New-York tribune., 1872-07-19


Total expenditures .... .s377 SlO,2s5 t@0o45l,2d
Interest and premiums l4742''ly' lC4'o'o,oeo
rcma,pder. 500. .915.css sle5.ses.921
Army expenditures. l252i6'Ci' 44'Oooo2o
pcrainder slO66Cs,439 tl21.7S3s96
For the wear 1863 the second item includes
S14O,A24O4G interest on the public debt and
szOO1t51 premium on Treasury notes re-
deemed. For the year 1871 the same Item
embraces 1926, 5,57G5GG interest on the debt, and
s9.O1G79j premium on bonds purchased and
Cancelled. The army expenditures for 1868 in
clude large sums paid i'll bountes, the DIS
bursements of the pay department alone beng
over s57,O0OOOO. If we further deduct
naval expenditures, pensions, and draw
backs, the remaining expenditures required
sJI,Gss, ,5O2 in 1868, and S63, ,130, $40 in 1871.
From 1865 to 1871 the expenditures OF the
Government, after deducting the army and
navy, pensions and interest on the public debt,
and excluding the technical charges of "deben-
lures and drawbacks under the Revenue
laws, duties refunded which had been illegally
collected, and one or two other similar NOM
inal outgoes increased from S34,OI5,35s SO
to SG3,I30,3s0 21. This simple analysis
the Treasury writers call taking out of
"the financial account every feature in which
" economy has been actually achieved" That
is exactly our view of it.
Interest on the public debt is not an item
with which economy has any concern. That
interest, be it more or less, has to be paid by
every Administration. 1t cannot be increased
or diminished by act of Congress. 1t is
not "fcature in which economy has
&" been achieved" or can he achieved.
1t is not even the measure Of economy. In
connection with this reduction of the public
debt the Administration takes to itself vast
amount of credit which 1t does MT deserve,
and this we propose some day to show. There
remain of those "fcatures in which economy
"has been actually achieved" the army and
navy. President Grant is TO have great credit
because the army and navy cost less when we
are at peace than when we were at war. Is 1t
by President Grant, then, and not by peace, that
we have been enabled to save this money! In
1860 our army expenses were S16,O01 10y;
in 1871 they were S1i,OsO,OS5. In 1860 our
navy expenses were SIi ,513, l5O, including
$I,572,S23 for the construction of new YES
sells; in 1871 they were S10,13l ,O27, includ-
ing nothing for new vessels The actuaP
economy does not appear to be very great
We will expose one more trick by means of
which tho expenditures of Government arc
made to bear the appearance of retrencl-
ment, though the substance is utterly
wanting. The Treasury receives each year
in premiums on sales of gold some
eight OF ten million dollars, and pays cut
about the same on its purchases of bonds
Now for the year 1872, owing to the laIge
amounts of "called" bonds paid off in god,
and the very limited amounts purchased for cur
rency, probably not over S4,000,000 has been
paid in premiums on purchases of bonds fDr
currency. Here, apparently, is another grat
stroke of economy-S5,O 100000 saved. In
reality, however, every bond of the $G0,00000
called in and redeemed by the Secretary has
cost the nation more than if it had been
bought for currency at the current market
price at the time the notice of redemp-
ton was issued. In claiming reduction o.
S1O0,0O0,000 in Government expenditures since
1868, Mr.. Boutwell, scruples not to make the
most of such jugglcry and trickery as We
have exposed, aud our judgment is sadly at
fault if he and his co-laborers in this field
have not gone to the further side of that gulf
which separates plain truth from palpable
falsehOOd.