The Eaton Democrat. (Eaton, Ohio) 1875-1903, 1875-12-09
WHOLE NUMBER 449.
TEA AND COFFEE.

TEA AND COFFEE.
These duties would add probably
S1S,000,000 to the present amount
received for imports and would in no
way increase the price paid for those
articles by the consumers. These articles
are the products of countries collecting
revenue from exports, and as we, the
largest consumers, reduce the duties,
they proportionally increase them.
With the addition to the revenue, many
duties now collected, and which gave
but an insignificant relation for the cost
of collection, might be remitted, and to
the direct advantage of the consumers
alone. l would mention those articles
which enter into manufactures of all
sorts, and all duties paid upon such anti
cles go directly to the cost of the article
when manufactured here, and must be
paid for by the consumers. The duties
not only come from the consumers alone.
but acts as a protection to foreign manu-
facturers of the same completed article
in our own and distant markets. | will
suggest, or mention another subject
bearing upon the problem of how to en-
able the Secretary of the Treasury to
accumulate balances.
FRAUDULENT CLAIMS.
1t is to devise some better method of
verifying claims against the Government
than at present exists through the Court
of Claims, especially in those claims
growing out of the late war. Nothing
is more certain than that large percent
age of the amounts passed and paid, are
in part or wholly, fraudulent, or are far
in excess of the real losses sustained. A
large amount of losses proven ON what is
good testimony according to existing
laws, that is by the afidavits of fictitious
or unscrupulous persons, have been sus-
tanned on small farms and plantations
and moi. t.only far beyond the possible
yield of the places for any one year, but,
as every one knows who has experience
in tilling the soil, and who has visited
the scenes of the spoilations, are in many
instances more than the individual
claimants were ever worth, including
their personal and real estate. The re-
port of the Attorney General, which will
be submitted to Congress at an early day,
will contain a detailed history of the
awards made and of the claims pending
of the class here referred to.
OUR NAVY.
The condition of our navy, at this
time, is subject of satisfaction. 1t does
not contain, it is true, any of the power
full cruising iron-clads which make so
much of the maritime strength of some
other nations, but neither our continental
situation, nor our foreign policy, requires
that we should have a large number of
ships of this character; while this situa-
ton, the nature of our ports continue
to make those of other nations little
dangerous to us under any circumstances.
Our navy does contain, however, con-
siderable number of iron-clads of the
monitor class which, though not properly
cruisers, are powerful and effective for
harbor defense and for operations near
our own shores. Of these all the single
turreted ones, fifteen in number, have
been substantially rebuilt, their rotten
wooden beams replaced with iron, their
hulls strengthened, and their engines
and machinery thoroughly repaired, so
that they are now in a most efficient
condition, and ready for sea as soon as
they can be manned and put in COM
mission. The five double turreted iron
clads belonging to our navy, by far the
most powerful of our ships for fighting
purposes, are also in hand undergoing
complete repairs, and could be ready for
sea in periods varying from four to six
months. With these completed, accord
ing to the present design, and our two
iron torpedo boats now ready, our iron
clad feet will be, for the purposes of de-
fense at home, equal to any force that
can be readily brought against it. OF
our wooden navy, also, cruisers of vari-
GUS sizes, to the number of about forty,
including those now in commission, are
in the Atlantic, and could be ready for
duty as fast as men could be enlisted.
Ofthose not already in commission, one
third are in effect new ships, and though
some of the remainder need considerable
repairs on their boilers and machinery,
they all are, or can readily be, made
effective. This constitutes a fleet of
more than fifty war ships, of which fif-
teen are iron clad, now in hand ON the
Atlantic Coast. The navy has been
brought to this condition by judicious
and practical appreciation of what could
be spared from the current appropri-
ations of the last few years, and from that
made to meet the possible emergency of
two years ago. Itbas been done quietly,
without proclamation or display, and
though it has necessarily straitened the
department III its ordinary expenditures,
and, as far as the ironclads are concerned,
has added nothing to the cruising force
of the navy. yet the result is not the less
satisfactory, because it is to be found in
a great increase of real than apparent
force. The expenses incurred in the
maintenance of an effective naval force
in all its branches, are necessarily large.
But each force is essential to our position,
relations and character, and affects Sc
riously the weight of our principles and
policy throughout the whole sphere of
naval responsibility.
ESTIMATES FOR THE NEXT YEAR.
The estimates for the regular support
of this branch of the service for the next
amount to a little less in the aggregate
than those made for the current year,
but some additional appropriations are
asked for objects not included in the
ordinary maintenance of the navy, but
believed to be of pressing importance
at this time. 1t would, in my opinion,
be wise at once to afford sufficient means
for the immediate completion of the five
double-turreted monitors now undergo
ing repairs, which must otherwise ad-
vance slowly, and only as money can be
spared from current expenses. Supple
mented by these, our navy, armed with
the destructive weapons of modern war
fare, manned by our seamen, and in
charge of our instructed officers, will
present.. force powerful for the home
purposes of reponsible, though peace
tul nation.
SECRETARY BELKNAP's REPORT.