The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1878-08-08
DEMOCRATIC DEMAGOGiSM,
False Pretenses of the Forty
Fourth Congress.
The Vaunted Democratic s. Retrench.
ment and RefOrmv a DelusiOn
and Fraud.

N~ OSAAs"SSA
OF the Senate Committee on Appropriations.
Correspondent you compared the ag
gregate appropriations made by this Congress
with those of last year, and, if SO, how do they
compare?
Senator Windom-Yes, sir; have carefully
examined all the bills since the adjournment
The total for last year was $143, 81, 1923. go
The total for this year is 1908, 589,41. The
crease this year is, therefore, 1928, 752, 265 49,
These aggregates cover all the regular appro-
priation bills
Correspondence this increase chargeable
to the extravaganza of this Congress?
Senator Windom-No; it is mainly charge
able to the demagogism of the Forty-fourth
Congress in making pretended Savings" for
political effect when they were only creating
deficiencies.
Correspondent is it true that no reductions
in expenditures we're made until after the DEM
ocratic party got control Of the House of Rep
resentatives?
Senator Windom-By no means. Expendi-
lures had been on a descending scale almost
ever since the war. The finance reports show
that in 1868 they were 1929, 915, O88, and that
under the administration of President Grant
they were constantly reduced, until for tie
year ending June 80, 1876, they were only
$164, 1851, 1913: or, after making the proper de-
auctions for the year, for payments made upon
the Geneva award claims and for the depart
ment hostages (Which latter counted in the
nominal expenditures, but really took no
money from the treasury, the expenditures for
1876 were, as we have seen, only $156, $40, 957.
The total deduction in expenditures during
Grants administration was, therefore, 1913, 1O4,-
131, making an annual average reduction of
$50, 138,016. The reductions made by the Re-
publicans the last year Q876) were $14,-
718, 991.
Correspondent-How do you reconcile these
facts with Democratic professions of economy !?
Senator Windom-Excuse me; I have never
undertaken the impossible task of reconciling
Democratic performances with Democratic pro-
LESSONS, and entirely shrink from such an
effort in this case. I think no one believes that
their vaunted economy is anything but sham
to secure votes. It was we'll understood by
everybody who gave attention to the subject
that their boosted reductions in 1876 were ef-
fected by denying appropriations indispensable
to the public service; by postponing necessary
public works; by repudiating national obliga-
tons; by withholding large sums for deficiency
bills; and, when all these and other desperate
expedients were exhausted, the figures them
selves were so manipulated that they lost their
proverbial truthfulness, and became the most
mendacious partisans. This sort of deception
could be carried on for year or two with Sue
cess, but it could have but one result. Already
the logic of events and the imperative neces-
sites of the Government have exposed the
trjckery which was then denounced, and, by
compelling an increase of nesrly $4,000, 900,
have Uncovered the demagogism of 1876 by
which it was sought to carry the Presidential
election under pretense of economy and re-
form.
Correspondent Have you read the speech of
Mr.. Atkins, chairman of the Committee on Ap-
preparations of the House of Representatives
published in the Record of June %, in which
he endeavors to show that there has been no
real increase over last years appropriations, and
in which he charges the Senate with evident
opposition" to the "retrenchment and economy
which the House inaugurated," and if so, will
you please tell me what you think of it?
Senator Windom-I have read it. Mr.. At.
kins had an extremely difficult task to perform,
and in it's execution he displayed genius in
manipulating figures only equaled by his cour-
age in dealing with the facts which stood in
his way. From his predecessors, Messrs. Ran
dali and Holman, his committee had inherited
an accumulation of unpaid national obligations,
and postponed appropriations SO imperative
in their character that they could no longer be
evaded or delayed. These vast sums thus post
poned and withheld by the Forty-fourth Con-
gress 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 ap-
preparations to an amount equal to, if not in
excess of those made by the last Republican
Congress. With an actual increase of 1928, 1884,
265. 48 staring him in the face, the chairman of
the House committee still felt it to be his duty
as "reformer," even under such discouraging
circumstances, to prove that, after all, this
Congress had achieved another =" triumph for
which said :" triumph" would
have been still grander if the naughty Senate
had not stood in the way.
COrresp Ondent-Give me an idea of how
these Performers prove that an actual in
crease of 1923, 752, 265. 40 is triumph for re-
trenchment."
Senator Windom-It is the simplest process
in the world-when you understand it. It is
done by counting IN all the appropriations
made by their political opponent, and by count
ing out enough of Their own to bring their
total below his. By this one simple rule Mr..
Atkins is able to commend his own party for
economy and to condemn the last Republican
Congress for extravaganza.
Correspondent how does this rule
work when applied to their own party friends
in the Forty fourth Congress? ...
Senator Window I am glad you have called
my attention to that, for it enables me to show
you one or two specimen curiosities in Demo-
cratic &c ECONOMY" Perhaps the most striking
of these curiosities is their mode of creating
and handling deficiencies" Under the lead
Of Mr.. Randall in 1876 very large arbitrary re-
auctions 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
purposes it was designed to serve. They must
be made, however, at any cost, for party
emergencies demanded it. In making these
forced and arbitrary reductions, deficiencies
were created amounting to many millions of
dollars. To meet only portion of then the
Forty fifth Congress, during it's first year, has
been compelled to pass nine deficiency bills,
aggregating, as stated by Mr.. Atkins, $15, 534,
672.52. Nearly all of these immense ''def-
ciencies were rendered necessary by the IN
warranted reductions made under the lead of
Mr.. Randall in 1876, and there are many mill
ions more to hear from before we get through
with those mai velous feats of economy, per-
formed for political purposes. Mr.. Randall
and his party took credit for having "saved
the entire amount of that reduction, though il
was well known by the initiated that from
$15, 900, 900 to 100000, 600 of itwere only post