River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1909-12-09


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 suffi-
cheney of revenue. The deficit of the
last fiscal year, and the certain deficit
of the current year, prompted congress
to 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 if probable
deficit is thus shown, it 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 go. If to this deficit is added
the sum to be disbursed for the Pan
anna Canal, amounting to $4,000, 900,
and $1,000,000 to be paid on the public
debt, the deficit of ordinary receipts
and expenditures will be increased to
total deficit of $73,075,620. This de-
felt the secretary proposes to meet by
the proceeds of bonds issued to pay
the cost Of constructing the Panama
Canal. / 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-
son 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
$297766,000, 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 privi-
lege Of building the canal, increase the
cost of SIS, 49, 600, to q total of $685.
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 i'm
peratiVe governmental necessity. The
result has been, as / am advised by the
secretary of the treasury, that the es-
Inmates for the expenses of the gov
ernnSent for the next fiscal year end
ing June 80, 1911 are less than the ap-
propriatio for this current fiscal
year by 42,S18,000. SO far as the sec
rotary of the treasury is able to form
q judgment as to future income and
compare it with the expenditures for
the next fiscal year ending June 80,
1911, and excluding payments on &C
count of the Panama Canal, which will
doubtless be taken up by bonds there
will be a surplus of $35 931 900.
In the present estimates the needs
of the departments and of the govern
ment have been cut to the quick, so to
speak, and any assumption on the
part of congress, so often made in
times past, that the estimates have
been prepared with the expectation
that they may be reduced, will result
in seriously hampering proper admin
istration.
To reduce the cost of permanent
administration, says the president, a
thorough reorganization of bureaus,
Offices and departments would be nee
essary. An expert accountant has
been making an investigation into this
matter and the result of his work
shows opportunity for both substan-
tial reductions in cost and increase of
efficiency.
Frauds in the Collection of Customs.
I regret to refer to the fact of the dis
covery of extensive frauds in the collec-
ton of the customs revenue at New York
city, in which a number of the subor-
dinate employees in the weighing and
other departments were directly con-
cerned, and in which the beneficiaries
were the American Sugar Refining Com
pany and others. The frauds consisted
in the payment of duty on underweights
of sugar. The government has recovered
from the American Sugar Refining Com
pany all that it is shown to have been de-
frauded of. The sum was received in full
of the amount due, which might have
been recovered by civil suit against the
beneficiary of the fraud, but there was
an express reservation in the contract of
settlement by which the settlement should
not interfere with, or prevent the GRIM
inal prosecution of everyone who was
found to be subject to the same.
Criminal prosecutions are now proceed
ing against a number of the government
officers. The treasury department and the
department of justice are exerting every
effort to discover all the wrongdoers in
Guiding the officers and employees of the
companies who may have been privy to
the fraud 1t would seem to me that an
investigation of the frauds by congress at
present, pending the probing by the treas
ury department and the department of
Justice, as proposed might by giving inn
munity and otherwise prove an embar-
rassment in securing conviction of the
guilty parties.
Maximum and Minimum Clause in
Tariff Act.
Two features of the new tariff act call
for special reference. BY virtue of the
clause known as the maximum and min
imum' clause it is the duty of the exec
utive to consider the laws and practices
of other countries with reference to the
importation into those countries of the
products and merchandise of the United
States and if the executive finds such
laws and practices not to be unduly dis
criminatory against the United States, the
minimum duties provided in the bill are
to go into force Unless the president
makes such finding, then the maximum
duties provided in the bill, that is, an in
crease of Is per cent ad valorem over the