The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1915-12-09
WASTING THE PEOPLES MONEY.

ular long session of the sixty-fourth
Congress, the last of the present admin
istratiop. In the aggregate, as work.
ing entity, they constitute the most ex-
travagant body in the world. To their
tendencies In this direction the nation
should take notice before it IS too late.
This is the opening paragraph of an
article in the Boston Sunday Herald of
Nov. 2sth, captioned "The Spendthrlft
of Our Political System" The Herald
fortifies this statement with official facts
and figures, and says that on conserva-
tive estimate the federal government is
costing now $40 per annum for every
man, woman and child in the continental
republic, and that under the new program
the cost will be $l2. That is the amount
for the country at large; out nearer
home the cost is greater The Herald
says; "Any one who supposes that this
means Sl2 per capita in Massachusetts
has small idea of the Judgment of fed
eral burdens. 1t means nearer S24 here.
or perhaps $50.
The Herald performs public duty in
Ghus calling attention to the extrava-
gance and waste in the national finances,
with the resultant Increasing rate of fed
eral taxation; but we believe that this
and all other efforts to bring about bet
ter conditions will be of no avail. Those
who oppose National, State or municipal
vtrau liohl TO ho ob
with standing in the way OF needed i'm
provements, etc., and are reminded that
this is big country, and hence there
should be big appropriations. Then there
is not a general understanding of where
the burdens of taxation fall. The poll
taxpayer is always in favor of big ap-
preparations because he thinks the prop
erty owners and business men will have
to pay the bills. But this is not the case.
On this point the Herald says
The man who uses sugar pays a tax of
a cent pound on it, even if it comes
from Cuba under reciprocity. He paws
his tax whenever he drops lump of
sugar in his coffee. He may pay it in his
board bill, in his restaurant check, or in
his account as the head of family at the
grocer's; but whatever the form of in
direction the user of that sugar does the
paving. The same is true of countless
other articles of everyday llfe Even
those special taxes, like that on large in
comes, which are levelled against the
rich, to much greater extent than the
public realizes find ultimate lodgment
elsewhere.
The Herald is quite right IN saying
that the monumental extravaganza
at the national capital sis true of all
parties and of all administrations, and
of the representatives of all sections,''
and it is thus accounted for:
We have no representation of the gen.
eral welfare except the President of the
United States, and his only weapon
the veto power-is rendered ineffective
by his inability to veto the items of an
appropriation bill. In consequence every
general appropriation act represents an
agreement among So senators, grouped
into As pairs, and of controlling major
ity in the House. Even private pension
bills are apportioned by congressional
quota. A member of the House can
have certain number of private bills in
each Congress for distribution in his
district, and it is virtually open to him
to decide among the claimants for more
generous treatment than the pension
office would apply.
We have had so-calIed economists in
Congress, but they do not stand analy-
sis. The Herald mentions Holman of
Indiana, who had an extraordinary repu-
tatlon in that line as recently as quar-
ter of a century ago." AS matter of
fact Holman acquired his undeserved
reputation as an economist more than
third of century ago. He simply
objected to everything in the way of an
appropriation, good, bad end indiffer-
ent-an obstructionist rather than an
economist-but when bill was before
the House for the equalization of boun-
ties that would take from fifty to sixty
million dollars from the treasury, Hol-
man, who had many old soldiers in his
district, was active in its behalf. But if
the Court of Claims had decided that
one or two hundred dollars was due
claimant for property taken or destroy
ed during the war, Mr.. Holman was sure
TO object to the appropriation.
There was another collector" in Con-
gress, whose name it would be unkind to
mention. He was a very small man,
mentally and physically, the successor
of great party leader, and the only
speech he was ever known to make was
''Mistaw Speaker, bject." He could
not be called an economist, because it
did not matter what the m asure was
before the House. Then some member
would go to him and ask him to with
draw his objection and business would
proceed.
Proctor Knott, whose Duluth speech
made him famous, also deserves mention
among the economists. When the Dis
trict of Columbia appropriation bill was
up he addressed the House in opposition;
saying. among other things, that he hoped
after everybody in the District of Colum-
bia had been given an Office and brown
stone front to live in they wouldn't come
to Congress for an appropriation for cast