The Hartford republican. (Hartford, Ky.) 18??-1926, 1915-03-26
WASTEFUL ACTS
OF congressman
Many Raids on the National
Treasury for Useless
Things.


did Democrats themselves admit that
it made in one respect an egregious
failure. II was shamclessly and
iagrantly prodigal in the appropria-
ton of public money. When the
Democrats we're in opposition they
denounced Republican extravagance
But when they came into power
they were not prevented by the GER
tainty of declining revenues and the
prospect of a serious deficit from sur.
passing the Republican record for
profuse expenditure While they
talked much about economy. they
economical in nothing except in APP
preparation for national defense and
general social welfare. They spent
the peoples money. as so many Con-
gressmen have done before. largely
for social political purposes.
In not single case did the Sixty
third Congress attempt to eradicate
D
fill any of the regular pork barrels.
/ The Army and Navy appropriation
bills left undisturbed the unnecessary
/ posts and yards. The Omnibus PEN
sion bill. the Rivers and Harbors bill
and the Public Building bill were
up as usual by negotiation. and the
pork distributed widely enough to
insure a majority. The Rivers and
| Harbors bill did not pass in the in
tended form. but it appropriated
/ S25. 100000 and authorized some
200 surveys of fresh projects with a
| prospective cost of many millions.
The Public Buildings Jill of March
4th, 1913. provided for 327 build
ings. The supervising architect re-
/ ported that the last of the build
ings authorized in the act of 1918
will not have been placed under con-
tract until about the beginning of
the calendar year 1920" Neverthe-
less the Sundry Civil Appropriations
bill at the present session authorized
about $50 new buildings or extern
sions. and pehtoesr
sions. and the pokers are protesting
TO enlarge the staff of the supervising
architect so that as the pork barrels
roll out of Congress he can keep
pace with them.
Meanwhile river navigation is de-
clining under Congressional encour-
agement. and the new buildings dis
tributed as district pork embarrass
the transaction of public business.
Postmaster-General Burleson in
common with his predecessors. dis
likes the buildings thrust upon the
department. because they are unnec-
essarily elaborate and expensive. In
numerous cases the janitor service
will cost more than the government
now has to pay for rent and service
combined, and it wall obtain from
this increased expenditure a dimin-
ished efficiency. For convenience of
receiving and shipping mail. post
offices should ordinarily be situated
as near to railway stations as are the
Offices of express companies. but they
are rarely placed where they are
needed because the porkers want
them in the center of the town,
where they will boost real estate
and make a bigger show. Hence Jas
per. Alabama, with a population OF
$500 where the governmnt is now
spending 1872 a year for rent, heat.
light and janitor service, is in the
bill for an appropriation of s107.-
900. Its case is not at all exception
al. Enterprising Congressman make
bigger hauls than that. In 1918.
Wilmington n. c.. where the gross
receipts of the custom house are
S2S,0OO year. got an appropriation
Of$600.000 for a new building to
house a business which employees four
officials and at present costs the gov
eminent twenty-five cents for each
dollar collected.
Congressional extravaganza consti-
tutes an illustration of a political
disease of which history affords many
examples. 1t is a well developed
case of the Rota--of a conspiracy of
the parts of the political body sue
cessively to drain the vitality of the
whole. A conspiracy of this kind
works thru and behind the ordinary
machinery of government. Ordinary
political issues are mere red herrings
to distract public attention from it.
Elections, candidates.. party organi-
cations, social and political agitation,
the whole apparatus of the represen-
tative system become subsidiary TO
IL. The Rota is a veritable cancer. a
morbid growth within the victims
nourished by its re-
sources and fiourishing on it's vital