Ashtabula telegraph. (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1874-1880, 1875-04-23
the civil service expenditures of the


ment for all purposes has grown
from a maxim of $50, 900, in the
wears Just before the war, and an
average of less than $50, 900
from 1850 to 1855, to the enormous
sum of 1902, 900, 900 in 1874. This,
too, after the war had been termina-
ted almost ten years, and when, if
ever, the business of retrenchment
and reform In National expenditure
should have begun. These figures
furnish abundant food for refec-
ton to the citizens, while there
are some classes of expenditure
which cannot be diminished, while
the interest of our National obliga-
tions must be scrupulously paid,
while we cannot cut down the PEN
sions due to our disabled soldiers
and their heirs save by the gradual
diminution of the list through natu-
raj causes, there are other expendi-
ture which can be and ought to be
heavily curtailed. We refer to the
expenses of the army and navy and
of the civil service. In the latter
item are included many sources of
expenditure which have been wan
tonly increased during. the past five
years. The rage for magnificent
public buildings in which the officers
transacting the ordinary business of
the United States connected with
the Post Office, the Custom house
and the judiciary may be lodged, is
one of the extravagances. There is
no reason in the world for multiply
ing these costly and imposing edif-
ces. The public service is no more
efficiently performed in them than
It would be IN the ordinary business
blocks, which are good enough for
the transaction of State, county and
municipal business. 1t does not be-
come Nation head-over-ears in
debt, running behind in its revenues,
and whose people are suffering from
a prolonged commercial and indus
trial depression, to indulge in the
election of magnificent palaces of
granite and marble. These things
are built to crafty the ambition
mainly of local politicians, of men
in Congress who want to adorn the
cities of their residence, and get the
credit from their tellow-cItizens
which they suppose to be due to in
fuence in the public councils. The
private citizen who builds splen-
did house for his own residence up
on borrowed money, may be praised
by the ignorant or unthinhng for
his taste and enterprise; but those
who know that this builder of a
magnificent residence owes debts
which he cannot pay will shake their
heads and predict the inevitable
bankruptcy. Now, there is little
more sense, and no more honesty, in
a Government which cannot pay its
debts, and whose citizens are over
taxed to keep it afoat, undertaking
to build marble palaces by the do
zen in cities, scattered all over the
land, than in the case we have sup
posed.
The multiplicity of Federal of
fcers, both at Washington and in
the customs and Internal Revenue
service throughout the country, is
another uneHding source of expense
to the taxpayers. The public ser
vice is full of officers and clerks who
do exceedingly little work, and yet
are pensioned upon the Treasury.
The magnificent promises of re-
trenchment and reform which the
late Republican party made to the
people have not been kept. The
Congsess which has Just adjourned,
instead of cutting down expenditure,
legislated to increase the taxation.
The whole, drift of its performances,
was to pile extra burdens upon the
people, instead of diminishing those
burdens. They have raised the pri
ces of nearly all the necessaries of |
life, and they have not diminished |
the great army of Treasury-eaters,
which has so long been fastened up
on the. people as one of the fruits of
the war. r TF
Not only this, but Congress has
added heavily to the already enor-
nous expenditure, which comes un-
der the head of miscellaneous" by |
voting several millions to commence !
or continue works of internal i'm
provement. And the worst of it is,
this wreckless course necessarily en-
tails constant and increasing expend-
itures IN the same direction, because
no public work once begun will be |
permitted to stop. TiE
Another addition of a heavy
amount to the current National ex-
penditure has come in the shape of |
claims, of the District of Columbia. |
In former years a. few thousand dol
lars suficed for this purpose, but |
now the prodigal extravaganza of |
the Washington Improvement Ring,
which has started the Federal Capt. !
tai on career of expense SO mag
nifcent that two millions of dollars |
per annum have been required for
several years past to help out the |
expenditure on Washington City.
o. Where are all these things to |
stop? Shall we ever have a Con-
gress with courage enough to cut |
into the expenditures of the FEEDER
al Government with a vigorous hand, |
and restore the country to anything |
like the economy and simplicity !
which once characterized our Govern |
ment? On thing is certain; expen
sively administered Governments
and political corruption always go
hand in hand. The decline of pub |
lie morals is nowhere more strongly |
marked than in that extravaganza |
of expenditure which is connived |
at or maintained by therepresenta-
tives of the people in Congress.
VIM. M. Evarts, Esq, the leading |
counsel for the Rev. Henry Ward |
Beecher, in the suit brought against |
him by Theodore Tilton, said in
court last week "The Christian
religion is not on trial here" That's !
a fact, and we are specially glad |
.ho+ .bo ooupsaI has announcpd Il no