Daily independent. [volume] (Elko, Nev.) 188?-1915, 1893-05-08
GOVERNMENT
The System Governing Their Erec-
ton and Cost
How tho Plans for New Buildings Are
Engineered and Put ThreagkSH
Congressmen-The Need OF
Proper Restrictions.

nearly four hundred such buildings
scattered through the country. The
number has been greatly increased in
recent years, and the expenditure for
construction has become a large an
nual item in the appropriation bills of
congress.
In 1891 the amount expended on this
account was more han our million
eight hundred thousand dollars, which
was one-fifth as much as all the ordi-
nary expenditures of the government in
1910. This great extension of the sys-
tenn has taken place gradually, but the
policy seems now to be firmly estab-
lished.
Within proper limits, says Youths
Companion, it is an extremely reason
BILE system. In a little town the rent
of a corner in a store for a post Office
amounts to almost nothing. The town
grows, and the post Office requires
larger quarters-a whole floor on the
street level in the center of business.
The town transforms itself into a city,
land and rents increase, and the expense
for the hire of a building, which must
be conveniently located in the very
heart of the city where rent are
highest, becomes large.
A still further increase of population,
and now other departments of the gov
eminent begin to appear in the city. If
it is on the coast or on the lakes, n dep
uty collector of customs is appointed.
The federal courts nave business now
and then in the city. An internal rev.
enue office is established, or a branch of
the pension or the land office.
Under such circumstances it is cheap
er for the national government to in
vest, once for all, the capital needed to
erect buildings than to continue to Il
rent. The only question is, at what
point 1T becomes a matter of economy
to build rather than to hire.
Naturally the people. of q growing
town are convinced of the necessity
for n public building long before CON
gross can see the matter in the same
light. The congressman from the dis
trict, anxious to make himself popular,
urges the Importance of the building on
his associates, and sometimes succeeds
in obtaining the consent of congress to
the project before the building is really
needed.
Formerly authority to erect buildings
was inserted in appropriation bills, and
there was q great chance for 'log-roll-
ing"-thatis, Congressman Smith would
help on Congressman Jones' scheme if
Congressman Jones would help Con-
gressman Smith. At present each build
ing is authorized by q separate act, but
there is still some opportunity for log
rolling.
All government building is done un-
der h superintendent and control of
the treasury department.. First, con-
gross authorizes the building and nppro.
PIRATES money for the site and the struc-
ture. Next n lot is selected, approved
and purchased. Plans are made by the
supervising architect, and the building
Is erected. The observation-disclosures he
may be, and frequently is, the postmas-
ter-is under the direction of, and re-
ports to, the secretary of the treasury.
The reason for this is, perhaps, that
in h early days government buildings
were chiefly for the offices of collectors
OF customs, who are under the secretary
of the treasury, and only incidentally
for post Cfice use.
No doubt the eagerness of communi-
ties to obtain n costly and ornamental
building at the government expense has
caused this system to be abused. At
tempts have been made to lay down
certain conditions which must be salts
fled before n town or city shall be
deemed to need a government building.
Thus, it might be required that the
population shall be SO many, or the re-
ceipts of the post Office so much, or that
there shall be other uses than the post
Office for such a building. No such
restrictions have been made, and
whether n town is TO have been a build,
ing or not is frequently q matter OF
favor, or even of accident.
Inasmuch as n government rarely
takes n backward step in such cases as
this, the chances are that hundreds o
new buildings will be erected during
the next few years. esg@ p