Knoxville weekly chronicle. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1870-1875, 1874-03-25
UNCLE SANS PAY ROLL.
Some Facts About Our Own service.


In the House on the 10th, Hon. Mr.. Kel-
iogg, Of Connecticut made speech on our
expenditures, in which he said:
And now have a few words to say to
my friends on the other side of the House.
In the speeches that have been made by
them they seem to have followed the cue
that has been taken up here, and attempt
ed TO prove that, within the last two years
especially. there has been an immense in
crease in the number of Government en-
ployes, and wonderful growth of extrav~
agance in the administration of the Gov
eminent. The gentleman from New York,
[ Mr.. Wood, in his speech on Saturday
last, took the Blue Book, and from it,
as he claimed, gave US the tables showing
the wonderful increase in the number of
employees since 1859, and in the last two
years Looking at the tables, l find that
in 1859, during Mr.. Buchanan's admins
tration, the number of employees in the
civil service of the Government was Al
527, if he has given correctly. Turning to
1871, twelve years later, ] find that the
whole number of civil employees of the
Government amounted at that time to on
ly 57,605, according to his tables-an in-
crease of only little more than one'tifth.
In view of all the vast interests that have
sprung upin recent years, all the interests
growing out of the war, j say that no ma
ton on the face of the earth can show a
greater economy in the increase of its civil
employees under similar circumstances. To
l.Alk about its being practicable that the
expenses of the Government should be no
more to-day than they were In the days OF
james Buchanan, or at any period before
the war, is absurd. You might as well
compare the expenses of q couple when
newly married with their expenses fifteen
or twenty years later, when they have a
family of six or eight children around
them. Laughter.
There is just as much difference in the
position to which the country has grown ;
especially when we look at all the pen
sions, and all the work on bonds and cur
Eency, and other expenses that have grown
up in consequence of the late war.
A few words more about my neighbours
Blue-Book tables, which he read with so
much gusto. He says that in the Blue
Book there were eighty-siX thousand and
odd names in 1873. How does he make it
out? l turn to the Blue Book, and ! find
shat in the War Department he has given
US the number of sixteen hundred and
siXty-six; and although he designated it
as the civil service list-and that is the way
ut was spoken and the way ii now reads in
the Record, yet there are less than one
thousand on the civil list of the War De-
partment. How his figures were made and
have included some of the officers of the
Army, and perhaps he included even the
cadets at West Point. And so il was in
in reference TO the Navy Depart
ment. He states there are eighty-two
hundred and forty-one in the civil
service Of the Navy Department.
l confess those figures somewhat startled
me. He says he got them, or they were
got, from the Blue Book. A glance at the
book will show there is no such number
there as the gentleman has indicated
And ! find another interesting fact, in q
hurried examination of the book. Turn
to this Blue Book and take il
as the gentleman brought it in here. Out OF
the one thousand and twenty-five pages OF
that Blue Book, six hundred and sixty
eight pages are taken up with the Postof.
flee Department alone, and only three
hundred and fifty-four pages are given to
all the other Departments Of the Govern.
ment. How have the officers in the Post.
office Department increased? Hundreds
of pages are given to small postmasters, to
route agents, letter carriers, postal clerks
sc. The number has increased from year
TO year until they have grown up to such
an extent as to cover these hundreds o
pages of this Blue book.
But the fact stands out as admitted by
the gentlemen themselves in their speeches
that for the last two years of Andrew
Johnson's administration, the average eX'
penditures amounted to about $3.50, 900 ,00(
annually in round numbers and that the
increase ran up to 1870, 900, 900 in 1868, anG
that then the expenditures run down tC
$3.50 100000, while at the same time we
paid Off $500, ZOO, 600 in that period of the
public debt.
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