The Houston daily post. [volume] (Houston, Tex.) 1886-1903, 1901-04-06
COSTUMES OF "woRLp.PowER" AMBITION.

The well-known Washington correspondent Mr..
William H. Curtis. in special to the RecordHerald of
Chicago, shows very conclusvey by startling array
of figures that If to become world power the
taxpayers of America prepare their backs for bur
dens that will well nigh bend them to the earth.
1t costs money to become a world power" says Mr..
Curtis He then proceeds to point out that the expen
dures of the of the United States for the
current year before exceeded except in
lSG34-5 during the civil war The greatest expendi-
lures of any year in the history OF the country
S1.297 1924 IN 1866 in 1864 the total $S65322-
GA in 1863 It was s71474O725, and then 1901
with total Of s71O,150S62, which will be exceeded by
nearly twenty millions in 1902 the appropriations
the last session of amounted to the enormous
sum of s729911 $50, and IL Senator Carter had not
beaten the rivers and harbors bill they would have
reached nearly $S000OO0 900.
This Washington correspondent fails, however to
emphasize the that the rivers and harbors bill was
matter of vital Importance to the commercial inter.
ests of the whole Nation and sacrificed because
ON military expenditures SO great that the adj
mnstration shrank from adding the appropriations
mercia facilities Mtarism, in a word, was preferred
to material and business development.
the theory upon which the imperiasts have been
urging our foreign conquess is that such expansion
tcrritorially would quicken commerce. but we dis
cover at the very beginning of the new policy that
commerce, anu lne improvements that WORK to It's
panson, must be sacrificed in order to enable us to
meet the increased cost of tho military and naval es-
Establishments required to the territorial expan
sion
For years past, too. public improvements have had
to wait upon the outrageous provision first for pen
sons, and il Is one of tho consequences becoming
'worldpower" and maintaining large army and
navy that the pension rolls shall continue to grow with
alarming rapidity
The per capita cost of National government to our
people is now about $40 per annum as against less
than So about twenty years ago The Post has more
than once pointed out that this per capita is paid too
by every citizen of the country 1t may not be felt
owing to its indirect manner of collection through the
tariff but 1t is paid Notwithstanding by every man or
woman or child who purchases manufactured goods of
any description.
This Is great and very rich country and CAPABLE
OF carrying heavy load of taxation but do the people
want to see all the resources of the government de-
voted to the fighting arm of the Nation while govern
ment assistance to the material and commercial in
forests is withheld? Are ready to pour out all OF
ana allow Internal development to lag for the ouos
tionabe glory of subjectng weak and half civilized
peoples to our rule?
II the Nation wants retrenChmcnt and reform and
desires to see its tax money used for the good of the
people will have to assert it's manhood next year and
choose congress that will entirely reverse the pres
ont order and rocklessness of expenditures