The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1897-12-14
THE MoMENrUM OF SPENDING.

THE MOMENTUM OF SPENDING.
The average man keeps up the mo-
mentum of spending after circumstan-
ces have shrunk his income. A state
government is but the product of the
average men in it, and is fair av-
erage of them. The national govern
ment is the same. We may expect to
find, therefore, in both, the same dis
position we find in the average man.
Nor are we disappointed. But there
comes to the individual a moment
when credit IS strained, and memorable
necessity obliges him to restrict his
spending to the neighborhood of his
income. States and nations, with their
larger resources and arbitrary powers,
dc not reach this limit as early as does
the individual, but they reach it even
tually because the same law works on
the aggregation that compels the in
dividual The state shows signs Of
reaching the limit in its deficient rev.
enue fund The nation has shown 1t
for years in the widening gap between
income and Outgo. There must be
either retrenchment or insolvency.
We showed last January, for the In
formation of the legislature, how the
momentum of spending, immensely &C
tolerated by the fictitious prosperity
of the boom period, had kept up it's in
cause. If the lesson was not needed,
then it is we'll to repeat it now that
il may influence public opinion and
show results in the selection of legisla-
tors next year. In presenting again
the statistics we will omit the period
prior to 1870, because during the time
between the admission of the state
and 1870 the increase of institutions
naturally outpaced that of population
or wealth. The young state felt the
influence of the older and richer
states, whence her population largely
came, and it was shown in the num-
Der of state institutions inaugurated
with little regard to the needs of So
ciety But between 1870 and 1880 con-
ditions were such that that period can
be taken as normal. The boom that
set in early in the sos had not appear
ed to disarrange the ideas of expendi-
ture that had prevailed and to induce
legislators to parallel individual spend
ing with state appropriations. The
i
1873 had their reflex in appropriation
bills and in the general conception of
proper expenditures Of the state. With
the two periods, 1S71-75 and 1860,
periods will be made.
OF the channels through which the
taxes flow outward from the state
treasury the largest of all is toward
that group Of penal, charitable and
educational establishments commonly
called the state Institutions" These
embrace the state prison, reformatory
and reform school, the insane hospitals,
deaf, blind and feeble-minded asylums
and soldiers home; the university, nor
mails and state public school. In the
construction of the buildings devoted
to these uses the state has expended,
since 1866, $7.OS7,4S2, of which
nearly one-third, or $2,217,654 has
gone to the building of in
sane hospitals. There has been
expended in the same time in their
support alone S15,197,074, of which
again over one-third, or So, 9S2, SAT, has
gone to maintain the insane. The cost
of support, steadily increasing year by
year, required $1,342,S2S in 1896, to
which $567,2S9 must be added for new
buildings, improvements and repairs
spent in that year, making the amount
nearly $2,OOO,OOO for the one year.
Taking this whole group of institu-
tons, we find the cost of their support
alone, excluding cost of buildings, for
each fiveyear period and the average
for each year of each period, to be as
follows: