The Dalles daily chronicle. [volume] (The Dalles, Or.) 1890-1948, 1893-05-29
GOVERNMENT EXPENSES.
What It Costs Uncle Sam to Paw
Off His Help.
One Hundred Million Dollars a Year In
Salaries-ComparatiVeS Statement of
& Wealth in the United States
as Banks Show 1t.

According to the Chicago Journal,
the total amount of salaries paid to
government empl oyes foots up hun
dred million dollars year. Yet this is
only dollar and a half apiece all
around, now that our population is &C.,
100000 people. And this only makes
The average salary of the 200, 900 people
rFhO hold Office under the government
about $500 per annum each.
Something of the details O. where
this money goes may be of interest.
The diplomatic service is not so eXpen-
Slye a luxury as would be supposed
probable. The salary of ministers
amounts to only S34O, 900 per annum;
secretaries of legation $4,000 per an
mum, and consuls S5oO,000, while there
is also an additional allowance of about
800, 900 for clerks and consulates. The
salaries in the offices of the secretary
of the treasury amount to about half
million dollars year, but this does not
include the various divisions in which
the salaries run from a few thousand
MP to more than a half million dollars
per annu1n- The salaries for the Office
of the secretary of war amount to over
SIoH, ,0Do and those of the record and
pension divisions of the war depart
mum. The pay of the officers of the
line in the army is 81, 800, 1000, and there
is added to that $500, 900 for pay of Off
GERS for length of service. The pay of
the enlisted men of the army is 81, 1OO,-
600, officers on the retired list, 81, 1872
600. The pay table of the navy is about
half as much as that of the war depart
ment, and the total salaries of the treas
ury department, including over two mil
lions in the internal revenue service
alone, is about twelve millions of dol
Lars. The interior department spends
about So, 000,00 year for salaries the
agricultural department a little over
n million, and the department of Justice
about the same.
The post Office department, however.
Is the one which piles up the total of
salaries. Even in the post Office de-
Partment in Washington the salaries
amount to nearly million dollars a
year, and when you branch out into
the postal service all over the country
lt becomes appalling. The appropria-
fions for the fiscal year just about to
end allotted $15, ,25O, 900 for compensa-
tion to postmasters and $40, O,764,O0O for
the free-delivery service. There should
be added to this SIS, ,000, 900 for carrying
the mails by star routes, most of which
Is for salaries; mail-messenger service
over a million dollars, and railway post
office clerks, sc, ,631, 900. Even congress
Is a somewhat expensive luxury. The
pay of senators amounts to about a
half million dollars year and that of
representatives about 81, 900, 900 year,
to say nothing of the amounts paid for
the employees, clerks, stenographers and
messengers who assist them in their
duties.
Nothing better and more happily il
lustrates the growth of this coun-
try and prosperity of the peo-
pie than comparison of the conditions
at this time with those which existed
eight years ago. That the coun-
try has been prosperous in those eight
years is evident Then there were
z,z5O banks, now there are 10000.
Their capital stock then was $3.50, ,OOO,-
900, now it is over billion. The people
then had g, ZOO. 600, 900 laid away in the
banks for rainy day. now they have
81, 700, 900, 900 so deposited in the banks.
Our national wealth, which then was
S4s, ,O0O, 100000, is now sos, 900, ,0O0, 900.
The average per capita of wealth in the
United States, including property and
money, then was $3.50 for each individ-
ual, while to-day it is in round numbers
$1,000
Eight thousand rolls of wall paper di-
rect from the factory at Snipes & Kin
ersly's, 129 Second street.