The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1897-12-10

WASHINGTON, Dec 9.-The annual
outburst in favor of economy in public
expenditures is now heard In congress,
and the appropriation committees of
both houses this year will be more than
usually impressed with the necessity
for retrenchment But.the public might
as well know first as last that little
can reasonably be expected in this line.
Concerning generalities, it is very
easy to talk economy, but where can it
be applied? Pensions take 3S per cent
of the expenditures of the govern
ment, and yet who is bold enough po-
litically to cut that appropriation
down? The military and naval estab-
lishments take another large slice-25
per cent, SO far this fiscal year-but
it will be very difficult to reduce these
appropriations. The army is now little
more than a police force, and the naval
expense is still in its beginning if the
United States continue their new
navy policy. Interest charges amount
to about 10 per cent of our national eX-
penses, and they are something that
must be paid. River and harbor i'm
provements, public buildings, private
claims, civil and miscellaneous eXpend-
itures are all things which experience
has proved I'VE must have" and the
last two congresses have doubtless
been fully as economical as it is safe
to expect the present or any succeeding
congress to be. Not counting the sink
ing fund appropriations, and consider
ing as a postal charge only the postal
deficit, the actual expenses of this gov
ernment henceforth cannot well be un-
a I SIndaUC
and holidays With an abundant rev.
enue and easy conditions, this sum
would speedily be exceeded by from 10
to 20 per cent.
NOT GROWING SMALLER.
In estimates of the future expenses
of the government it is taken for grant
ed that Uncle Sam will continue to do
business in the rather wasteful and ex-
travagant way that now prevails.
Moreover, the government is constant
ly adding to the things which it under
takes-this year postal savings bank
an armor-plate plant and a national
university are among the proposals,
and when once established these enter
prises go on forever. Many govern
ment charges, besides, are paid for di-
ISCIly through Ices O1 SOIIlS tlllSl, cillu
so do not come out Of the taxpayer in
the ordinary way. The patent office,
for instance, is always more than self
supporting. But taking $370,0O0,000 as
our regular expenditures for 70,000,000
people, an average per capita Of little
over $5 is the result. But it would be
a very interesting calculation for some
practical economist to determine what
the average man in st. Paul pays to the
federal government per 81 900 of his an
nual expenditure. The SIS per capita no
ton gives very inadequate idea of the
actual cost Of the government to the
individual taxpayer. Millions of people
pay almost nothing, because they con-
sumo so little upon which the govern
ment levies either an internal or a GUS
tens tax A traveller going through
the mountain country of North Carolina
would readily be convinced that where
the average native paid one dollar into
the federal treasury, the ordinary st.
Paul man would pay 20. And this in
spite of the large share of the burden of
government expenditures borne by alco-
holicS, tobacco and sugar. Another old
question to which the commonest mind
would have to give attention in deter
mining the exact burden of federal eX-
penditures upon the individual is the
much moOted one as to what it costs
to get a dollar into the treasury If
the average voter could see before him.
stripped of all the intricacies of indi-
rect taxation, an actual statement of
his share in paying the expenses of the
federal government, and beside it the
larger items of municipal county and
state taxation, he would become more
firmly convinced than ever that honest
and economical government is highly
to his advantage.
PENSIONS EXCEED CUSTOMS.
But to return to Uncle Sans budget:
Since July l pensions have cost about
$6S,000, 600, and in the same time the
customs revenue has amounted to $751;
100000. Our entire custom house col
lections then, all over the United
States, are absorbed in paying pen
sions thirty-two years after the close
of the rebellion. And yet when Judge
Lochren, a gallant Union soldier, tried
to reduce this expenditure little, an
eminent New England congressman, in
a published letter. referring to the
pension office, declared: "The Confed-
| crates are in the Saddlei'' Commission
er Evans mas Deen more fortunate IN
his proposed measure of retrenchment
Congress will undoubtedly carry out
his recommendation in regard TO the
rights Of widows under the general
law, in the case of marriages which
take place after the passage of this
act. Great abuses are reported under
the present system. 1t frequently hap
pens that an adventures will marry
an inmate of a soldiers home-some-
times when he is so intoxicated as not
to realize what he is doing make
no pretense of living with him. But
on his death her certificate of marriage
is good for a pension from the United
| States government as long as she lives
and gives no public notice of marry
ing anybody else. 1t is clearly the in
tention of congress to correct this evil,
but it will not very much diminish
the pension expenditures. The same