The Republican journal., 1874-04-02
Mr.. Beck on the Finances.

as to which the latter seemed Wiling 10
Weld to Mr. Garfield Some of the chief
points he made are that under all the
democratic and wing administrations no
! postmaster-genera ever before dared to
expend all the revenues collected by his
department from the people without ask
ing an appropriation by congress- and that
although through all these periods they
We're regularly appropriated by congress,
they are now not charged among the APP
preparations in order to make the people
believe that the party in power is spend
ing annually less than it really is.
Mr. Beck showed that the appropri;a-
tons for the current fiscal y ear for the first
time in our history exceed the estimates
the former being S316 900 900 and the lat
ter S30S, 900, 600; that the ordinary appro-
prlations, which, as distinguished from the
permanent appropriations are the test OF
economy OF extravaganza, are nearly $50
000, 900 more than they were in 1872. and
have regularly increased from 1871; that
in all the appropriations and in all the es-
Inmates for the past four years the sinking
fund, the interest on the debt, and every
item OF the appropriations for the current
year were included; and that the $72.
600, 900 of balances now held by the de-
partments, drawn against without the ex
plicit authority of congress, are drawn
Illegally, and bring every official who does
so under the penalties of the embezzlement
act.
He charged that although the public
debt and consequently the payment of in
terest on it have been greatly reduced,
| but at vast and unlustitiabe sacrifice of
| the interest of the people, the ordinary
| expenses have been increased in every
other department of government, until At
the present time the ordinary approprla-
tons which have already been spent, have
| reached the sum of Sl12, 200 900, against
$40, coo, 600 in 1873, Sl@9 900 600 in 1872,
and 1884, 600 900 in 1871.
The sinking fund Of S29, ooo, 900, which
it was charged by Mr.. Garfield had been
omitted in the calculations presented by
! Mr.. Dawes. is found to be included in the
| treasury estimates for 1874 laid before
| congress on the lst of last December
| Also in the treasury estimates for 1873,
the sum of about S29, 900, 900 for the sink
ing fund is included in both the estimates
and appropriations for that year-the for
mer being Sl54, 961 2377 and the latter be
ing SlJ9 600, 1876.
Tins it is shown from the statements OF
the secretary of the treasury that Mr.
Gartields attempt to aisprove the state
ment Of Mr. Dawes on this important
point is as fallacious as the concession of
Mr.. Dawes was, to take the most favorable
view of it, weak and foolish. The con-
Trajectory statements and want Of knowl-
edge cyinced by leading members Of con
gress on such a subject as this is one of
the worst signs of the times.
Mr. Beck makes strong point by show
ing that the permanent appropriations for
1873 were more than $4,000, 900 over
those for the current fiscal year and that
yet the total appropriations for the preyi-
Gus year QS73) were $40, 900, 900 less than
for the present thus proving that the in
crease arises from the ordinary expendi-
lures which, he points out are, in times OF
peace like the present, the true test Of viii
. ful wastcfulness He fully corroboratcs
what was virtually reported by Mr. Dave,
that che and others who have for years
controlled legislation, backed as they are
| and have been always by an overwhelm
ing party majority, have been either falls,
to the great trusts contided to them or in
capable Of managing properly interests Sc
vast, when he had to confess before tn,
country and the world that the whole man
agement of public affairs is going from
: bad to worse year by year
: Mr. Beck added
a Why are these things so Because as tn
: party leaders on the other side can no longe
y conceal and hardly deny, a set of vampires il
l. | the form OF rings, mOnopohsts, bankers, bond
holders, pOst-otfice and treasury leeches custom
t. house. navy-yard and other corruptionists
, have fastened themselves on the bOdy-pOlic
u and are silently but surely sucking the life
G blood from a disorganized. impoverished an
/ helpless people.
: So long as the down-trodden masses could b
J. made to feel either that there was danger il
! making change in the administration Of pull
- Lie affairs, or that their material prospert
would be preserved and maintained notwitl
1t standing all they saw and felt of maladministra
k ton, the party leaders We're secure; but whe
- the panic of last summer brought poverty t
!. their doors in the midst of bountifu harvests
IL when the workshops were closed, and tn
1t wives and children of men ready and wiIln
o to labor were crying for bread, people began t
70 ! look into the cause which produced calamitiC
and suffering like these in way they had neve
looked before, and they began to understan
re that great and fagrant wrongs had been don
t. and grievous evils heaped upon them by til
, men they had trusted with power
- The leaders of the party may well quail the
=, may cry aloud now for retrenchment and IT
!" form. They cannot reform or they would, IN
Re the corruptionist who control even the part
IS leaders would not if they could.
IS On various other points Mr.. Beck uttere
e much wholesome truth. He exposes tn
w fallacy, OF worse, of Mr.. Garields assel
m ton that the partizan power had been e,
I'd ceedingly saving and economical by l..
a. pealing customs duties to large amount
in 1866, 1868, 1870 and 1871. Mr.. CARTEL
had held out these facts before the peopl
m rs proof that their tariff taxation was II
ne duced to that extent, when the last repo
re !.
i OF the secretary shows that the whole en-
q toms duties in 1866 were SIG, 900;
1867, slG4 900. 900; in 1868, $3.50, 0OQ, 0OC