Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1909-12-15

4
United States In the sense of the stat
complexity of this work, as well al
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 Reeve
nues.
Perhaps the most important question
presented to this administration is that
of economy in expenditures and sufi-
cheney of revenue. The deficit of the
last fiscal year. and the certain deficit
of the current year, prompted congress
to throw 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. 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
34075. $50. If to this deficit is added
the sum to be disbursed for the Pan
ANA Canal, amounting to $3S, 900. 600.
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 s73,075620. This de-
felt the secretary proposes to meet by
the proceeds of bonds issued to pay
Canal. I 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 I, 1915, shows that the cost of
engineering and construction will be
$297,766, 600, instead of $139. 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. 900, to a total of $375,-
| 100000. 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
| Uuhf 81 no f1xy hon In, yNrfN
| since the original estimIhate was made.
| In order to avoid a deficit for the
| ensuing fiscal year. I 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 I am advised by the
| secretary Of the treasury, that the es-
| Inmates for the expenses of the gov
| eminent for the next fiscal We end
| ing June 80, 1911, are less than p
| propriations for this current fiscal
year by s42.S1S.000. 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 80.
1911. and excluding payments on &C &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, q
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
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 ant
other departments were directly con
cerned and in which the beneficiarfe
were the American Sugar Refining Com
pany and others. The frauds CONSISTED
in the payment of duty on underweight
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 hav
been recovered by civil suit against tn
beneficiary of the fraud, but there wa
an express reservation in the contract O
settlement by which the settlement Shout
, | not interfere with. or prevent the Grim
nal prosecution Of everyone who wa
found to be subject to the same.
Criminal prosecutions are now proceed
| fv,c 1hor Of 10 OF or
} officers. The treasury department and tn
, | department of justice are exerting ever
effort to discover all the wrongdoers, In
Guiding the officers and employees of tn
= companies who may have been privy
the fraud. 1t would seem to me that a
investigation of the frauds by congress g
present, pending the probing by the treas
a ury department and the department {
justice. proposed. might by giving In
munity and otherwise prove an embal
+ rassment in securing conviction of ii
: guilty parties.