New-York tribune., 1868-06-04
NATIONAL MANUFACTURERS CONTENTION.
ITS WORK IN REDUCING EXPENSES AND TAXA


ITS WORK IN REDUCING EXPENSES AND TAXA
TION.
The National Manufacturers Association met at
Cleveland on the 2Sh ut to hear the report Of tho
Committee sent by them to Washington TO promote
reduction in the expenditures OF the Government
and in taxation Their object was TO obtain reduc-
tions not for particular branches of industry, but
for all alike Starting with the resolve to Use no
money except for legitimate personal and printing
expenses the sum of $42OO raised by the Secretary,
more than covers their entire expenses TO date.
Finding that the enormous estimates TO which the
country had become accustomed during the war,
were kept up in many departments solely to avoid
dischargng vast hosts of official dleTs and that the
estimates for 1868 for the miscellaneous expenses of
the Government were five and a-third times great
as the actual expenses of 1SG0 they directed much
attention TO pointing out and cutting down these
estimates They find there are 4l,0OO officials with
aggregate salaries of over $3lOCOJGOO yearly,
being from 1900 TO $4,000 u year each,
all dependent on the will of the President
for their support The entire expense of the officials
performing similar functions in 1860 amounted to
only 100000. About $GO0000O0 annually are lost
to the Government by the failure TO collect tho
whisky tax, and about s5 900 more by the frauds
in the collection Of the tobacco tax. About $l50O0,
900 a year have been squandered sending navy for
which we have no need, on gaudy brayado and junk
etng expeditions to foreign countries. Fifteen light
cruisers are all we want. The army should be re-
dueed TO 1900 men, thereby saving $20OOO0OO annu-
ally Beside these wastes, the people imported dur
ing 1866 over $G7OOOOOO of wool and woolens, which
were sold in direct competition with our own
woods and wOolens, reducing the latter in price
from 2j to 10 per cent, bringing ruin on thou
sands of our Western farmers, and para
lying the prosperity Of our manufacturers.
There were imported also $30,0OO,O00 Of cottons
though we produce in abundance the raw material,
and though our machinery labor, and capital, for its
maAufacture were all thrown out Of employment by
it's importation. The cotton of Egypt and Of India
were thus admitted to undersel the ruined planters
and starving freedmen Of the South. The pauper
labor Of Paris, Belgium, Manchester, and BiIming-
ham, was made TO compete with and reduce the
wages of our better paid but higher taxed operatives
And the mines Of Sweden, Norway England, and
France, were sustained by revenues drawn from the
people Of Pennsylvania Michigan, Missouri, VIr-
ginia, Illinois, and Tennessee whose strata are
almost continuous mine OF uDdeyeOped wealth.
We imported $4,000 900 of iron and steel while
own mines and furnaces comparatively idle. And
athesc foreign products were paid for in bonds and
went to increase the mortgage which European cap
italfsts have obtained on our national industry. The
Committee also believe that the Indian Bureau is
q source Of vast needless waste and expense, and
shou3d be placed in charge Of tho War Department;
and that the Freedmen's Bureau has now done its
work and should beabolished- the better.
There are 20 United States Judicial Districts costing
$4,000 o year each, ,in which the whole amount Of
business transacted does not equal the cost of MAIN
tanning them, The estimates Of the Secretary Of the
Treasury Of the expenses OF the Government for
1868 were for the War Department, Navy Depart
ment and Civil Service. $is2 O0oOO0 while the whole
expenses of the same Departments for 1860 were
341540OO. Congress made reductions OF nearly 80
per cent in these estimates, and In all the
other departments Of reform Congress bear
tly co6peTated, except in. the cases off, a
few persons, Who. like Mr., ,fcssenden,'
had unusually large number Of reat ives qaarteI
the Government 1sut m iniriy Of tlfese depart.
ments Of reform almost nothing could be done
without the aid Of AndreY johnson and his army Of