The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-05-14

but the proportion of silver is increas-
ing, and the next consignment will in
clude quite a lot of niekels. These last,
of course, are very heavy for the value
represented, $1,000 worth of them weigh
ing 22O pounds
The boxes in which the money is
packed are of white pine an inch thick,
and are put together with screws,
which are counteIsunk and further Sc
cured, each one of them with aseal.
On the top is written the name of the
paymaster who is to have charge of
the cash, with the words Manila T.
t. The boxes, with their precious con-
tents, are loaded upon a wagon that is
like a huge safe on wheels, and, guard
ed by the soldiers, are conveyed to the
transport in waiting. The steamship,
as is ordinarily the case with passenger
vessels of her class, has on board So
called specie ROOM" which is a steel
burglar-proof vault. In this place of
security the money is deposited, to be
removed only on reaching Manila.
When the steamship arrives at Ma
uila the pay officer in charge sees to it
that every box of money taken out
of the specie room is intact, with seals
undisturbed. Under guard by a file of
soldiers they are carried ashore and are
handed over to the senior paymaster al
Manila, Who verfies their contents and
required this chief cstodian of the
fine funds doles them out to the sub
ordinate paymasters, who distribute
them among the troops Pay day comes
once every two months in the Philip
pines.
Each paymaster is assigned to pay
certain troops, and if the latter happen
to be in the field he must follow them
and set UP the pay table" in camp,
under the shelter of a tent. Maybe the
| pay table is an empty key; it matters
not. The money is carried along in a
small field safe which is a portal BILE
| steel box. Waiting their turns in line
the soldiers receive what is due them
according as their names appear on the
muster-roll at the pay officers elbow.
Volunteer officers must come to the
pay table like the men to get their
| wages, but officers of the regular army
| get their remuneration in a more dig
| fed shape presenting receipts in the
shape of blank vouchers filled in.
OF course the pay of the army is only
a small part of the cost of our eXped1-
tionary force in the far-away archi-
pelago. The soldiers must be fed, and
a careful calculation from figures furn-
ished by the commissary department
of the army shows that each day the
forces in the Philippines consume 30,
| 900 pounds of meat, 81 500 pounds OF
-
beans, for which may be substituted
under the regulations, rice or hom1ny
Add to these $4,000 pounds of Vege-
tables $500 pounds of coffee. 41S(
| pounds of sugar, $50 gallons of vine
gar, 1,120 pounds of soap and you have
an approximate statement of the prov
ender consumed cash twentyfour hours
| by our troops in the East.
1t is practically impossible to state the
cost represented by these various items
because it is split up among so many
contracts. However, one can say tina
the expense of feeding one soldier FOL
one day is about 20 cents. Reckoning
it at this rate, the total is easily cal
culated. There are now in the Philip
pines $4,000 American soldiers and of
ficers. The officers number about $50
which estimate leaves 27,150 men to b.
fed. Their rations, at 20 cents a day
would come to $5,430 per diem, or $162.
900 a month
These remarks are not intended a.
an argument against expansion, bu
; merely to show that Uncle Sam is nav
; ing pretty heavily for the luxury of ac
curing foreign territory. The items O
, pay and ratiOns, of course, repres IN
not nearly the whole of the expendi
ture involved There are many thou