Daily capital journal. (Salem, Oregon) 1903-1919, 1910-01-07

are devoted to a record of kilograms
/ received or sent at government ex-
pense. The statesmen have the
right to charge to Uncle Sam the
cost of telegraphing about official
| business, but they must acquaint the
secretary with the name of the per-
son to whom a telegram is sent, the
town and the price.
In the payrolls there appear
many employees whose names are
similar to those of senators. IL
this similarity indicates kinship 1t
appears that at least one-third Of
the senators have provided for rela-
! tives on the payroll. One of the
senators has three members of the
| family at the trough.
A year of the senate, counting
salaries and all expenses, cost the
government $1,S26, ,452.SS.
! Government expense accounts are
funny things.
Why should it cost a clerk in the
! Interior Department five times as
much to go to a certain point in the
state of Washington as it does for
the secretary, his superior officer, to
make trip ''to Honolulu and GER
tain western points?"
Why should it cost the Commits
sioner of the General Land Office
only one-half what it cost the clerk
that accompanied him on the same
trip?
Why should it cost a man in the
Interior Department seven or eight
times as much to take a trip down
to Alabama, Mississippi and Florida,
as it does for an employe of the
post-office department to go to Spo-
kane, Portland and San Francisco?
Why is it that a very large pro-
portion of the big travel items thai
are turned in by government em-
ployes seem to be for trips to the
south in winter and to the north in
the summer time?
According to the accounts of the
postmaster general, secretary of the
interior and the interstate commerce
commission, submitted to congress
for its approval, one of the clerks in
the General Land Office turned in
bill for $5,747.S5 on account of o
trip to the state of Washington to
examine surveys in the diminished
Colville Indian reservation, Wash
ington." If the reservation had not
been diminished by the Indians care
lessly giving away or selling their
land, this clerks expense account
would possibly have been some larg-
er. In July, 1908, Secretary Gar
field took a trip to the Sandwich Is
lands and various points in western
states and spent only $1,087, or
much less than one-fifth of what 1t
cost the land Office clerk to look
over that dwindling Indian domain.
The smallest account submitted
among the papers is that of B. L.
Andrus, superintendent of the mail
lock repair shop of the postoffice de-
partment, who made a trip over to
Bridgeport, Conn, to inspect a riv-
citing machine that the department
thought of buying. Andrus, spend
thrift that he is, actually blew in
S1.85 of the governments good
money for this junket. 1t should be
mentioned, however, that postal en-
ployes travel free on the trains, so
it is fair to preseume that the $1.85
went for hotel bills, wine and auto
mobiles.
Fred bennett, commissioner of |
the land office, made a journey to |
Salt Lake, Portland, Spokane, Seat |
tie, and other western cities during
the year and spent $2O5.70 on the |
trip. Fred Newburgh, his clerk. |
turned in a statement for $400.85 |
for expenses while accompanying |
the commissioner on the same trip. |
Possibly Mr.. bennett was enter
tanned by friends in the various |
places visited, while his clerk had to |
put up at hotels.
There is a suspicion in the minds !
of the congressman that when Sec
retary Ballinger of the interior de-
partment travels he pays some of
the expenses himself. If he doesn't
go down into his own pocket he
must get reduced rates at the hotels.
Last summer the secretary took a
trip 'to various points in Montana,
Nebraska and Wyoming" and the
bill he turned in was only $1S7.72.
Perhaps he avoided the exactions of
the hotels by living on the trains
and eating lunches carried from