The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1899-12-03

somewhere or other, and if the Beers
We're not wiped out by March it was
all the same, so far as money was con-
cerned.
The other night the Marquis of Lans-
downe, secretary of state for war, was
giving an address. He observed that
the accumulation of arms and ammuni-
ton by the Beers before war was de-
clared had made it necessary to in
crease the British garrison in South
Africa at an extra expense of s., goo 600,
and
Just then the speech was interrupted
by a voice from the audience shouting,
What does it natter
And that interjection tells the story.
The man who made ii spoke for the
! great middle class of the English peo-
ple-usually SO careful with their pen
MES. Where does all the money come
from? How is it spent? Although
the general public doesn't know and
merely says. What does it matter?" I
supposed government officials could an
swer the question for me in detail.
Oddly enough they couldn't Nobody
knows yet just where the actual cost is
TO come from, or how the whole of it is
being spent 1t isn't if the old war
chest We're in business yet.
The Ancient War Chest
Once upon a time there really was
!. war chest-an actual literal war chest.
Kings of England respected the de-
mands of that chest to a greater extent
than they were wont to respect the re-
quirements of a good many other de-
serving institutions. and all the gold
pieces that they felt they could spare
from their own pet enterprises they
dropped into il as a~hild puts pennies
in his little tin bank.
Government officials say when 1 ask
I,,1f els h. -
today hidden away in some burglar
proof vault, that no such thing now
exists; that in these days of blue books
and public reports that any one can
buy for a cent, there is no chance for
any such secret fund. Germany, how
ever. is popularity supposed to have a
strongly guarded war chest and So Il
is believed, has Italy and Austria In
deed, Robert Barr grouped a deal of the
plot in his novel, Jennie Baxter. Nov
elist," about the supposed lOoting of
the Austrian war chest.
OF course. England'S war chest had
for long time after its retirement. an
ante-tyQe in the shape of an imposing
war fund, but that was in its turn de-
mo.ished in 1892 by Pitt in his scheme
for the consolidated fund that Eng
land is drawing for her present occu-
patton of conducting a campaign in the
Transvaal. As for the consolidated
FUND. X Is nothing more or less than the
receipts of the government minus its
expenses, and il was William Pitt who
decided. instead of keeping track Of a
score of separate funds. to lump the
whole lot of them together and to al
low expenditure To be made only by
act of parliament.
The Treasury Chest Fund.
SO today there is only one reminder
of the ancient war chest, so coddled
by Britain's rulers, and that is an
entry on the books of the Bank Of
England. crediting her majestys gov
eminent with $3.50. 900, 10 be used Tor
foreign expenses. and known as the
treasury chest fund. This name Is an
echo of the olden days when every war
expedition that left England carried
with 1t a veritable chest packed with
gold pieces for the payment of the
army. and it is used simply for the
carrying on of enterprises usually of
q peaceful nature. in distant portions OF
Great Britain's domains. This treas
ury chest fund is always kept at the
came figure. For INSTANCE, upon the
representative Of her majesty's govern
Inent being advised of any needed i'm |
provement coming within his admins (.