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

great government services q. sum in the
neighborhood of $125, 600, 900 is allotted
annually, that is, for ordinary MAIN
tenance, but the coming war with
the Beers was of course Immediately
followed by a parliamentary grant of
S5O,000,000 to be spent in crushing the
. rebellion. exactly what the United
States congress voted to fight Spain.
l was informed by high govern
ment official that the present sum
voted by parliament was regarded as
little more than a flea bite. and IS OK
pected TO last until the 31st of March.
by which time they hope that the war
will have been fought and won by
Great Britain. He stated that the last
Boer war cost England just $25- 600. 900.
This one will cost more" he said.
because we are trusting TO do the
work little better
The Cost of the Present War.
'Of course you know" he went on.
how the present appropriation from
the consolidated fund is to be re-
claimed According To a statement of
the chancellor of the eXcheQuer, the
excess in the receipts of the govern
ment over the anticipated expenses as
shown in the last budget will supply
$15.000.000 out of the fifty-five which
have been appropriated, and the other
$40, geo, 600 win be accumulated by the
negotiations Of small loans. However.
this war is only d petty affair. In the
event OF 4 great war. 'the $50. 600 600
which England devotes annually to
the payment OF the interest on her
national debt would be left unpaid. and
a new debt contracted the amount of
which would be equal TO that upon
which S30,oO0.000 would pay the annual
interest"
What. then. has been the cost of the
present war up to date?''
Nobody knows. No one VIII know,
either, until the spring of i90i-that is.
accurately. Not until that time will
it be possible to gather together the
disbursements OF each of the multitude
of different departments. Now you
might be able TO guess at the amount
of each one of those. but the sum total
is matter for the future alone"
Sir Michael Hicks-Beach. the man
who is paying for this war-just as the
Marquis of LansGoWne is the man who
is running it and the Hon. Joseph
Chamberlain the man who caused it's
the least known of any important pub
lie official in England. He is retiring
by disposition. never submits TO an in
terview, has not been photographed for
twenty years and his only well known
characteristic is a tendency to wear
Yretchedly cut clothes. While parlia-
ltlELl Is SllNIuS- 1T md. III Ills UlAtt
in the treasury building in Whitehall
twice week: when parliament is not
in session he is seldom there at all. but
either at his London house or his coun-
try place. Netherhaven house. in Sails
bury, where he manages to keen two
alert private secretaries fearfully busy
and mas another stationed at the treas
ury to have an eye on things there On
the rare occasions when he honors the
big building in Whitehall with a visit.
he drives down in his carriage and
makes a bee line for his Office, which
is known as the board room. so that
out of the 100 clerks that add. subtract |
multiply and divide in this ungainiy
granite bee hive. probably not more
than ten or twenty ever have seen the
chancellor of the exchequer Two of
these favored few are. OF course. the
treasury messengers, who are con-
stantly kept on the trot between the
government bookkeepers and financiers
and their chief, wherever he may be.
with al kinds of documents for his
or questions for his decision I
His office OF chancellor of theexche- I
quer corresponds almost exactly to that
Of secretary of the treasury in the
United States.
Arthur Balfour is. OF course. the first !
Of the five lords of the treasury with a /