Daily Arizona silver belt., 1910-03-08
ALDRICH AND ECONOMY

Senator Aldrich said the other day that II he were running the government he could save $500 .OOO 900 a year, and the amount of comment called forth by his remark probably IS far Ill eX- cess of what he had expected.
 Perhaps the neatest is that of the New York Evening Post, which says He is"
 Aldrich IS running the government. lie IS the Boss of the republic, or rather he IS wee regent for the real boss, Special Privilege.
 The admission therefore, that the govern ment could be run at a saving of $3OO,OOO,OoO a year is an admission that Aldrch has not been doing his duty to the people; but that IS an ln- significant matter He does not owe this power to the people of the United States except lndl- rectly through their negligence in failing to sur round him with senators who would take that power away from him, and he owes and admits no allegiance or responsibility to the people.
 Where the admission is going to hurt, how ever is with the party which makes Senator Aldrich's power possible. It has had full con. trol of the government in all its branches fol practically forty years. It has had nothing but its own will to hinder it from doing its full duty. But it has been so busy doing the errands of Special Privilege that it hasn't had time to be economical. So it is possible for the man high est in power in that party to say that the gov ernment is wasting $300,0O0,OO0 year. Curiously enough, that amount is about what tbe government gets out of the tariff. The tariff costs the people ten times that much each year, but the government only gets 10 per cent of what it costs. Sometime it might be worth while to figure out what the government could do with that tax of $2 7O0O00,0O0 year if it got into the public treasury instead of into the treasury of Special Privilege.
 As might have been expected, Senator Aid rich's innocent remark hasn't set well with his republican colleagues. The Washington cor respondent of the Philadelphia Record reports this incident: 'Later in the afternoon Senator Hale took Aldrich off in remote corner and gave him the largest piece of his mind that the Maine senator has ever donated at one time. He told Aldrich he had made the most stupendous bunCler of his public career, and that hls words would be hurled from the stump with telling ef- feet during the campaign. He said the declara- ton made it seem that the republican party had souandered billions of dollars during the period it has remained in power, if the present ratio ot useless extravaganza is $3OO,OOO,OOO year. Hale was mad through and through, and 1t was fierce scolding he handed out to his associate in bossing the senate. "
 It is rather awkward. Here is a campaign coming on, and the chief figure in the admins tration's party generously gives the enemy for campaign material the admission that the repub- lican party is squandering $30O,0OO,OOO year of the peoples money. The tariff, as we have said, costs $3OOOOOO000 year. Of that amount $2,7OO,OOOOOO is worse than squander- ed; it is taken from a needy people and given to an organized Special Privilege that already is burdened with more wealth than is good for it or for the republic. The remaining $3OO,OOOOOO goes into the public treasury; and Senator Aid rich, who ought to know, says that it is squan- dered
 Surely here are matters worth thinking upon.