New-York tribune., 1867-03-09
W11Ar TT COSTS UNCLE SAM TO KEEP

HOUSE.
The appropriations voted by the Second Ses-
sion of the XXXIXth Congress to pay for tho
current expenses of the Government during the
coming year and to supply the deficiencies OF
tho last fiscal period, amount to the pretty little
sum of 037 61. The Army takes $685.
SS1 ,654; the Navy, $16,794,244; Mr.. Seward re-
cciycs two allowances of $4,000 each for his
Atlantic Cable bills and the POstmaster-Gen-
eIal gets 100000 worth of twine. The Mill
tary Academy at West Point is very lib
orally provided for, at an expense of S96S,9lS,
Of which that eminently useless body, the
Board of Visitors, consumes $1,000, and
another $4,000 is applied to an enlargement
of the cadets laundry, which we should think
ought to I've big enough now to keep that
dapper little company of soldiers as clean as a
row of new pins. The printing of our Govern
mcnt money costs S200000; the management of
loans and notes cannot be effected for less than
S2,OO0,0O0; and for the detection of counter
feiters we have bill of $4,000. Our expen-
sive old friend Pub. Doc. dances in to the tune
of S21G9,10S, which surely ought to make
Congress ashamed I OF itself. Next to
the salary of Mr.. Andrew Johnson,
GET the poorest equivalent for our money is
that of S31i,69J for the Department of Agri-
culture. The purchase and distribution of seeds
which nobody wants costs $4,000, and the Boz
tanical Garden, where Mr.. Commissioner New
ton raises hot-house flowers for Members of
Congress, is supported at an outlay of $l0,G1j.
Ten thousand dollars for bouquets But after
all that is not worse than the Legislative ap-
preparation of S1O,2G0 for horses and carriages
"a little bit of luxury in which we mistakenly
supposed the Common Council of New York
were unriyaled.
The most bewildering thing OF all ia the list
of appropriations for keeping our public
officers warm. Here for example, we have
$1,000 for heating the Supreme Court Room I;
$1,000 for heating the cadets mcss-rOOn at
West Point $4,000 for heating and yontila-
ting their barracks; $4,000 worth of heating
apparatus for the public buildings; $1,000
worth Of ditto for the library of Congress !;
5000 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
ia tho world it Is possible IN single Winter
10 consume such enormous quantities of coal,
isa problem quite beyond our comprehension.
There is an item OF $4,000 for lighting the
Capitol and White House, beside which the
illumination Of the Rotunda by electricity in
wolves an annual expense Of $1,000. and the
Government has 10 pay an electrician 1900 a
year 10 attend to it,
Tho standing and familiar outrage of all,
which colnes next to Pub. Doc. in atrocity. is
the appropriation for The Congressional Globe.
On this costly luxury the Senate cxpcnds no
less than ssj,l57. and the House Sl2O,s02--a
grand total of S2OG0i0 But this swindlo is TO
be stopped. Congress having already given
notice of its intention TO break off the contract
with the propuctors of that concern as soon rs
tho two years warning which they are required
to allow have expired