The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-05-27
REPUBS DESPERATE
THEY HAVE SPENT MONEY IN THIS
 CONGRESS LIKE WATER.
All Records smashed-People saddled with Enormous Permanent Tax Burden and Heavy Dehcit-
 Popular Will Dehed.

Washington Special to Philadelphia
 Record.
 Having made a record of extrava- Eance unmatched in American history the first session of the Sixtieth Con xress will end in a few days, and sem ators and members will hasten to their States and constituents to make ready for the fall campaign. The Repuoh- cans will go home full of fears ana misgivings, the Democrats aggressive and hopeful.
 The Republicans know the record they have made in Congress this ses- sion is one of the most discredttable in the history of the party. They have done those things they should have not done and they have left undone thonse things they should have done' They have recklessly and shamelessly swelled the fixed annual burden or the people by increases in appropriations all along the line They have addeo some S17,000,000 to the already enor- nous pension charge, swelling the to. tai to S163, 3,0o0, 900. They have put about 4,200 new names on the pension rolls by special bills, rushed through Congress by the hundred at time. They have given increased pay to the officers and enlisted men of the army. navy and marine corps and to the offi- eers and employees of the revenue cut ter and life saving services. They have increased the salaries of various gov ernment officials and they have created new oflces with fat pay attached. All these additional charges on the Treasury are permanent, or will extend far into the future. as in the cases of pensioners, whose monthly allowances have been increased or whose names have been added to the rolls by means of special bills. And all these addt- tions to the permanent annual tax bur- den of the people have been made in the face of falling revenues that are | rapidly creating an alarming deficit in l the Treasury and at a time when the general business of the country is | suffering a serious repression and hun dreds of thousands of workmen are idle and appealing to charity organiza- | tions for the necessaries of life for 1 themselves and families.
 Private business men in ali branches of trade and industry have been taking in sail and trying to adjust their outgo | to their incomes. But the Republicans ! in Congress have reckl lessly taken the opposite tack and swelled the expenses | of the government at a time when the receipts were steadily falling. Some of l the leaders have preached economy, but none of them has sought earnestly to practice it. They fought valiantly against and negatived the Presidents urgent demand for four new battle ships, thereby savlng about $16.O0o. 900. | Then they turned 4round and passed an omnibus Public Building bill that will | in its final form call for the expendi- ture of nearly s30. 100000 It Is an election year. and new public buildings In close Congressional districts are cal culated to win votes. while battleships are out on the high seas, and are not likely to make any direct appeal to | the voters.
 Foot Up a Total of S1,O2S, 1000, ,OOO.
 Altogether the total of appropria-
 tions for the sessions will break all
 records. The final figures are not yet obtainabie in detail, but they will run
 over a billion dollars. Time was. 1y
 years ago. when the Congress that
 spent a billion dollars was a national
 scandal. Now a single session of Con-
 gress has accomplished that stupendous
 feat of reckless extravagance. and the
 short, session of the Sixtieth Congress will hardly be able to scale the appro- priations to a smaller figure, for the reason that this session has no fixed things that the increases will be per- | manent.