The daily gazette., 1876-02-16
The Revenue and What II Costs TO
Collect IL.

AAAC anu w nht ~ SOstb to
Collect Ii.
The New York World furnishes the fol-
lowing .-It 1873 the revenue collected
fell OF $77 100000 below that of 1870, but
the cost of collecting increased nearly
$780, 900, the percentage Of cost rising
to 8 lilo per cent. La 1874 the revenue
was Sl13, 900 900 less than in 1870, but the
cost of collecting it was $1,000 900 more,
and the percentage of expenses to re-
ceipts rose to nearly IL per cent. This is
more than double the cost of collecting the
revenue in 1870, and it shows SO cosclu-
| sively that Grant has not improved in
in his ways of conducting the public bus
lness, that it more than explains why we
hear no more about Civil Service reform
| from his partisans. 1t is to be observed
further in connection with this startling
increase, that the items and particulars
show that it is not necessary one. but
chargeable chiefly to looseness and NAL
administration. The net expenses of
collecting the internal revenue, for in
stance, having been severely legislated
upon by Congress. are only half what
they were in 1868 or 1870, but the net
cost of collecting customs, though those
customs are $50, ,000. 900 less than in 1870,
is augmented over 81 100000. If we may
measure this by the ratio of expense to
receipts, we might say that, while in
1870 Grants Civil Service was inferior to
the British Civil Service in the proper
tion of to 5, in 1874 it was inferior to
that service in the proportion of to 10
1926. Ii it was worth 25 per cent. less
in point of efficiency in 1870, in 1874 it
was worth us per cent. less.
Looking into other branches of the
public service, we see everywhere signs
of the same maladministration, patent
in the proofs Of increased cost without
increase Of service. The cost of the In
dians in 1870 was S6,692, 1852. The PEN
sion Bureau increased its expenses near
ly 900 and this, too, without a cor
responding incI ease in the number of the
benehciaries or the amounts of the pen
sions. The Post o flee deficiency in 1870
was 81, ,762 800. In 1874 it was a, ,2l4,0+4,
with 81 1853, 100 charged up to the postage
account OF the department, making to-
tai OF IS, ,682, 900, and an increase of 49,
100000 in the deficit. The military es-
tablishment in 1870 cost $40 900 900,
against S57 100000 in 1870; but from this
last sum, if we deduct an excess on ac-
count OF bounties, of Sl6,000,000 and on
account of Quartermaster's Department
OF S7,OOO,OOO, we have a net $34, 4,0O0, 900
to set off against $42 100000. Nor are the
Items OF increase admissible by any rule
OF good economy. Why, for instance,
should the pay department of the army
in 1874 be $12,0lS,44l, when it was only
S6,571 1859 in 1892 Has the number of |
our officers and enlisted men been |
doubled Why should the Military
Academy cost Sll9, 523 in 1874 when 1t |
cost only S9i,367 in 1870? In 1870 the
- contingencies of the army " were pro-
vlded for at a cost of S255, 40 la 1874 |
they required $G74,000. In 1870 the cost
of forts, rivers and harbors and ordinance
was S4,22i,000; in 1874 the same items
aggregated $l0,500000 In the same in
terval our naval expcnses:l Increased 50
per cent, with no increase in the eftici-
ency of the service. The cost of the pay
branch rose from S7,32l ,162 to s., 1854 ,975.
The three items of construction and re-
pairs, yards and docks, and steam engi-
neering, rose from SS,92l 900 in 1870 to
Sl3,262, 900 in 1874. Provisions and
were cheaper in 1874 than in
1870, but they cost the Navy Department
100000 more.
Congress spent less in 1870 than in 1874,
but the cost of the Judiciary was $780,
900 more. The Mint establishment,
which in 1870 expended 81 200, 900, in 1874
required II $50 900 to keep it going. The
cost of surveys Of public lands was JUST
doubled in this quadrennial period, and |
the expenses of the Surveyor-G Generals |
office were five times as large.