The Topeka state journal., 1897-12-11
Than That Expressed by Secre-
stary of the Treasury Gage.
BILL PASSES.
1t ApprOpriates S141,263,SSO
For the Next Year.
Fresh Attacks Made on Civil
Service by Congressman.

bill without amendment and adjourned
+ till Monday The amendments offered
by Democrats to correct alleged existing
abuses We're all ruled out on the point of
order that they were new legislation. As
passed, the bill carries s14l, ,26S, $50. The de-
+ bate covered a wide range. 1t touched
/ not only the question of our pension poll
/ icy but that of civil service reform and
/ the receipts and expenditures of the treas
ury under the Dingley law. On the lat
ter question Mr.. Dingley made an i'm
portant statement, in which he expressed
the opinion that the receipts would equal
the expenditures before the close of the
present fiscal year, and predicted a sur
plus of $10,000000 next year. The civil
service law was savage1y attacked by
several members, notably Mr.. Brown (Rep..
o. and Mr. Linney (Rep.. N. c. and
was warmly defended by Mr.. johnson
(Rep., Ind.).
Just before the close of the session, Mr..
Hit, chairman of the foreign affairs COM
mittee attempted to secure unanimous
/ consent for the passage of the bill to pro-
! habit pelagic sealing by American citi>
zens, but objection was made. 1t will,
under agreement, however, be considered
Monday.
During the debate on the pension bill
Mr. Maxwell (Pop., Neb) submitted some
remarks in favor OF liberal. pensions. and
W Wc49 AO1lOW60 Dy MI 0TONeSnOE NELeD.r
o., who said that while his colleagues
from Ohio seemed to differ on the civil
service question, he thought they were
practically of one mind. So far as he
was concerned, he enlisted for the war
against the law.
In discussing the pension matter, Mr..
GrosvenOr said if he could he would
abolish the pension examining boards and
much of the expense of administration in
1anSiOO
eraI. service pension system, carefully
guarded. Mr. Sullivan Dem-, Miss.) in
support of an argument against the pay>
ment of pensions to those who were
wealthy and did not need them, quoted
at length from an article recently writ
ten by General H. V. Boynton, whose tes-
timony against abuses in the present sys-
TEN, he said, We're entitled to respectful
consideration by the other side.
Mr.. Johnson (Rep., Ind.), in defense OF
civil service reform, which he said was
being attacked on the floor by members
from the presidents own state, reiterated
his statement of the other day that civil
service reform was an essential principle
of Republicanism. He referred to the
declarations of state Republican conven-
tions and read from the platforms adopted
at Republican national conventions for
twenty years in support of his contention.
Hayes, Garfield. Harrison and Mckinley
all stood for the law and the presidents
last utterance in its favor had received
the overwhelming approval of the Re
publican press of the country. Mr.. john
son declared that the enemies of the law
were not attacking it openly. They hoped
as the friends of true civil service re- /
form to tear it down piecemeal and do
covertIy what they feared to attempt to
do directly.
Messrs Carmack, Gaines and Sims
CDems., Tenn.) spoke briefly in favor of
retrenchment in pension expenditures. /
These remarks drew an important state
ment from Mr.. Dingley regarding the
prospective revenues and expenditures for 4
the ensuing fiscal year. Preliminary to
the statement Mr.. Dingley gave a new
Interpretation to the estimated increase !
in pension expenditures. contending that !
the maximum was reached in 1898, when /
the pension payments reached S159, OOO. 900. /
In 1894 they fell to $141 O,eOO in 1895 s141,
100000, in 1885, $139 900, 600 and in 1897 s141,-
100000.
If the expenditures for pensions during 4
the next fiscal year should be $14S, 100000, I
as had been estimated, the increase, Mr.. Z
Dingley said, would not be due to new
legislation, but to more rapid admins
tration of the present laws 1t would
therefore involve no additional expense in /
the end. The question as to revenue and
expenditures IOE the next nScal year. pro-
ceeded Mr.. Dfngley, was a practical one
which congress had to face. The state
ment of the secretary of the treasury, he
said had caused much misrepresentation.
owing to the fact that under a new pro-
vision of law he had been obliged to in
clude in the estimates of expenditures
So. 600 600 for public works. which neither
he nor the secretary of war, nor any other
we'll Informed person believed would be
deficit he said, will be 81 100000.
He violated no confidence when he said
that the secretary of the treasury ana
the president were confident that the re-
ceipts next year would exceed the eE-
penditures.
Mr.. Dingley said he took it for granted
that congress would exercise reasonable
economy. The estimated deficit for the
present year. not counting the money OBJ
tanned and to be obtained from the Pacific
railroads. was S2S 600. The anticipa-
tory importations had, Mr.. Dingley ar
gued. placed in the treasury before July
l. S3s. 600. 600. These importations had re-
duced the deficit last year from S56,0c0,O 900
to SIS, ,000. GOO. inasmuch as the impOrtations
were for consumption this year.
Mr.. Dingley contended that in equity
that sum should be properly charged to
the receipts of the current year. If they
were so charged, instead of a deficit there
would be a surplus this year of Slo000,O00
Mr.. Dingley figured out a surplus o.
exactly that amount (s1O.O0oOOO FOR the
coming fiscal year. He described the
steadv. manner in which the revenues had
been increasing at the rate of one or
two millions a month. Although Decem-
Der was generally a bad month for i'm
portations, he said that if the increase for
the first nine days OF this month were