The Jackson standard. [volume] (Jackson C.H., Ohio) 1847-1888, 1874-01-29
[From the N. Y. Evening Post.l
What Economy Means.

How prone governments are to spend
money, and how Indifferent they are to
the saving of it, is shown by the latest
report from Washington. 1t is said that
the Committee on Appropriations will
recommend a reduction in the expendi-
lures of the War and Navy departments
of about six million of dollars, and we
suppose that it will be easy enough for
them to find occasion for an equal re-
trenchment in the other. departments
Not to be out of the way, however, let us
put the reduction at only ten millions
of dollars A sum greater than the
whole net expenditure of the govern
ment in John Quincy Adams time, and
more than half its total expenditure as
late as the time of Polk.
Now if it is possible to accomplish this |
enormous reduction at this time, 1t was |
possible to accomplish it SIX months or a |
year ago. Nothin has recently occurred
to enable the government to carry on its
operations more economically than be-
fore The panic in commercial circles
has diminished the property of mer-
chants, and to trifiing extent lessened
the valuation of certain securities. But
prices are nearly as high as they were
before, and labor is just as high. What
the government purchases therefore is
purchased at the same rate as before;
and these reductions. if they can be made
are reductions of expenditures that were
altogether needless The simple fact
that they are made shows that the de-
partments were spending ten millions OF
dollars that it was not necessary to spend
and to that extent preying upon the peo-
pie who pay taxes. In other words 1t
was gratuitous robbery of the commu-
nifty, already groaning under the enor-
nifty of the public exactions.
W. bava conf1pad the sunnoSed reduc-
ton to the sum of ten millions of dollars,
but if compare Secretary Richardson's es-
Inmates of what he wanted last year with
what he wants this year, it will be seen
that it might be just as well twenty mil
lions as ten. Here are the figures:
Oct. /, '73to Oct. l. '72 to
xnensss June 80 50 7di odo Jq1s s1sSSS 5s oao
For foreign Intercourse 1,100e0o 100000
For % 2so S0o 99S0V0S
For military establish 'o,o
saSSS0SS SCS SSS 2$eSSSSS 2$eSSSSS
For miscellaneous, civil, =.
including pub. building. 34,OO00O0 N,S00,O00
For in. on public debit. 70,OOOOOO H'5OO,OOO
Total..................s 500, 100000 sl7s,7OO,OOO
A difference of nearly twenty-seven
millions, a large part of which would ap-
pear to unnecessary. Why should the
civil expenses be increased in a single
year by two millions of dollars, foreign
dian two millions and half, war more
than ten millions, in a period of absolute
peace, navy five millions, and miscella
neous six millions What has occurred
to raise the costs of these services by such
prodigious amounts 2 The foolish furry
about Cuba may account for little ot
the additional sum; but beyond that, we
see no reason why the government
should not be operated in 1874 at a les:
expense than in 1873.
Do our readers know what this misuse
of twenty millions of dollars really
means? It means the annihilation o
the labor of forty thousand men for
year, at five hundred dollars year. |
means the anihilation of the interest o
nearly three hundred and fifty million
of dollars at six per cent 1t means tina
the labor and capital of the country
which are the sources of its income, ar
paralyzed just to the extent in whicl
they are squandered in these prodigal
ties Every dollar of the tax imposet
upon us to supply the waste is dolla
substracted from the wages of the work
ingmen or the profits of the capitalist
to support idlers or to encourage extraN
agance.
But with these truths staring us in tn
face Congress teens with projects
not of economy and retrenchment. but {
augmented outlay. No one as yet ha
calculated the sum total of the burden
which it is proposed to impose upon tha
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