New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1874-11-24
pURIJC BUILDINGS.
promises

Mnllett invites a few remarks on the subject
of public buildings. The most renowned
structures of the world have usually had thcir
birth in ages when Governments were proii-
gate in their expenditures and the people OPP
pressed. 1t can hardly be said that Mr.. Mui-
lett's conceptions have eclipsed the genius OF
former generations, but in their cost to the
nation, take them all together, they have not
been surpassed. The action of Congress at tAc
last session in regard to expenditures Ofthis kind
is of itself sufficient to extlnSulsh the pre-
tensions to retrenchment which have been SET
ND in favor of that body. We have already
shown that the actual expenditures or the
Government for the first four months or the
current fiscal year are greater than they were
for the corresponding months last year.
brief examination Of the legislation in the
matter of public buildings will show why they
are greater. On pages ADS and ADJ OF the
bound volume of the Secretary OF the Treas
urys Report on the Finances for 1873,
will be found a summary OF the ex-
penditures for public buildings in that
year, amounting to the total sum or
a 800 1872 IS, or, in round numbers,
fire million dollars. On examining the apprO-
priations for public buildings in chapter AS Of
the laws passed by Congress- at its last ses-
sion we find that no less than $3,3j),0)), say
eigM million dollars, were appropriated for the
construction and furnishing of custom-houses,
post offices. &c. Thus the result so far or our
investigations is fire millions expended in the
year before the panic; eight millions appropri-
ated for the year folowingit The total expcndi-
ture in the year 1873 by the British Government
for all the royal palaces parks, public buili-
ings, furniture of Offices, houses of parliament,
British Museum, surveys, harbors of refuge,
ambassadors houses abroad, anl a National
THANKSGIVING at St. Paul's Cathedral, was just
about the same sum that or Government cX-
pended in 1873, and three millions less than
that appropriated for the current year.
But we have not touched on the worst side
of orr case For the single year ended June 30,
1874, Congress appropriated over ticetre million
dollars for customhOuSes, Dost-oiices and
other public buildings in no less than thirty
three cities and towns, of all sizes and degrees
of importance, from such emporlums as Bath,
Maine, Dover, Del, and Grand Rapids, Mich,
to Philadelphia and New-YOrk. Owing to the
panic and the difficult position in which the
Treasury was placed large share of this
money had not been used Bat the Congress
which we are told to admire and PROSTATE
ourselves before reappropriated every dollar
of the unexpended balances of these extrava-
CANT appropriations, and in this way money Is
paid out of the Treasury by the million, which
identical money Messrs. Dawes and Garfield
claim credit for saving to the people! The
following is specimen of the kind of finan-
cial legislation to which we have been treated
of late years. 1t was designed to enable the
Secretary of the Treasury to make fair
show of surplus revenue and debt reduction
until after election, without any real retrench-
ment. 1t is CHAPTER 476 of the last volume
of the statutes, and after the enacting clause
reads as follows:
That the Secretary OF the Treasury be and he hereby
authorized aud directed to defer operations On pub
JIG buildings that are authorized by existing laws but
not actually commenced to proceed with the same.
may in his opinion be for the best interests Of the public
service, Propided That all moneys heretofore appro-
prated the construction of public buildings and now
remaining to credit OF the the books OF the
Treasury Department, or which may hereafter be ap-
proprated for s:ch buildings, shall remain available
until the completion OF the work for which they are,
may be, appropriated.
Great stroke of economy, that. The Secre-
tary is to wait until the sap runs before he
bois it down. Again we quote from Chapter
45j, making appropriations for Sundry Civil
Expenses" the following provision
That all balances in the Treasury remaining unex-
pended the LIST day OF July 1874, OF appropriations
heretofore made for buildings and sites OF buildings
named in this act and all balances OF appropriations
heretofore made, and sufficient for the completion OF
buildings under tie supervising Architect OF the Treas
ury named in this ac', during the next fiscal year,
be- and they hereby made available for the fiscal
year ending June 80 1915.
If it were anywhere stated what the bal
ances of appropriations for public buildings
remaining uneXpeDded amounted to, it would
be possible to calculate what the appropria-
tons for public buildings at the last session
of Congress really aggregate. In the finance
accounts of the United Kingdom, and in those
published annually by Controller Green, the
unexpended balances of old appropriations
are in all cases specifically stated side by side
with the new appropria ions. Thus, in the
Finance Accounts of the United Kingdom for
1873, we find that for "Royal Palaces" the
balance from former years is 1851; the APP
preparation, ,552l; the total, 1891; the total
expended, 47,344l, and the balance remaining,
1,415i; and the same information is given for
each separate item of expenditure. If similar
information is in print respecting the expend-
itures of our own Government, we
have never met with it and know
not where to look for it. 1t is certain,
however, that Messrs. Dawes and Garfield
when, at the close of the last session, they
told the citizens and taxpayers of the United
States to look for "a reduction in the current
year of thirty millions in the Public Debt, did
not take these unexpended balances into their
calculations. Had they expected their words
to be remembered until December, 1875, when