Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1904-04-14
ONE CENT APPROPRIATION.
Incident Which Shows the Govern
me@t's WatchfulnesS Over the
Little Things.

One item in the urgent deficiency bill
which has neither been reduced by the
economists of the house nor increased by
the more liberal senators is found on the
seventeenth line of page so in the
printed bill: For contingent, bureau
Of medicine and surgery, one cent"
Only the bare statement is there con
tanned, but a search of the records re-
veals the history of this item, one of the
smallest, beyond doubt, to which a para
graph of a public bill was ever devoted,
says the New York Post. In May, of 1901,
the Southern Pacific railroad carried
some goods by freight for the bureau
presided over by the surgeon-general.
For this is charged $500. AS it was a
bond-aided road, however, its relations
with the government were such that it
was not entitled to cash payment. Only
a fraction Of one per cent. of the bills
of such a road are paid in cash, the re-
mainder being credited to its account in
the treasury. 1t so happened that in this
case the credit was 1928 and the cash
one cent. Together with a number of
other freight bills of various bureaus ag-
gregating several thousand dollars, the
account passed the auditor for the navy
department. On the discovery that
there were no contingent funds avail
able from which the cash payment could
be made, the secretary of the treasury
transmitted the separate items to the
house of representatives among his es-
.imates.
Curiously enough, another govern
ment obligation of a single cent
has also recently passed through
the hands of the auditor of the
navy department. The course which
it followed shows anew that the
government is just as careful when its
transactions are on the scale of the
small boy in a candy store as when it is
buying canal zones. On April l, 1903,
Pay Director I. G. Hobbs made arequisi-
ton for a large quantity of ethyl ether, to
be used in the manufacture of smoke
less powder. A chemical company of
Hoboken, for reasons which do not ap-
pear in the papers, made a %singularly
generous offer Of 1882 pounds for one
Hobbs solemnly made this entry: 81
certify that after public competition
purchased the above article at the prices
above charged, amounting in all to one
cent" To this transaction the paymas-
ter general gave his approval by fixing
his signature. An officer of the navy
certified in turn that he inspected the
ether and found it to conform with the
specifications. The general storekeeper
at Newport signed his name to a certifi-
ate thatothe ether was received. The
commandant of the naval station ap-
proved this by signing his name. Ad-
miral O'Neil, chief of the bureau of ord
nance, wrote his name across the papers,
thus adding his assurance that the gov
eminent was not being cheated. In all
there were nine signatures on the papers
relating merely to the establishment OF
the claim. These included the signs
manual of two bureau chiefs, n of them
a rear admiral. ;,
The paper, which finally reaches the
treasurer's office, where the warrant for
payment is drawn, bears merely the
full signature of the deputy auditor ant
five sets Of initials, those of the clerks
the claim was successfully audited by
revised by" entered BY" "sched-
uled by and "indexed by" What such
a miniature autograph album costs the
government would be an interesting cal
eulation.
President Cleveland, a few days after
he turned his office over to his successor
received a warrant for one cent. The
president is paid - times a year, his
monthly salary being $4,166.66 2-3. Tc
bring etotal out even, hiswarrant, after
the decimal point, is sometimes made
out for &c and sometimes CT cents. Or
the final month of Mr.. Cleveland's term
he should have had the odd cent, but il
the desire to get the account settled
promptly, the treasury department made
out a warrant for the same sum as the
previous month. Thus, out of the 5000.
600 to which the president is entitled dur.
ing his term, one cent was left in the
treasury, and to square the account hat
to be sent to him On a special warrant
1t is said that he never cashed it, but
retained 1t as a curiosity.