly require considerably more legislation because, as I have stated, in the short time since this subject was first taken up by Congress think of the progress that has been made.