St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1893-12-06
THE ESTIMATES TOO LARGE

1t costs great deal of money to run
government such as ours, and as we
grow older our wants seem to increase
rather than diminish. People in these
days demand more from the govern
ment than they did thirty or forty years
ago. And communities are good deal
like children. If they see their neigh
bors with brand-new postoffice, pub
lie wharf. or anything else that the
government supplies, they demand one
equally as good. if not better, for them
selves. st. Paul insists upon post
Office that shall be superior to that at
Minneapolis. Omaha claims the right
to more expensive structure than that
at Kansas City; Chicago thinks she
should have federal building far SUI
perlOr to the one at New York. And
all the claimants generally succeed.
First come may be first served, but the
last that applies to Uncle Sam Is gener-
ally the best served. For the late
corners nave the advantage of perfected
plans for their public works, and, point
ing to the llberality previously shown TO
cities of less importance. are more i'm
perative III their demands and more
likely to have them grati6ed.
This is the chief reason for the con-
stantly increasing expenditures of our
government. We are not content TO
provide for the uses of the present: we
insist upon making calculations for the
eXigeneies OF the future. If city has
a business that will warrant million
dollar building, it insists that the gov
eminent shall provide for four or five
times the trade in the future. And in
some instances this is justifable and ex-
pedient. for it is bad policy to build
such structures as the government does
without taking into account the DOS
sibilities of considerable increase in
trade in the near future. But in other
cases it is different. The government
has expended hundreds of thousands of
dollars probably many millions-for
the construction of custom houses
where none were needed, or where the
necessities of the service required but a
| moderate outlay. Immense sums have
also been laid out upon public works in
| the ''boom Cities" that during their in
fancy gave promise of phenomenal
growth, but which have since collapsed
and become mere hitching posts along
the highway of civilization.
The estimates of the treasury de.
| partment for the current and coming
fiscal years are enormous, although
some ten millions less than the amount
appropriated for last year. While less
sum is needed for the payment of pen
sions, an increase is asked to defray the
expenses of the pension Offices. More
than million-dollar increase is made
in the appropriations for public build
ings, and S350,000 is asked for the en-
forcement of the idiotic and un-Amerl
can Chinese exclusion act. An increase
of more than five millions is asked fol
the improvement of rivers and harbers
making the total for this purpose Sl2,
| $4,000. Much of this is useless extray
agance. Many thousands of dollars arr
expended every year upon the improve
ment of rivers ,apon which mud scoa
conld scarcely float during the higf
water period, and upon harbors where
!, there is no commerce and no opportu
nity for cr-sngN.
The increase asked in the postoffict
appropriation is mainly due to the eff
forts of the department to extend TIT
| free delivery system and improve th,