The Delawarean., 1900-06-30
RECKONING
DAY IS COMING
The People are Now Counting Tie
Cost of the
LATE BILLION DOLLAR CONGRESS-
Extravaganza Without Limit as a
Result of the ImperiaIistic Policy
Pursued by tho Administration


Pursued by tho Administration
Among the last lingering echoes of
the Republican National Convention
were the boasts of Senator Foraker
and other orators over the Economy
of the Mckinley Administration. 1t
might have been assumed that upon
this point at least the Republican poli-
ticians would observe a becoming sill
ence in presence of all the evidences Of
waste and extravaganza. In the com
parison there is not former Admins
tration since the formation of this
Government that would not be distin-
guished for its wise economy in ex-
penditure.
The appropriations for the next fiscal
year amount in round figures to the
enormous sum of $7100OO.00O. This is
for the mere ordinary expenditures of
the Government, and does not include
the Nicaragua Canal, with a cost of
$40 100000, and the Steamship Sub
sidy bill,with an expenditure of So. .OOO.- :
600 annually for ten years to come.
Nor does it include the cost of the new
battleships, amounting to $56.000, 900:
nor the cost of river and harbor i'm
provements and of public buildings for
which the appropriation has been post
poned to next session. All this DELAYED
appropriation belonging to the Admin
lstration programme would have swol-
len the expenditure to a billion dollars
or more But what is actually appro-
priated reveals an extravaganza far ex-
ceeding that Of the notorious Billion
Dollar Congress.
Coming to details. there is scarcely
a department of administration that is
not implicated in reckless and wasteful
expenditure of public money. whether
that of American people or of the i'm
poverished Cubans. Hardly have the
postal scandals in Cuba subsidcd than
is discovered a hideous job in the edu-
cational department of the island. COW
sring numerous high salaries for sll-
pernumerary professors in the College
of Havana On the heels of this comes
the account of the scandalous bestowal
of fat sinecures upon Administration
favlrites in the Paris Exposition. In
order to fasten politicians ont of a job
upon the public Treasury, commission
after commission has been created for
the performance of services for which
the regular officials of the Government
are amply paid.
Of the purchase of steamships ait ex-
travagant prices for the Government
by politicians having a 'pull' and of
the wasteful refitting of these trans
ports the scandalous story is not vet
half told. The latest is the conver-
sion of the yacht Mayf1ower as float
ing palace for Charles H. Allen. the
carpetbag satrap of Porto Rico. The
New York Herald of Sunday gives an
elaborate description of the exquisite
rosewood furniture of antique design.
the woodwork of the staterooms finish
ed in white and gold: the canopy bed
with its crimson satin damask: the
luxurious Assyrian rugs and carpets.
and the library with its 1000 volumes
in expensive bindings. In keeping
with this are all the rest of the furn-
ishings-the French cut glass. The
china and Dresden porcelain and the
baths of an imperial Yacht
which Heliogabalus might have enyied
All this, too, for a plain Massachusetts
paper manufacturer and politician.
But whilst simple Republican might
disdain such ostentation and luxury il
was doubtless deemed expedient to i'm
press the native subjects of Porto Rico
with the magnif1cence of the Govern
ment to which they have become an
nexed.
The American people have been pa
tient and long suffering under burdens
of needless taxation, but the murmurs
that have at last risen on all sides bode
no good for the Republican politicians
who have inaugurated system of ex-
and waste which bears
with oppressive weight on the toiling
masses. What the workers in the mines
and mills and fields are obliged to nav
in indirect taxes for the support of
such system deprives them and their
families inevitably of many of the com
forts and even necessaries of decent
living. But after the carnival of ex-
travagance comes the sober second {
thought. Thousands of the American {
people who have followed the Admin s
stration and sustained 1T up to a GER
lain point are now convinced of the
necessity of returning to the mainte-
lance of the Democratic institutions of /