Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1873-12-31
PLUSDERrNG THE PEOPLE.

The extravaganza or the Grant adj
ministration is receiving a pretty thor
ough 5entilation. Tie show how reck-
lessly the peoples money is thrown
away, it is only necessary to point to II
Congress which increases the salarie;
of Federal oficeholders while at the
same time the Treasury in bankrupt !
Instead of retrenchment and reform,
the country is introduced to the policy
of increased salaries and increased tax
alton. Pile up the taxes and double
the salaries. Make the poor poorer and
the rich richer. Attention has been
called to the course of the President i'll
relation to these matters, because his
Office should operate as a check upon
the extravaganza of Congress. But the
country looks in vain to Grant for any
such example. He is the chief of
salary-grabbers, and the White House
leads the list in loose and unneces-
sary expenditures. 1t has been dis
covered that not only the salary of the
President, but all the expenses of the
Executive Office have been doubled
during the present Administration. In
1866 the appropriations made in the
regular Legislative, Executive and Ju-
dicial bill for the Executive Office dur
ing the year 1S67,-the last of John.
sons Administration-were as follows
Compensation Of the President, $25, 600;
salaries ofprivate secretary, assistant
secretary, clerks, steward and messen-
ger, So. 100; contingent expenses, $1,000;
total, S35, 100. This year the estimates
for the same are: Compensation of the
President, $4,000, salaries of private
secretaries, clerks, steward and messen-
ger, 1890; contingent expenses, So
coo; total, S71 800. The duties of the
President have not been increased since |
1867, and therefore there is no neces 81.
ty for this great increase. Besides, the
decline III prices of almost every arti-
Gle that enters into the contingent ex-
Denses Of the executive Office makes It
necessary to make smaller appropria,
ton now than then. It must not be
that the figures given
above cover all, OF even large share OF
the expense of the executive office.
We have heretofore published the
items showing that the appropriations
TO the White House and its occupant
we're over $127, 600 for the current year.
This is the way the Republican party
,edeems its pledges for retrenchmen3
md reform. The extravaganza thus
introduced in the White House has
been followed up by the Cabinet Minis.
5ers, and we find the Attorney General
himself with a 81 800 car.
.iage for his own private use, and had
t paid for out of the public funds.
Other private expenses, amounting to
| considerable sum, were also paid OUT
If the public treasury. Then we have
some astounding revelations touching
he extravaganza of the Treasury De.
oartment. 1t appears that one-sixth
# the contingent fund of this depart
nent last year was paid out for car
,iages. Among other things, there
vas paid for repairs to two wagons
2, 69993, and for repairing harness
j, 1318S. Carriages during the same
rear were repaired to the extent of ST.
1910, and horses shooting cost $685.. So,
national laundry was maintained il
he same department, and the pay roll.
f the employees in this novel institu-
ion averages over 1886 per month. A
abinet shop was also discovered hid
len in the Treasury building, and the
,ay roll for this concern was S15,890
The item for furniture and repairs for
he Treasury department is $4,000
ne-ffth of the amount asked for all
he public buildings in the United
states. The gas bill for the Treasury
department. for 1879 was 81, S97, while
he fuel to heat it was only IS, 726.
he Washington correspondent of the
,To,r Vo,.L S,,,, furnishes those addition |
] items:
'Some of the most curious facts have