Ottumwa weekly courier. (Ottumwa, Wapello County, Iowa) 1872-1899, 1878-08-21

the facts which stood III his way. From his prede-
cessors, Messrs Randall and Holman, his committee
had inherited accumulation of unpaid national
obligations, and postponed appropriations" SO i'm
perve in their character that they could no longer
be evadcd or delayed. These vast sums thus post
poned and withheld by the Forty .fourth Congress
were credited to the Democracy as SO much money
saved" but the time had come when portion of
them must be provided for, though to meet them
would swell the total appropriations to an amount
equal to, If not in of those made by the last
Republican Congress- With an actual increase of
SOS, 26548 staring him in the face the chairman
Of the House committee still felt it to be his asty as
A"isfistnN,' sspt updsr Tnsh ifs,Hr gig :icmm-
1Nszsl TO rst1e that, Ahaf all, this CUng7ess had
achieved another triumph for retrenchment,"
which said triumph" would have been still grandcr
if the naughty Senate had not stood in the way.
DEMOCRATIC triumph OF INFRINGEMENT ;,
Correspondent-Give me an idea of how these
reformers prove that actual increase of $685.
152, 40 is a triumph for retrenchment."
Senator Windom-1t is the simplest process in the
world-when you understand it. 1t is done by
counting IN all the appropriations made by their po-
iitcal opponent and by counting out enough Of their
own to bring their total below his BY this one SIM
pie rule Mr.. Atkins is able to commend his own
party for economy, and to condemn the last Repub-
lican Congress for extravaganza.
Correspondent-But how does this rule work when
applied to their own party friends in the Forty
fourth Congress?
Senator Windom-I am glad you have called my
attention to that for it enables to show you one
or two specimen curiosities in Democratic "econo-
my" Perhaps the most striking of these curiosi-
ties is their mode of creating and handling def
ciencies." Under the lead of Mr.. Randall in 1876
very large arbitrary reductions were made in the
appropriations The heavy reductions which had
already been made by the Republicans rendered it
impossible to accomplish an honest reduction which
would be sufficiently stunning for the party pur-
poses it was designed to serve They must be made
howevcrat any cost for party emergencies demanded
MAKING and rbi tr,r roll
tons, deficiencies" were created amounting to many
millions of dollars. To meet only a portion of
them, the Forty fifth Congress- during its first year.
has been compelled to pass nine deficiency bills ag-
gregating, as stated by Mr. Atkins, SIS 534 6725 So
Nearly all of these immense deficiencies were
rendered necessary by the unwarranted reductions
made under the lead of Mr.. Randall in 1876 and
there are many millions more to hear from before
we get through with those marvellous feats of econ
omy, performed for political purposes. Mr. Randall
and his party took credit for having saved (" the
entire amount OF that reduction though it was we'll
known know by the initiated that from 100000 to
S20OOOOoo of it were only postponed for deficiency
bills after election. These defciecies down on
the present Congress when they could no longer be
postponed, and over 900 of them appro-
priated Then there was a dilemma. How shall
the account be stated? To what Democratic Com
grcss shall these many millions be charged? To
charge them to 1S77 1873 would expose the
fraudulent pretenses of those years. and to charge
them to this Congress would never do. So they
were simply counted out. Mr.. Randall and the
party have been credited for the reduction which
created them. and Mr.. Atkins declines to count
the sl5,50o0Oo in his totals. A very convenient
way to dispose of so many millions Thus this
huge sum is made the football between these two
economists, and both take credit for saving that
amount to the Treasury. If you win glance over
Mr.. Atkins statement, you will find several other
feats in Bookkeeping almost equal to this but they
are quite excusable in proving the proposition he
had in hand-namely, that an actual Increase of
SSS. 1SS.SO0.49 means retrenchment. Having
worried the stubborn and honest figures in vain to
induce them to prove that difficult proposition the
chairman of the House committee, evidently not
gratlfied with his success, draws sigh, and con-
cudes: Had there been economic accord between
the two houses-in other words, had the Senate not
added Sl6OO0OOO to the appropriation bills as re-
ported to the House-the grand result would have
been still greater triumph for retrenchment'"
1t must be admitted that an increase of $29OOO000
is not very brilliant triumph for retrenchment:"
but notice the peculiar phraseology by which the
failure to make it still greater is charged upon the
Senate Had the Senate not added $l6OO00OO to
the appropriation bills reported to the House ?"
Now, Mr.. Atkins own figures show that S1,914,636
of the SAG 900 added by the House itself to
the bills reported" by the committee before they
even reached the Senate. submit that this is hard
ly fair, in proving that an addition of $4,000
GOO was really reduction.
WHAT THE DEMOCRATS CALL SENATE ExTRvA-
CANOE"
Senate to the bills rs they passed the House, and
what was the character ofNthe addition?
Senator Wndom.-The total of such additions is
Sl3925,442. No part of this amount was extraya-
gance, but the whole was in compliance with some
obligations of the Government which could not be
honorably evaded, or in the line of economical ex-
penditures
This will very clearly appear by reference to- the
items constituting the additions. The following are
the amounts added by the Senate to the several
bills:
Sundry civil bill SO sos 442
RIVER ana HafDor Dill. 1880
army SDS,ol4
Iostoic pll So60u0
Naval bill GOSH
lSiiSioi pul
Military Academy bill .............-....... S3446
legislative Executive, and Judicial. 60i766
Consular ana Diplomatic. 200
Total 925 442
Glance at the items which make up these several
bliss
Glance at the items which make up these several