The San Francisco call., 1906-06-07
THE GOVERNMENT PROFIT.

We have heard IN a variety of ways OF the ap-
preparation Of two and a half millions for San
Francisco sufferers made by Congress. We have
also noted the varied and stormy fortunes of other
relief measures in Congress, such paying Cali
fornia her long overdue per cent and war claims,
neither of which viii be paid for the reason that the
emergency appropriation Of two and half millions
looms large in the way Of paying debts long due.
We have not heard anything, however, about
the profit made by the Government in the San
Francisco fire Yet the only profit made out of it
was by the Government, and it far exceeds the
emergency appropriation. In beer, liquor and to-
bacco stamps and liquor and tobacco licenses the
Government has made an enormous sum- The
liquor beer and tobacco stamps sold to dealers,
unused and destroyed by the fire reach enormous
sum. If the property they were to cover is still
intact, its owners must spend enormous sum to
replace the burned stamps before they allowed
To put it nteImarket The dealers whose licenses
were burned must buy new permits before they
can resume business and begin the repair of their
shattered fortunes Then very large sum in green
backs was destroyed, thus relieving the Govern
ment of responsibility for their gold redemption.
Another enormous sum IN silver dollars melted
into bullion, again relieving the Government of the
redemption Of the coin, and leaving to the owner
only the bullion value of the metal provided he can
find it in the ruins. In these various ways it is
closely estimated that the Government made profit
Of four millions in the San Francisco fire. 1t has
made small profits in other thrifty ways The mail
contractors were fined for not carrying the mails
through blazing streets and over impossible ruins
during and Immediately after the fire.
The subordinates of the Internal Revenue Col
lector were kept on duty guarding the Government
bonded warehouses, many of them working day and
night without food or even sufficient water to drink
One of them, old Grand Army man, who fought
four years for the Union under orders was guarding
a Government bonded warehouse which had been
saved from burning mainly by his eXertions when
the soldiers came to clear the street. He explained
his duty and exhibited his authority and for answer
was knocked Senseless with the butt of musket
by a soldier. The injury may cost him his life.
Now he and has official colleagues get their reward
and the Government thriftily makes a profit by
ordering all their pay stopped from the 18th of
April until the lst of May
The Internal Revenue Collector who ordered
their hard service and is grateful for it is poweress
to get justice for them They could have saved
much in their homes, now burned, by putting their
personal interests above their official duty and dis
cipline. But they stood by the Government and it
snatches from them thirteen days pay as a reward
and acknowledgment of their service, They and
the fined mail contractors and the old Grand Army
man who is at the expense. of medical and surgical
treatment of the side of his head broken by a
musket-stock because he Obeyed orders and stayed
by his duty and his trust, all have left to them what
pleasures Of memory there may be in remembering
that the Government accepted their hard and dan
gerous service and refused them pay at time
when most Of their homes in ashes and their
families were being fed in the bread line The
private employer who would do these things would
be execrated the meanest of men But the
Government is a pulseless and unfeeling entity,
with no human attributes and cannot even blush
Out Of its profits it still has handsome balance
over and above its emergency appropriation and it
Is proper and in order for all to rejoice that
when everybody lost it gained out of pitless mis-
fortune that wrecked the lives of thousands
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