St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1896-02-10
WHY THEY WE'RE AMAZED.

for even a few months ahead.
WHY THEY WE'RE AMAZED.
AS one reads the statement submit
ted by Secretary Morton to the joint
session of the house and senate COM
mittees on agriculture, one can the
more readily understand the hostile
attitude Of the Republican congress-
men towards the secretary Accom-
panying the statement Is a table show
ing the appropriations made for the
department for seed purchases, with
the expenditures and unexpended bal
ance, for each year from 1865 to 1895
AS one runs down the column Of un-
expended balances and notes with what
extreme scrupulosity the earlier COM
missioners Of agriculture spent every
dollar Of the appropriations, he can
understand the amazement and indig-
nation Of these friends of the old flag
and an appropriation that the present
secretary should not only not have
spent all the lavish sums given his de-
partment, but should actually have the
hardihood to report unexpended bal
ances, during the three years Of his
term. Of over s23O,OOO.
1t excites in the breasts Of the faith
full somewhat of the feeling aroused
by Comptroller Bowler, who held up
the sugar bounties, because in his opin-
nP %14 y1{,, tot
court they were an unconstitu-
tional grant Of public money
1t Is regarded as a display Of dis
respect for congress, an audacious as
sertion Of the will of an officer against
that Of the law-making power, a pre-
sumptuous questioning of the wisdom
OF the congress, and an exhibition of
Democratic parsimony that merits the
severest censure if it does not even
warrant impeachment To be sure, there
We're here and there Republican COM
missioners and secretaries Of agricult-
ure who, by some strange miscalcula-
ton, failed to spend the uttermbst
farthing allowed them, but the succeed
ing blank spaces in the following years
indicate that they were promptly and
sufficiently disciplined into not doing
1t again. Loring, the last of the COM
missioners, reported balances Of S2.S3
and $8.47. but corrected the error in
the following year, and spent ALL Can
dor compels the admission that Secre-
tary Coleman was loyal to the prece-
dents Of his Office, spending in 1887 all
but $1.63, but recovering and leaving
S412.95 unspent the following year.
Even Uncle Jerry Rusk left about $500
year unspent. But here comes this
inconoclast out Of the treeless plains
of Nebraska and covers back into the
treasury the very first year over $4,000.
The mania grows on him, and the next
year he reports $44,954S5 unspent;
mounting, with sublime audacity, to
an unspent balance in the following
year Of Sill .OS72O.
More than that, he saucily offers
apologies and explanations for having
spent so much in the two preceding
years. No wonder the committeeman
of the two houses looked on him with
establishment. A secretary Of agricult-
ure, receiving $685. 900 to spend for seeds
alone, and returning to the treasury
1921, 777.15 Of 1t. What, forsooth, are
these secretaries of agriculture there
for, what are they good for, unless it is
tn cnand al he civ,
What Of it if an obsolete and forgot
ten law does require him to buy and
scatter such seeds as are rare and
uncommon to the country?" Is an old
and ignored act to stand in the way
OF the spending of public money? Is a
contumacious secretary to set himself
up as a judge of what seeds are rare
and uncommon? 1t is no extenuation
Of the offense Of this up-start secretary
that, as he says, not one recipient in a
thousand of the seeds he and his pred
ecessors sent out ever made response
to the request that they report on the
product of the seeds. What business
Of his is it whether the seeds were
useful or useless, whether they grew
or not, or whether the receivers sowed
them or fed them to the chickens? His
function is to spend, spend, spend, I'M
til the last cent taken from all the peo-
pie goes out to some of them. No
wonder the Republicans look with hor-
ror on this innovation. What if it
were to become a chronic habit? What
If the contagion were to spread to the
other departments and the whole adj
ministration of the government become
sensible and economical? Like tubercu-
stamped out.
WITH MIJFFLED FEET.