The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1897-04-06
Retrenchment or Ruin.

There is a good deal of old-fashioned
but wholesome common sense in the
remarks of Hon. j. Sterling Morton in
the April Forum upon the subject of
extravaganza in public affairs. Mr..
Morton appears to have gone to Wash
ington with a conscience and to have
been somewhat uncomfortable by rea-
son thereof; but instead of shutting it
up and letting things go their way he
lifts his voice in the wilderness and
sounds a vigorous warning.
Tho nub of Mr.. Morton's contention
is that the time has come when in
public as we'll as in private enterprise
the American people must lower their
expenses to the bedrock level 1.-THE
cost of local governments must be les
sened. Administration of county and
city and village affairs must be made
more and more economical and busi-
ness-like. In short, the fixed charges
of American citizenship must be cut
down." We must do away with pen
sions in the form of high salaries or
fees that do not compensate merit, we
must hereafter be content to construct
fewer unneeded sewers and pavements
and build fewer county and city build
ings OF extravagant proportions and os-
tentatious styles, and there must in a
variety of ways be a limitation of eX-
penditure to the necessities of govern
ment honestly and economically ap-
piled" Otherwise, the gradual revo-
luton which is working in wages and
prices, in which the tendency is down.
ward, will force into our politics a
growing discontented class which
| sooner or later will take the bit in their
teeth and run away with things
In proof that he is not overdrawinG
| the picture, Mr.. Morton cites a num-
| Der of tables which will repay study
| One shows how in sixty years the cost
| of administering the Federal govern
ment has been so augmented that in
1890, with a population of more thar
G2,0O0,O00 it was s4.75 per capita, where
as in 1910, with a population of less
than 1S,00O,OOO it was only SLAP. While
| it is true that some of this growth in
| expense is a heritage of the civil war
with its large immediate costs and its
| subsequent pension rolls, that alone
| does not suffice to explain away Sc
large a growth. He points out severa
| other avenues of extravaganza anC
waste that can be stopped up withou
difficulty-the public building craze
whereby vast sums of public money
are sunk in costly piles utterly beyond
the needs of the public service: rive
and harbor jobs, many so notorious al
to constitute in morals a crime not fa
removed from treason; and lastly, tn,
exposition mania, whereby for ever,
conceivable local show the government
till is tapped, commissions are ap
pointed to travel like princes AM
battle in champagne, and, as our autho
somewhat pepperly puts it, "everybod.
is taxed to enable relatively nobod.
to have salaries and profits, see pleas
the expense of the great majority VIII
are not in attendance"
One point which Mr.. Morton does no
emphasize but which is really the dan
gerous feature of the whole problem
is the fact that the citizens means q
paying high taxes are diminishing wit
steadiness while the taxes themselve
when not increasing, remain the same
Take the case right here in Scranton
What merchant, what laborer, wha
manager of an industry is receivin
today the income of twenty or thirt
years ago, or expects ever to receiv
such an income again? Those wer
boom times The country rode then o
the crest wave of speculation. In iro
and steel and coal and real estate for
tunes were to be picked up while Yo
waited, and very naturally taxes ros
accordingly. But while the boom er
has gone forever, and the enterpris
of the people is settling down to
steady going hum-drum routine of nal
rowed margins and small, if any, pro-
its, have taxes fallen proportionately
Have they, in Scranton? Have the
anywhere?
In the light of these questions, NJ
Morton's paper becomes highly valu
able, and it's lesson merits attentiy
study.