Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1912-03-02
STATE ownership IS
STRONGLY INDICTED BY
Citizens OF RUSSIA.

| BY Associated Press. n
ST. PETERSBURG, March a.
rather strong indictment Of state own
ership, as far as Russia 10 concerned
was made recently in the duma, whea
the shortcomings in various branche.
of the Russian state management
were illustrated DIN the report OF {
committee Of inquiry read by Dep
uty Godneff. u@~ w.:
The navy headed the list for ruin
GUS neglect Of the interests OF ths
treasury as we'll as those of the serv.
ice. One flagrant instance of lack ol
business method was given. In re
pairing the icebreaker Yeranak Dir
England, one of its engines. costing
100000, was removed. An offer tt
buy the discarded engine for SIS, 00t
was made, but the Russian naval of
fcers Thought that a low price, and
shipped the engine to Reveal at a cost
of $4,000. There it lay in the open
for seven years and was finally sold
for $500. Excessive allowances and
inaccurate bookkeeping on voyages o1
Russian war vessels abroad were very
frequent. The committee discovered
that on the same day i'm the same port
different vessels purchased coal at
prices varying from $40 to $3.50 per
ton.
The army showed similar misman-
agement. In one case the treasury
was the gamer because of the irregu-
larity. At the Tchita stores 568, 900
horseshoes were inscribed in the
books, while the commbttee dfscov-
cred by counting that the actual sup
ply stored was 1857, 900. The supply
of nails to go with them was also
more than double that entered. The
usual experience. however, was to find
the actual stocks far short of the
amount recorded
In the budget of the ministry of rail-
ways next largest after the ministry
of finance with it's spirits monopoly,
there was deficit of SCI 900, 900 for
the year 1908 on a budget of $3.50, $780,
900. This chronic deficit is ascribed
to the greater cost of construction
over that prevailing ON private rail.
roads and to other ismilar causes. On
an average the state spent $10,101. so
more per verst (about s furlongs)
than private railroads. The Amur
railroad is costing 10 to Is per cent
more than the estimates. The line
around Lake Baikal cost $4,000, 900
more than the estimates, THAT being 20
per cent of the entire cost.
The state iron works on the Ura1s
show a similar unsatisfactory record.
with deficit totaling IS, 0OO,0O0 for
the last ten years. Rep. Godnem re-
ferred to the fact that this deficit oc-
curred despite the membership Of
these state works In the combination
of iron works which kept an ,rnnatur-
ally high level of prices, which it is
not the province of the government
to encourage.
Naphtha- bearing lands in the
Caucasus were in arrears on their pay
ment Of the land rent to the state.
The SUM now due from them amount.
ed to $12,000,0O0.
A particular case Of grievance was
the fneradicabQe habit Of most minis
tries to obtain appropriations under
one head and expendI the money for
other needs, Thurs depriMng the duma
of good deal Of it's effective control
on the budget. Sums totaMng $685.
100000 were thus transferred from one
head to another in one years budget
alone.
Scarcity Of Precious Metals.
Scarcity of supply Of the precious
metals in the go!dsmtths' and Jewell
ers' trade has forced the government
to undertake the retail sale of gold
and silver. This so4called "goSd fam
dne" has caused heavy inroa4is to be
made on the specie in circulation. Rus
sian law threatens with heavy punish.
meht the reconversdpn Of coin into
metal by private individuals as we'll
as the clipping of coin or its reduction
in weight. Nevertheless, goldsmtths
have recently been melting coin In
large quantities, particularly at points
distant from the principal government
mtnts Thie is done especially IN the
"tadga," the large, marshy forest which
covers a great part Of Siberia. Hith-
e1bo. gold in bars could be bought only
at the mdnts dn st. Petersburg, Mos
cow and Odessa. To meet the leetti-
mate demands Of the trade, the min
astry OF finance WIN hereafter sell
gold In bars. planchets and sheets, 500
per Thousand pure at a fired price.
and allof the mint at St. Petersburg
to sell pure metal in quantities up to
1S pounds OF gold and Sc pounds of
silver per applicant. to private indi-
viduals and government Offices. Al
special distributing agency through
the medium Of government Offices at