Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1894-12-14
The Dish onesy OF Democratic Economy

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The Dish onesty Of Democratic ECONOMY.
Possibly there may be found town, a
county or state that has been under an
economical administration of affairs by the
Democratic party within the past three
decades. Certainly if such be discovered
it will be found with such difficulty as to
appear so rare and so unusual that once
brought to the attention it will never be
forg often. AS for the present national
administration of affairs there are few
who are so ignorant or who think their
neighbors so ignorant as to venture the
assumption that it either has been, is or is
likely to be found to be economical accord
ing to the real meaning Of the term.
We intended to say few outside the adj
ministration itself. The effrontery with
which department officials and the Presi-
dent himself intimated and, in some cases,
made bold to declare economy in their
recent reports, disabuses the mind of any
thought that the Cleveland administra-
ton will ever succumb to a sense of its
own disgrace. We were told prior to the
November elections that there had been
"A saving Of so many thousands in this de
partment and appropriation and in that
department and appropriation. No
sooner, however, does Congress reassemble
than it is forced to appropriate more
money and thai too for purposes that at
its previous session Congress had assumed
to appropriate sufficient funds to last I'M
til next June. The ''post norton" Con
gress no sooner gets back to the national
capital, however, than it is asked to ap-
propriate 81, 800, 600 for the urgent needs of
government, evidently needs other than
those which depleted the gold reserve and
made issues of bonds necessary to keep the
wheels of government revolv ing. There
has been cutting down of millions in
the pensions and the administration
| has taken especial pains by calumnious
charges, unsupported by any evidence to
convey the impression that the pension
rolls had been found filled with imposters.
! We have been unable to learn that this
administration, inspired as it is with
aversion to the Union veteran, has I'M
carthed more pension frauds than did the
preceding administration. We do know
that it has raised a great hue and Cry,
and has been far more liberal in search for
| fraud than in rewardng virtue when
| found. The most that the public has been
able to learn is that corps of spies have
been maintained by the government and
that the chief work they have ever done
is to get worthy and needy pensioners
names stricken from the rolls, and have
compelled innocent men to rost under
the imputation of guilt, until for the sec
ond time they should have proven them
selves innocent, and this time, before a
partial judge and packed jury. This
corps of spies has been an expensive one
to maintain but room therein was af-
forded for class of cheap Office seekers
and so it is to be presumed that the mil
lion dollars expended this current year in
this manner meets the approval of the
economical" administration at Washing
ton, also the fact that some of these Ollie
ials put in some Jealous campaign work
before the congressional elections while
drawing their salaries and expenses from
Uncle Sans pocket
Notwithstanding the appropriations
made by Congress were declared to be sut1i-
cient for the current year, notwithstand-
ing that their economical aspect afforded
! the only Democratic campaign thunder
with any rumble in it, and notwithstand-
! ing 81, 600 O00 is now demanded to make
! good the dishonest deficiencies in these
! appropriations there is every reason to
| believe that not quarter of the dcficien-
cics TO occur between now and next June
will be provided for Such is one phase.
| by which the administration must he ad-
| Judged dishonest or incompetent, or both.
/ But that affords meagrc idea of the real
dostructiveness of so-callcd Democratic
/ economy. The hand to-mouth, shifty pol
! icy of putting off payment of every dollar
of current expenses so long as possible,
| squeezing every bit of revenue from pro
perty bequcathed unimpaired without at
tempting to improve it or even to keep
| it up to standard, anything in fact which
| shall deludc the creditors with the idea of
| inexpensive management and blind their
eyes to inevitable bankruptcy, is the poll
| cy which Democrats brazenly or ignorantly
are won't to term economy Further
more this system Of retrenchment which
doesn't retrench is conducted along lines
that render the people less able to bear
| the burden. No feature of Democratic
! policy has Injured to the prosperity OF the
! country but rather has sapped the pros
perity existing. In no department that
we can recall has there been an increase
of efficiency but on the contrary the inef-