Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1909-12-09

referred to. The great scope and
OF this work. as well as
the obligation to lend all proper aid
TO our expanding commerce.. is met by
the expansion OF the bureau of trade
relations as set forth in the estimates
for the department of state.
Government Expenditures and Reve-
nues.
Perhaps the most important question
presented TO this administration is that
of economy in expenditures and sU1i7
cheney of revenue. The delcit of the
last fiscal year. and the certain deficit
Of the current year, prompted congress
10 throw a greater responsibility on
the executive and the secretary of the
treasury than had heretofore been de-
clared by statute. This declaration
imposes upon the secretary of the
treasury the duty of assembling all the
estimates of the executive departments
bureaus. and Offices. of the expendi-
lures necessary in the ensuing fiscal
year, and of making an estimate of
the revenues of the government for
the same period; and II a probable
deficit is thus shown. 1t is made the
duty of the president to recommend
the method by which such deficit can
be met.
The report of the secretary shows
that the ordinary expenditures for the
current fiscal year ending June 80, 1910,
will exceed the estimated receipts by
$34.075. $40. If to this deficit is added
the sum to be disbursed for the PAN
anna Canal, amounting to $3S, 100000,
and $1,000, 600 to be paid on the public
debt. the deficit of ordinary receipts
and expenditures will be increased to
a total deficit of S73.075,620. This de-
felt the secretary proposes to meet by
the proceeds of bonds issued to pay
the cost of constructing the Panama
Canal. 1 approve this proposal.
The policy of paying for the con-
struction of the Panama Canal, not out
of current revenue, but by bond issues,
was adopted in the Spooner act of
1890, and there seems to be no good
reason for departing from the prin-
ciple by which a part at least of the
burden of the cost of the canal shall
fall upon our posterity who are to en-
JOY it.: and there Is all the more rea-
soH for this view because the actual
cost to date of the canal, which is now
half done and which will be completed
anuary /, 1915, shows that the cost of
engineering and construction will be
| $297,766.000, instead of $139, 705, 200, as
| originally estimated. In addition to
engineering and construction, the other
expenses, including sanitation and gov
eminent, and the amount paid for the
properties, the franchise, and the privl-
lege of building the canal, increase the
cost of $75, 435, 900, to a total of $375,-
POI 900. The increase in the cost of
engineering and construction Is due to
a substantial enlargement of the plan
of construction by widening the canal
100 feet in the Culebra cut and by in
creasing the dimensions of the locks,
to the underestimate of the quantity of
the work to be done under the orig
inal plan, and to an underestimate of
the cost of labor and materials, both of
which have greatly enhanced in price
since the original estimate was made,
In order to avoid a deficit for the
ensuing fiscal year, | directed the
heads of departments in the prepara-
ton of their estimates to make them
as low as possible consistent with inn
perative governmental necessity. The
result has been, as l am advised by the
secretary of the treasury, that the es-
Inmates for the expenses of the gov
eminent for the next fiscal year end
ing jun 80, 1911, are less than the APP
preparations for this current fiscal
year by $42, SIS, 900. So far as the sec
rotary of the treasury is able to form
a Judgment as to future income and
compare it with the expenditures for
the next fiscal year ending June 30,
1911, and excluding payments on &C
count of the Panama Canal. which will
doubtless be taken up by bonds, there
will be q surplus of $35,931 900.
II the present estimates the needs
of the departments and of the govern
ment have been cut to the quick, so tc
speak, and any assumption on the
part of congress-, so often made IT
times past, tina the estimates have
baaO npanorad with tho nYnnptotiOT
that they may be reduced, will result
in seriously hampering proper admin
istratinn.
To reduce the cost of permanent
administration, says the president, {
thorough reorganization of bureaus
offices and departments would be nee
essary. An expert accountant ha!
!, been making an investigation into thi'
matter and the result of his worl
shows opportunity for both substan
tial reductions in cost and increase o
3 efficiency.
! Frauds In the Collection Of Customs
t I regret to refer to the fact of the dis
covery Of extensive frauds in the collec
: ton of the customs revenue at New Yorl
: city, in which a number Of the subor
: dinate employees in the Weighing an
: other departments were directly con
I cerned, and in which the beneficiarte
were the American Sugar Refining Com
t pany and others. The fraudA consiste
0 in the payment of duty on underweight
Of sugar. The government has recovere
= from the American Sugar Refining Con
pany all that 1t is shown to have been de
frauded of. The sum was received in fu
Of the amount due, which might hav
been recovered by civil suit against tn
beneficiary Of the fraud, but there wa
an express reservation In the contract c
settlement by which the settlement shout
. not interfere with, or prevent the Grim
: inal prosecution of everyone who wa
. found to be subject to the same.
Il Criminal prosecutions are now proceed
g ing against a number of the governmer
8 officers. The treasury department and tn
department of Justice are exerting ever
i effort to discover all the wrongdoers, II
GLIDING the officers and employees of tn
companies who may have been privy I
the fraud. It would seem to me that a
investigation of the frauds by congress
present, pending the probing by the trea'
n ury department and the department
justice, as proposed, might by giving in
l. munity and otherwise prove an emba'
rassment in securing conviction of IL
guilty parties.
q Maximum and Minimum Clause
n Tariff Act.
r Two features of the new tariff act ca
I. for special reference. BY virtue OF IL
: clause known as the maximum inc mil
i imum'' clause, 1t is the duty of the exc
utive to consider the avs and practices
% Of other countries with reference to II
n Importation into those countries of II
u products and merchandise of the Unite
% States, and II the executive finds sue
n laws and practices not to be unduly di
Is criminatory against the United States, tt
% minimum duties provided in the bill al
l. to go into force. Unless the presidel
t makes such a finding, then the maximu
70 duties provided in the bill, that is, an II
y crease Of rs per cent. ad valorem over Il