Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-03-02
ECONOMY RUN MAD,
Appropriation Scalping in the
House Now Carried to
the Extreme
FOR CAMPAIGN PURPOSES.
The Republican Policy to Let the
Majority Have All the Rope
NECESSARY TO HANG ITSELF WELL.
The Opposition to Be Freely Allowed to
Fight Among Itself
ELEGANT LUNCHEON AT A SENATOR'S
NECESSARY TO HANG ITSELF WELL.
The Opposition to Be Freely Allowed to
Fight Among Itself
ELEGANT LUNCHEON AT A SENATOR'S
EPEclAL rKLEeRAPHIc LETTER.

new proof that the policy of the Democrat
of the House of Representatives is one O
economy run mad. It really should not bt
dignifed by the name of economy, for true
economy despises mere saving, and counsels
liberal expenditure to the extent of tn,
means at command for all that can add t.
the welfare, progress and development o.
the people and the resources of the country.
say the Democrats of the House, for tht
Democratic Senators do not sympathize
with their policy They favor sensible e1
penditure, and believe that 1t would meel
the appreciation of the rank and file of theil
party throughout the country, more thar
would a policy of stinginess, and that
merely for the purpose Of making a record
for campaign use.
Work Bound to Be Left Undone.
If the plan of the House majority be
carried out, not only will new operations
necessary in the public interest be pro-
hibited, but projects now under way will be
retarded and works permitted to go to ruin
from neglect upon which much money has
been already expended. The pillow will be
left standing in the furrow and the az lying
at the root of the tree half cut down. Much
needed new public buildings will not be
provided for, and meager appropriations
will be made for those now being con-
structed. Improvements on rivers and
harbors now in progress will suffer injury
from lack of funds to prosecute the work,
and new Improvements will await the action
of another Congress.
Committees and subcommittee are doing
petty detective work to discover where
salaries can be reduced in the departments,
the reduction to affect efficient and ineff-
cient alike, instead Of devising and exc
cutting, what is needed more than all else in
the Department service, the removal of
worthless clerks, of which there are hun
dreds, and filling their places with in
dustrious and able ones
Barnacles Getting Plenty.
Tens of Thousands of dollars are paid out
for the maintenance of these barnacles every
year, and the number is constantly growing,
but rather than remove them the policy Is
to continue to pay them for services not
rendered, and if possible, reduce salaries
and refuse to increase the force in bureaus
where an increase is absolutely necessary
for the prompt and thorough performance
of the work.
The latest attempt at ECONOMY" appears
to-day in the District approximation bill, in
. which the amount appropriated for the
fiscal year ending June so, 1898, is s., 5O0, 900
less than the estimates of the District COM
missioners, half a million less than the
estimates Of the Secretary of the Treasury,
and more than $600, 900 less than the sppro-
priation for the current fiscal year
of the fa6t that the revenues of the District,
out of which half Of all expenditures must
be paid, would justify much more liberal
appropriation. If the appropriation bill
pass reported to the House to-day, upward
of $500, 600 will remain in the District treas
ury after the expenditure OF the half for
which the District is liable.
Not Enough to Go Around.
Populous sections of the city which are
without water or sewerage will have to re-
main in that unhealthy condition. The
money for street improvements will doubt
less, as too often in the past, be spent in
favored localities, because there Is 'tnot
enough to go round" and streets thickly
lined with the tenements of the "common
people" who have little money and no in
fuence, will yet remain deep with dirt in
dry weather and deep with mud in weather
of the other sort.
All this economy is to be exercised in
the domain of utility. As for literature,
art and ornament, as embodied in the pro-
posed purchase Of valuable private libra
ries which may be had now and perhaps
never moro, and of paintings and statuary
of both historical and art value, such prop
ositions are met with sco1n and derision.
The very idea of buying books and pictures
and statues and monuments when Demo-
Gratis of the House anxious for reelection
are straining their eyes, searching in dark
and out-of-the-way corners for opportuni-
ties to prevent the spending of dollar,
though its expenditure might be the very
highest and broadest of economyi
One Way to Mako Congress Longer.
This.appropriation-scalping may serve to
prolong the session of Congress not a little,
The Senate is certain to insist on important
expenditures to which the House Is obsti-
nately opposed, and long contests in confer
ence committees between conferees of the
House and Senate will be the order of the
day.
Possibly another session will find the
House less economical Before the short
session opens next December, the Congress
sional and Presidential elections will have |
decided the fate of all candidates for an
other term of years, and it is quite possible |
that large portion of the false and deml-
goglc economy of this session may then find |
its remedy in minds no longer distracted BY |
the anIieties of partisan ambition.
All day long the anti-free coinage MEM |
bers OF the House have been endeavoring |
to estimate their strength for the contest Of |
next Monday against the rule reported |
yesterday setting apart March %, % and "a |
for the consideration of the Bland bill |
All day long the free coinage members |
have been bracing up the waver1ng and |
timid brothers and writing and telegraph
ing to absent ones not to fail to be in their |
seats on Monday. There are 20 or 80 |
Democrats absent, and most of them are
free coinage men. With the large majority
of their party they can we'll afford to be
absent, usually, but now they are wanted.
and they are wanted very badly. No
matter if their presence would not change
the result, both sides are anxious to make |
as fine show of strength as possible. and
they want every man at his post.
Lots of Bluff and Bluster.
The antis are doing a deal of clustering
and blufing, but they are forced to confess
that they depend wholly on obstruction, in
SO far as their own strength is concerned.
Their only other recourse is the assistance
of the Republicans They plaintively as
sumo that the Republican anti-free coinage
men cannot afford to go to their constitu-
ents with the admission that they had the
to defeat q free coinage bill and
refused to take advantage of it.
This is droll reasoning. With the Republi.
cans it is not q question of the passage or de-
feat of the Bland bill They know that if il
be passed in Objectionable form it will be re.
turned from the White House with the
Executive negative, and that will be the end
Of it Their business Is to SOW dissension
In the already disorgsnized and inharmoni.