The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1894-03-14
Amount of Talk ON Pensions
Doesn't Appear Well
Prospect is We Are to Have
More Silver.
OVER sII,000,O00 SAVED



biz, and now chat the Bland selgnlorage
bin IS likely to become law if it is not
vetoed hy President Cleveland, the house
has settled down to the monotonous rou-
tine ST approximation bills. and exciting
events are not very numerC@s. When the
approx riations committee obtained fair
field and q guarantees of continued prog
rass, Is had ON the calendar the f0rtlhca-
tanss pension. District IF Colum 1ia and
aundTY civil bills the postofiiee and dIplo-
matte appropriations bills were ready to
introduce. am4 the mem beers spoke in q
general way of getting through the whole
of them Up three weeks The indications
SO far are that they certainly did not over
estimate the time required.
TO man up tree. as we say in Paris,
st looks extremely odd that the pension
bin should have been debated four days
and with considerable animation, not to
say heat and acrirnOny. when there was
really nothing before the house it had
been published long before that the bill
caued for about SIS 600 600 less than were
given for the iist year, and every body had
beard or read the reason. Nobody found
fault with the committee for this reduc-
ton. no member ON either side wanted to
increase or decrease it by SO much
cent. no motion ot amy consequence was
made, and vet The house as aforesaid de-
bated # four days. The ways Of states
men Hre not easily found out, and yet the
onlooker ito tht gallery cannot avoid q sus-
picion that the amount of talk INDUCED
in by each or1tcr on this bill had a Gu
rlousiy close correspondence with the num-
Der Of soldiers i'm his district However
this IS but natural. and the amiabIe Inten-
ton Of putting the president, Secretary
Smith and Commissioner Lochren in
hole, was by no means concealed.
The Appropriations
In the general luli congressman and
onlookers are calculating very closely as
to the final result when all the 13 appro-
stf-f lag SIT
may be made between the expenditures for
1895 and those for former years 1T goes
without saying THAT lit rs always easier to
expand than to contract, and although it
S. considered certain that about sl1 000,-
000 VIII BE saved by paying NO sugar boun-
ty, added to amount saved on pensions,
yet many of tile Oldest heads predict that
the reduction. # any. VIII be but tri6ing.
The regular annual estimates for the year
1e94 were $500 1893, 061 Adding the per
manent annual appropriations, this
brought up the estimated expenditures of i
that year to S505. s6l ,335- Congress re
duced this to little over S496 GOO GOO
But ia no long time q little over SO .000,-
GOO had to be added as deficiency. includ-
ing something over s14 600, 600 deficiency
for pensions in the fiscal year 1898.
So IL spite of what were supposed to
be desperate attempts att economy, the ma
tIon had to pay cut SOLO, 55S for the
fiscal year 1894 So far this is ancient his
tory. but it can he used as basis for call
culatiug what the nation viii have to pay
for 1888. The total of estimates for 1885
is S896 306, fs9, of which SIS 600 600 has
already been cut Off from pensions New
ereheless the regular .watchdogs7 do not
promise certainly that the nation viii have
much less than $500 600 600 to pay for the
current year. OF course there are enthu-
siastic spirits who talk of bringing it away
below that point. but a few important
items sire to be considered.
The ''Good Ola Times"
The first of these is the navy. Ia 1873
the appropriations for that service had run
below e14, 900 600 and did not rise to SIG
Gee. oo9 until 1887 It was then that the
great revival ot interest in the navy iusti-
fled congress in liberal appropriations. and
the sum Jumped at once to but little less
than 500 0oO. 600 In a subsequent year
st exceeded s31- COO, 600, and this year the
estimates are nearly s2s 0O0, 600
There are equally great and sudden va
rlat1ons in the indian appropriation bills.
which, after running for several years in
the neigh borhood of IS coo. 600, suddenly
jumped to IS, coo 600 and then to consid- /
erably over SIG Oo0, 600, resulting from the
purchase of Indian reservations. AS said (
reserFa tlons are now paid for, the estimate /
for this year IS for not quite ST. 600 600, /
and mem beers Of the committee say that it /
viii he reduced This mixture Of ancient I
history present facts and conjectures for /
the future may serve the citizen who wish I
KS to amuse his leisure by calculating tine I
probable course of affairs, on by compar-
ing the good old times, when it cost (
but SO cents per capita to run the nation
81 government with these times, when it F
costs nearer S. per capita, but it must not +
De taken as q prophecy that this congress f
VIII very greatly reduce the expense.
Prospect OF lEore Silver.
Ia this general lull the members also +
have time to bring up their correspond F
ence With then constituents and to talk /