Northern Wisconsin advertiser. [volume] (Wabeno, Wis.) 1898-1925, 1904-11-10
PARKER SEEMS IN NO WISE TO
HAVE ovERsTATED FACTS.
!ATKlNSON'S STATISTICS
Intimatlon That Three Members of the
Cabinet Have Made Misleading
Ststements-vast Taxes Collected
and Expended Since Close of the
Spanish War.
BY Edward Atkinson.

of credence which have since been
pronounced incorrect; and since
have been charged by cabinet officer
with compiling them for the purpose
of misleading the public, it is fit for
me now to submit absolute proofs
that this charge is false and that the
figures which Judge Parker cited are
true, and that they are symbols of
facts.
In the years 1902, 1903 and 1904
have published analyses of the official
reports of the government in minute
detail,-the two first under the title
Of the cost of war and warfare are to
be found in nearly every public IL
brary, the third presented to the
senate and ordered to be printed as a
public document. The figures were
copied from the official reports year
by year, in the last report for twenty
600 years before the Spanish war and
eight 80 years of war and warfare
10 June Goth of the present year.
omitted items which did not belong
TO the current expenditures of the gov
ernmen,-premiums on bonds pur-
chased, refund of direct taxes, bounties
to sugar planters, the purchase of the
Panama Canal, and did not include as
asserted by Secretary Shaw the gross
postal expenditures; the postal de-
flciency is included in the treasury re-
port and by me under the head of
Civil Expenditures.
| In the first of these reports | point
ed out that in five years of war and
warfare the expenditures had exceeded
the normal rate of the previous 20
years by $700,000,000. In the second
report, October 1908, l proved that to
/ December of that year they would
have exceeded the normal rate by
900,000,000, the sum that l had pre-
dicted would be the cost in the So
called seditious pamphlets published
at the beginning of the criminal ag-
gression upon the Philippine islands
which were taken from the United
States mail without authority of law,
thus giving them an immense circula-
ton.
| In July, 1904, | again extended the
computation from official statements
of expenditures aid appropriations to
the end of the pres ent fiscal year,
June 30tA, 1905, proving by transcript
of the Official figures that the expendi-
lures on war and warfare in excess
of the normal rate for the previous
90 years, with the exclusion of every
extraneous or non-recurrent item,
would be 1880 100000, and such are
the figures and facts derived from the
official statements which give a true
account of the expenditures under the
respective headings of civil service,
army, navy, interest and pensions. 1t
, is not an absolutely true account, be-
cause the present system of book
| keeping is out of date and should be
reformed. Large expenditures for
pnblic buildings that have no connec
/ ton with the military service are list
, cd under that title; the cost of the
lighthouse service and l believe of
! the fish commission are listed under
the head of naval service. 1t would
! he necessary for any one who had the
/ time and purpose of making an exac,
statement under the proper heads of
all the expenditures of the United
States to take the reports of all the de-
partments, combine them, open a new
ledger and post every item where it
belongs. Until the system of govern
rient bookkeeping is made as clear and
as perfect as the system of government
accounting is. the public will have no
exact knowledge of what their taxes
are spent for.
1t was my last compilation of the
official figures which was quoted by
Judge Parker with approval. 1t has
been denounced by senator's as silly;
by newspapers as an example of statis-
teal lying; by three members of the
cabinet as incorrect and misleading.
If these charges are true 1t is the
treasury accounts that are silly"
the Statistical lies" have been COM
mitted by the accounting clerks of the
treasury; the incorrect statements"
have been made by the secretary of
the treasury and the secretary of war
and the misleading statement has
teen made by the secretary of state if
their speeches have been correctly re-
rorted.
There is no error in my transcript
tions Of the official figures in the ad-
EDITIONS, suStractiols or divisions; they
have all been proved by double entry.
There is no error in the comparison OF
the sevral charges to each department
lof the government, and there is no
error in the final arithmetical concur
sion. The figures prove an excess of
Expenditure computed per head of the
population by comparison of the last
leight years with the previous 10 years.
or the previous 90 years, amounting
June S0th. 1905. to the sum of
Is 500 zoo, 5000 or more.
Secretary Shaw was in error when
: said that had included $500, oo0, 600