The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1897-08-18
INCREASED PUBLIC EXPENDITURES.

/ he savannah News, IN strong ana
timely editorial, calls for a halt in leg
islatiye extravaganza. There are too
many big appropriations; too great a
disposition on the part of politicians
to spend the public money for any
thing that is likely to increase their
popularity. Our Savannah contempo-
rary says:
"Our Atlanta correspondence directs
attention to a matter which we. IN
common with other newspapers Of the
state, have often commented upon, but
which the people, or rather their rep
resentatiyes in the legislature, do not
seem to properly appreciate. We re-
fer to the constant increase in public
expenditures. The approaching SEES
sion Of the legislature, it is stated,
will have some difficult financial
problems to Wrestle with" with the
prospect in view that the tax rate will
have to be considerably increased in
order to meet obligations to which the
state is already actually or morally
pledged.
1t is to be expected that the sum to-
tai of public expenditures of a great
and progressive state like Georgia will
be more every year. 1t is desirable that
such be the case. But, while the total
is expanding, the tax rate should not
grow greater. As the states popuIa-
tion and wealth increase and the ex-
penditures grow heavier the tax rate
should be diminished. 1t should never
be raised, except under stress Of extra
ordinary circumstances.
The difficulty seems to be, however,
that our Legislators are too willing to
spend the public money, or to commit
the state to expenditures which should
not be made under existing circum-
stances. The pension scheme is a case
in point. There is no objection to be
urged against pensions where there
are funds available, but Georgia has no
means OF raising pension funds except
by direct taxation. The state is now
burdened with a pension expenditure
OF more than quarter of million of
dollars, and there is no telling where
the matter will stop. Georgia cannot
make flesh out Of one lot of old soldiers
and fish of another All having SINH
lar claims upon the largsss of the
treasury under the law must be treated
alike. 1t was the opinion of eminent
statesmen tWenty-odd years ago, when
the national pension budget amounted
to S3O, OOO,0 900 a year, that the high-wa-
ter mark had about been reached. vet
the government is now paying Sl40,-
O0O,OOO year in pensions, and the list
Is still growing larger. Something Of
the sort will inevitably occur under
the Georgia laws unless safeguards are
adopted. We are not opposed to the
policy Of state aid to the old SOL
diers, but we are opposed to the adop-
ton ola vague, indefinite pension poll
cy which will lead nobody knows
where, and will involve constantly in
creasing appropriations and higher tax
rates.
The pension matter, however, is not
the only one which might be used as an
Illustration. We have an idea that if
some Of the Investigators now in the
field examining board bills and ship
ping tag charges and proposing to play
checkers with some of the schools of
the state, would exert their talents in
the line of discouraging excessive and
new appropriations, and the spending
public money for political purposes,
the commonwealth would be the gamer
thereby.