Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1870-01-29
REJOINDER OF MIR. DAWES TO B.



terday:
Mr. Dawes addressed the committee in
reply to the speech of Mr.. Butler yester-
day, undertaking to prove that his own
speech, which was arraigned yesterday,
was made on a fitting occasion, that the
speech was true, and that it was proper
he should make it. He had been charged
with having, with his eyes open, prostitu-
ted his official position to the benefit of
the Democratic party and to the sacrifice
Of his own credit; but it would have been
more to his taste could he have left the
speech to its place before the bar of free
and candid critics, TO which everything
that was said on this floor must ultimately
come So long as criticism on his speech
had been confined to what was contained
in the speech itself, il had not been his
intention to trouble the House or those
who read its proceedings with anythingin
regard to it; but when the motives that
actuated him in its delivery We're deliber-
ately impugned on the floor of the House
there was no alternative to but to ask its
indulgence to the extent which he had
indicated, and therefore he would proceed
directly and without further preface TO in
auire what occasion he had to make that
speech.
That speech was delivered upon bill
involving great public work, involving
Immediately, as he thought, and ultimate
w, certainly, the expenditure of large
sum of public money. He had been
charged with Hle duty, in company with
eight other members of the House, of
taking care of the public expenditures,
and it had been the opinion of that com
mittee that that was proper occasion,
through one of its members, to express
to the House the reasons of its objections
to the bill, and it had fallen to his lot to
give utterance to those reasons. He had
been spokesman of the Committee on APP
preparations, and as such had made the
speech that was the occasion for the
speech of his colleague, and he submitted
to the House whether it was proper oC-
casion for it. 1t had seemed so plain a
path of duty to him, that it had never oc-
CURED to him that anybody would init
mate he had seized an improper occasion
in submitting the remarks which he did /;
but far more important than that was the
other inquiry, whether what he said on
that occasion was true, and he stood to-
day, after more than week since its de-
livery, TO submit to the judgment of his
peers that not only was it a fit season for
that speech, but that what he uttered was
in all essential and important particulars
the truth.
Mr. Dawes then proceeded, with the
book estimates in his hands, TO refer TO
item after item of the estimates of the va
rious departments, and to show that his
original statement in regard to the excess
of the estimates over the appropriations
of last year were in every respect correct.
Passing on from figures, he said: IshOuld
rejoice as much as any man at any develop
ment going to show how much the people
of this country have been relieved of the
burdens of taxation by a reduction of eX-
penditures since Andrew johnson left the
Presidential chair. But the question that
was investigating and the inquiry that
was putting to the country, was, whether,
as between this year and next year, the
tendency of expenditure was upward or
downward, and l felt it duty for me to
contribute what was in my power, if /
thought l could, if that tendency was up
ward, TO induce those who are response
bic in these halls for the administration of
the Government, to so manage public af-
fairs that the tendency should be down
ward, not upward.
Now, sir, figures may be piled upon fig
ures mountain high, to show the differ
eDce between Andrew JohnsOn's admins
tration in that regard and the first year of
our administration, but they don't rest on
my shoulders Broadsides may be fired
from that point of view, but the missiles
all fall harmless at my feet, for there is
nothing in all that l said that had any
reference whatever to estimates of Andrew
JOhnSOn's administration Of apprOpria-
tons and expenditures in his administra-
ton. We have been told that estimates
for last year were made by Mr.. Johnson's
administration in spirit Of hostility to the
incoming administration not Tor what
Mr.. johnson would carry on the admins
tration, but what Gen. Grant would carry
it on for; that in such q tit of economy
the estimates were put down so IS TO en-
barrass the incoming administration and
that was said by one who was himself q
party in the Committee on Appropriations,
and who, further 10 cmbarrass this ad-
ministration, cut down these estimates
twenty millions Of dollars. Laughter.
The truth about that statement is that
nobody ever heard of it until yesterday.
If anything is a test as TO whether the
tendency to expenditure is upward or
downward in the departments it will be
found in two items for salaries and con
tingent expenditures; and ask the com
mittee to listen and say whether salaries
and contingent expenses as asked for in
this book of estimates are upward or
downward as compared with expenses for
present year.
The excess Of estimates over appropria-
tions, for the present year for salaries and
contingent expenses, are as follows: State
State Department, $38, 500; Executive
Department proper, 1910, 900; Treasury
Department, $3.50, 090; Department of
the Interior, SIS, s68; Department Of
War, Sc, 45O; Navy Department, 500, go;
Agricultural Department, S64, $50; Post
office Department, $50, 800; total excess
of estimates for salaries and contingent
expenses for those departments, over the
appropriations of this year, 1928, 469.
Take another Illustration. Take the
navy yard of Washington, and imagine
how many officers of the navy, independ
ent of civil officers, it requires to take
care of it. Here Mr.. Dawes read list
of officers employed in the Washington
Navy Yard, stating that the amount Of.
their salaries was So, G89. Besides these,
the salaries of the civil officers who
helped them to take care of the navy
yard amounted to S48, 946, making a
grand total of salaries for the navy yard
of Washington of $91, 695.
He suggested whether $1,000 or $l0,-
900 worth of property distributed in a
private yard would not be more effective
for purposes of the navy. Speaking of
admirals of yachts, he asserted that they
cost each of them 81, 500 day. If this
81, 500 a day were taken and used for sub
sisting the mercantile marine of the coun-
try it would tend to encourage trade an d
enterprise and commerce instead of being
q mere waste and useless flummeTy.
Referring to the suggestions made yes
terday by Mr.. Butler that he Dawes
should have gone to the departments to
inquire into any supposed errors, he was
compelled to say just what had transpired,
and the country would judge from it
whether he had been unfair or unjust
When the estimates were put in the hands
of the Committee on Appropriations, the
departments were allotted among nine
members of the committeeman he
would say here that the Democratic mem
bers of the committee were as faithful as
any of them in discharge of that duty.