The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-03-11
what 1t Costs Uncle Sam to Keep House
From me Tribune

The appropriations voted by the Second Ses-
sion of the Thirty-ninth Congress to pay for
the current expenses of the Government during
the coming year, and to supply the deficiencies
of the last fiscal period, amount to the pretty
little sum of Sl44, 1913, O37'61. The Army takes
$23, ,S9l, 654 the Navy, $16, 794, 244; Mr.. Seward
receives two allowances of S3O, 900 each for
his Atlantic Cable bills; and the Postmaster
General gets $4,000 worth of twine. The
Military Academy at West Point is very libe-
rally provided for, at an expense of S26o, ,9l3,
of which that eminently useless body, the
Board OF Visitors, consumes S5OOo, and an
other $4,000 is applied to an enlargement OF
the cadets laundry, which we should think
ought to be big enough now to keep that
dapper little company of soldiers as clean as
row of new pins. The printing OF our Govern
ment money costs $500, 900; the management OF
loans and notes cannot be effected for less than
S2,O0O,000; and for the detection of counter
teiters we have bill of $l50,000. Our ex-
pensive old friend Pub. Doc. dances i'll to the
tune of 81, 1863, 1913, which surely ought to make
Congress ashamed of itself. Next to the salary
of Mr.. Andrew Johnson, the charge under
which it strikes us that we get the poorest
equivalent for our money is that of 53l4, 695
for the Department of Agriculture. The pur-
chase and distribution of seeds which nobody
wants cost $50, ,O00 and the Botanical Garden,
where Mr.. Commissioner Newton raises hot
house flowers for members of Congress, is sup
ported at an outlay of so, ,675. Ten thousand
dollars for bouquets! But, after all, that is not
worse than the Legislative" appropriation of
SO, $50 for horses and Carriages-a little bit OF
luxury in which we mistakenly supposed the
Common Council of New York were unrivalled.
The most bewilderng thing of all is the list
of appropriations for keeping our public
officers warm. Here, for example, we have
$4,000 for heating the Supreme Court Room;
$4,000 for heating the cadets mess-rOOm at
West Point; $40,O for heating and ventila-
ting their barracks; $4,000 worth of heating
apparatus for the public buildings; $1,000
worth of ditto for the library of Congress-; $4,000
worth of fuel for the White House; $4,000
worth of fuel and lights for Congress-; $500
for heating the Capitol; $1,000 for fuel again
at the White House and Capitol How in the
world is it possible in a single winter to con-
sumo such enormous quantities OF coal, is
problem quite beyond our comprehension.
There is an item of $55, 600 for lighting the
Capitol and White House, besides which the
illumination of the Rotunda by electricity in
wolves an annual expense of $1,000, and the
Government has to pay an electrician $l2OO a
year to attend to it.
The standing and familiar outrage of all,
which comes next to Pub. Doc. in atrocity, is
the appropriation for the Congressional Globe.
On this costly luxury the Senate expends no
less than $S5, l57, and the House $40, SEA-
grand total of $206,049. But this swindle is
to be stopped, Congress having already given
notice Of its intention to break off the contract
with the proprietOrs of that concern as soon as
the two years warning which they are required
to allow have expired.