Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1879-05-31
The seduction Of PublIe Espsn.s..

I
! Ap1erican Review what purpOrts 1,
j be the impartial essay of a iHates
i nan on Appropriations and Mis-
I appropriations" Carefully exam.
ined ii turns out to be, we are sorry
to say, the artful and uncandid
; attempt of a mere partisan 10 claim
for his own party a measure OF
credit much beyond its deserts for
the reduction Of public expendi-
lures, and 70 rob the opposite party
of credit which they have fairly
earned for their share i'm the reduc-
tion of public expenditures. Mr.
Garfield begins his paper bya cheap
slur upon the late Emperor NapO-
leon, upon whose grave for some
mysterious reason all Republican
politicians seem TO dance with IA
particular delight. Mr.. Garfield
AYERS that under the Second Empire
"the solid foundations OF France
were being honeycOmbed through
and through by the waste and cor
ruption Of her finances and when
i'm 1870 she went down amid the
smoke and desOlation Of war, ii was
only the elimination of "A disaster
already prepared by extravagant
and corrupt appropriation" This
assertion is eOnspicuously incoRsist-
ent with notorious facts. What
went down amid smoke and desOla-
tion in 1870 was not the French ma
tion at all but the administration
and the army of France. The real
test OF the financial condition Of the
nation was the rapidity with which,
in spite of the collapse of the admin
istration and of the army, France
repaired the losses of the war and
paid the cost of the war, including
the enormous and uneXampled fine
exacted by the victors as an indem-
nifty. That achievement is the Won
der of economists all over the world,
and in this country, we are sorry to
say, it Is the envy and despair of
Republican economists like Mr..
Boutwell,, Mr.. Richardson and Mr..
Garfield himself, who disgTacefully
failed to do for us i'm ten years what
was done for France by her econO-
mists in three years. The dead
Emperor, whatever else he did or
left undone, made France the first
nation financially Of the world, and
gave her during his reign Of twenty
years such an impulse commercially
as she never had received before
since the great canal of Languedoc
was cut under Colbert. The sound
and wholesome condition in which
France, financially and CONNER
cially speaking, was found to be at
the close OF q disastrous war Is all
the vindicatiOn that can be needed
for what Mr.. Garfield carelessly de
scribes as the "extravagant and
corrupt appropriations" OF the eTn-
pire. This discussion II Of course,
however, beside the main purpose
of Mr.. Garfield's paper, and It really
is difficult to see why he should
have gone out OF his way to engage
in ii excepting for the sake of cloud
ing his argument I'm oFClsr To clear
his conclusions. In our own case
he finds two opposing forces at work
in affecting the tendency of appro-
priations: first, the natural growth
of the country, making necessary a
increase of all public
and second, the de-
crease of expenditures caused by the
gradual payment of the cost Of the
war. Here already we begin to de-
tect the special pleader; for with
such a neat "seesaw" as this a man
who has any deXterity at all IN the
of figures need be ut
little pains to make ii appear that
any Increase of expenses under
Congress is only the
increase of a budget growing
up with the country, and that any
reduction under a Democratic Con-
gress is an equally natural decrease
caused by the payment through a
Treasury of our war
iebts. Mr.. Garfield cites, unfortu-
lately for himself, however, a speech
which he made In the House Of
Representatives I'm January, 1872,
when he was Chairman Of the Com
nittee on Appropriations, and in
which he predicted that the total Of
,ur public expenditures would I'm
$40 fall to not far from $230, ,0O0, 900.
As matter of fact the expenditures
we're S25S, 900, 900. That they were
lot $278, 100000 or $500, ,O00, 200 is
Hearty due, according to Mr.. Cur
ield's own table, not at all TO the
.fiorts of his own party but to the
'tforts of Democratic House OF
representatives By way of COM
nent on MFR. Garfield's prediction
n 1872 OF rapid Republican reduc-
ion of expenses il is enough TO cite
lis own figures, from which it APP
'ears that Mr.. Garfeld's party hav-
ng put the expenditures ia 1872 at
277 900, 600 left the appropriations
n 1875 at $274, ,000, 900. In the inter-
al Mr.. Garfield's party had in
reased them for 1878 from S277 ,00O,-
90 to $290, ,000, 900 by way Of COM
1ent upon this remarkablespeech of
a72 which Mr.. Garfield SO compla-
tlyquotes. Itappears further that
fter the close of the war and while
he appropriations were fluctuating
etween Mr.. Garfield's natural in
rease and Mr.. Garfeld's decrease
v payment of war debt, the fOr-
Ter factor got the better of the lat
ar so far as to cause an increase OF
wenty millions in a single year,
.om 1867 to 1868, and an increase OF
1900, 900 in another single year,
-om 1872 to 1873. AT the end Of
lree years after Mr.. Garfield's
Deech the Republicans, having
Dormously increased the expendi-
lres in the interval, contrived TO
sduce them again by $3,O0O,0O0i
he Democrats then took control Of
ne House and with IL of the apprO-
and, as we learn from our
'teemcd Republican cOntempora-
es, an era of extravaganza, corrup-
ON and peculation set in. The
Irious fact about this era is that
nee il has prevailed the natural
has ceased TO operate,
lille the decrease by payment has
one on steadily, insOmuch TINT in
S76, according to Mr.. Garfield him
If, the appropriations were Sl6,-
10, 600 less than i'm 1875, in 1877
20,O00,00O less than in 1876, and in
s7S $1,000, 900 less than IN 1877. In
Iher words, the operation Of natu-
II Increase and natural decrease
nder three years OF Republican
JntrOl Of the appropriations, from
s72 to 1875, resulted ia a reduction
ST., ,000, 600, while the operation of
he same causes under three years
Democratic control OF the apprO-
riations, from 1875 to 1878, resulted
a reduction of $3S, 100000 It is
lite natural that when a large re-
lction OF expenses and taxation ls
going on, and Democrats
A.. -. .o,.,Ns.,..