The Dalles daily chronicle. [volume] (The Dalles, Or.) 1890-1948, 1897-12-23
A SURPLUS, NOT a DEFICIT

The New York Tribune says:
Hereafter the secretary of war shall
annually submit estimates in detail
for river and harbor improvements
required for the ensuing fiscal year to
the secretary of the treasury, to be
included in and carried into the sum
total of the book of estimates.
This quotation from the last Sun
dry Civil Appropriation bill, as it
became law and stands upon the
statute books, explains the apparent
prospect of deficit IN the fiscal year
which Is to begin on July 1, 1898.
A good deal of distress has been
manifested in certain quarters over
The figures of the report of the Sec
retary of the treasury, which indicate
a deficit in the next fiscal year. The.
people lndulging in this distress will
perhaps be gratified to know that the
deficit is only apparent, and that the
figures, which considered in the light
of the paragraph cited, warrant the
assertion that the next fiscal year
will show a surplus of $3O,000,000
instead of deficit of $21 100000.
The explanation of this apparent def
cit is found in a single line on page
II of the secretary's report. 1t is
as follows: "Publlc works, war de-
partment, $65, 400, ,4O9.81."
The above is the formal ''estlmate"
for river and harbor Improvements
in the fiscal year in question, now re
quired to be inserted in the annual
estimates sent to congress by the
secretary of the treasury. Prior to
the adoption of this new requirement
the secretary of war made his csti-
mates of the amount required for the
river and harbor Improvement on the
judgment of the chief of engineers.
Now he is obliged to insert in the
annual estimates every dollar that
any and every subordinate officer in
charge of the various improvements
the country over may choose to
name as the amount that can be
'proftably expended" during the
coming fiscal year.
Everybody familiar with the re-
ports of officers in charge of river
and harbor works knows that it is
their habit to recommend the appro.
priation of large sums, usually two
or three times as much as is expect
ed to be obtained. It has also been
the habit of the war department fol
many years to reduce to about one.
third of their dimensions the esti
mates made by these subordinate
officers.
An example of this may be found
in the total estimates for river and
harbor works sent to congress in De-
cember, 1891, to cover the expendi-
lures of the fiscal year 1898, for
which the secretary recommended an
appropriation cf S1I3,2OS,3O3. On
the very same page began a lengthy
table which gave the detailed esti.
mates presented for the varlou:
rivers and harbors, the total of these
figures $52, ,489,95O. That table wa!
preceded by the following note:
River and harbor, showing thu
amount that can be profitably ex
pended in the next fiscal year. Th'
following statement is not furnished
as part of the annual estimates fo
the public service required by th'
act Of March 3, 1875, to be present
ed by the secretary of war 20 tn,
secretary of the treasury, but Is in
serted as a convenient and custom
ary summary of items...ta fror
the annual report of the chief of en-
gineers for the fiscal year 1901, show
-ng, under the provision of the act G
congress, approved March 2, 1885,
4Ina .onoourt that oans ha Y1rofi 70 HI