SPEECH OF HON. EUGENE HALE, OF IVIAINE, ON NATIONAL EXPENDITURES, ECONOMY IN THE PAST and ECONOMY IN THE FUTURE, IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, JANUARY 25, 1876. WASHINGTON. Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library Gift of Seymour B. Durst Old York Library II X . SPEECH OF EUGENE HALE. The House being as in Committee of the Whole and having under consideration the bill (H. R Nor. 810) making appropriations for the support of the Military Acad- emy for the tiscal year ending June 30, 1877— Mr. HALE said : Mr. Chairman : The Committee on Appropriations is now fairly entering upon its work for this session, and I have deemed it fitting to take some survey of the suhject-matters that will come before the I [ouse this winter in the way of appropriations. The field, Mr. Chair- man, is a broad one. Our annual expenditures are immense. Govern- ments, like families, cost more and more as they grow; and the cost of governments, like that of families, is apt to increase in a geometrical ratio with their growth. Any man who contrasts the population and the wealth of this coun- try now with what they were in the first days of the Government will be reconciled to a great advance in its expenses. In that wonder- ful chapter of Macaulay, wherein he presents the material condition of Great Britain at the time when the crown passed from Charles II to his brother, the historian notes, as a remarkable fact, that in the time covered by two long lives the taxation of the British people had been increased thirty-fold. We have, Mr. Chairman, owing to great events in our history, especially owing to the events of the last fifteen years, gone beyond \%hat in Great Britain seemed startling to Macaulay. It could hardly have been imagined by any person liv- ing in the administration of John Quincy Adams that in fifty years from that time there would be collected from the American people an- nually and spent in one way or another nearly $300,000,000. There is no subject of greater interest to the people than that involved in the ques- tion of how all this money is spent, and it is for that reason that I have ventured to trespass upon the attention of the House at this time. In starting it is worth while to bear in mind that, in time of pro- found peace, with uo war apparently lowering upon the horizon, and no preparation for war being made, the last Administration before the rebellion broke out — that of Mr. Buchanan — spent in one year $75,000,000; and during its continuance ran the Government in debt nearly $100,000,000. The war launched us into an almost fathomless sea of expenditure. There is nothing, sir, that wastes like war. The things that we actually ueeded cost enormously. The thiugs that we wasted in overcost and over-supply, in " cutting our eye-teeth," to use a New England phrase — by building up the fortunes and learning the ways of swindling con- tractors and thieves— cost us nearly as much more. And while we were undergoing this experience we heaped up additionally the measure of indebtedness that we must meet in time of peace by going through the dance of inflation, which doubled and trebled the cost of everything that we actually had or were cheated into believing that we had. "What wonder then that the figures leaped up from tens of millions to hundreds of millions, and that, marvelous as were the efforts of our people in the payment of taxes to keep down the public debt, so great beyond this was the demand at the rime that we piled up a na- tional indebtedness that will, to meet principal and interest, mort- gage the lives of generations. I have here a table giving the figures of the net expenditures of the Government for the years from 1856 to 1875, inclusive. It begins at $69,571,025.79 for the year ending June 30, 1856. In 1865 it reaches as high as $1,297,555,224.41, and in 1875, $274,623,392. In these nine- teen years the culminating point of expenditure was reached in the year that the war ended, when, as I have .said, it was more 1 , than $1,200,000,000. From that day the expenditures have been falling in the years immediately succeeding the war by tremendous steps and more gradually since, the scale that we nowspend being for the year ending June 30, 1875, $274,623,392.84. Net ordinary I yet ordinary Tear. expenditures. Year. expenditure's. 1856 ¥69,571,025 79 1866 $520, 809, 416 99 1857 67,795,707 66 1867 357,542,675 16 1858 74,185,270 39 1868 377,340,284 86 1859 69,070,976 74 1869 322,865,277 80 1860 63, 130, 598 39 1870 309,653,560 75 1861 66, 546, 644 89 1871 292,177,188 25 1862 474, 761,818 91 1872 277,517,902 67 1863 714,740,725 17 1873 290.345,245 33 1864 865,322,641 97 1874 287,133,873 17 1865 1,297,555,224 41 I 1875 274,623,392 84 These expenditures, especially of the greatest years, are enormous. That we were able to command means and credit to the extent re- quired surprised both friends and enemies. If my object were differ- ent,it would be a grateful task for me to recall to the memory of gen- tlemen before me the Herculean efforts made by our people in the pay- ment of taxes to keep down the public debt, bearing such imposi- tions as no nation ever before bore. But I have not the time to go into that matter. I will only say that in the years between 1863 and 1868, inclusive, the American people paid in taxes into the national Treasury over $2,200,000,000. I cannot pursue this further. Any gentleman examining this column of figures (and they are taken from the official reports of the Treasurv Department) will see that from 1865 through 1867, 1868, 1869, 1870, 1871, 1872, 1873, and 1874 there was a gradual decrease with the exception of the year 1873, when there was an increased appropriation for the War Department, and the expenditures for once rose beyond that of the preceding year. I have not the time to go into details, and it is not my object to go back to all those years; but I do propose to bring before the House the work which has been done in the direction of curtailing expenses within the last three years. In the first session of the Forty-third Congress, in the year 1874, the gentleman from Ohio on my left, who was then chairman of the Committee on Appropriations, [Mr. Gar- field,] did a most valuable work, for which every student of the ex- penditures of the Government must ever thank him. We were then, as now, confronted with lessening receipts and the necessity of re- ducing appropriations in order that the needsof the Government might be met by its revenues. General Garfield, whose philosophical mind and practical industry are well known to the country, in his study of the subject divided the whole body of our expenditures into three great classes. The first class covered amounts paid during the fiscal year 1873 — the year to which he first applied his classification — on account of 5 EXPENSES GROWING DIRECTLY OUT OF THE LATE WAR. They included, for instance, the interest on the public debt, more than $100,000,000; pensions, nearly thirty millions: expenses of the national loan, nearly three millions, and the cost of collecting the in- ternal revenue, which was an imposition caused purely by the war, and, with various other demands for payment which the Government must recognize, growing out of the war, ranging in some cases from a few thousand dollars to hundreds of thousands of dollars in other cases. This class amounted in 1873 to $159,262,416.81. Now there was then, as there is now, no shirking of this bill. It came to us as an inheritance of the war, and will rest upon the American people until, with increasing revenue and prosperity, we have paid the prin- cipal of the public debt and the widows and orphans and soldiers who are pensioned have passed forever from among us. But until then the bill for this class, so carefully studied and prepared by the gen- tleman from Ohio, [Mr. Garfield,] will be before us, I repeat, as one which cannot be shirked. The second classification, covering the military and naval establish- ments, amounted in 1873 — the military appropriation being $32,524,- 548.64 and the naval $21,474, 433.61— in the aggregate to $53,998,982.25. The third class covered THE CIVIL SERVICE, comprehending all expenditures not included in the other two classes, embracing salaries, the cost of collecting customs, public buildings for post-offices, custom-houses, and light-houses, expense of the Post-Orrice Department over and above its annual revenue, navy-yards, and vari- ous items, amounting in all to $79,803,847.27. General Garfield, following the analytical bent of his mind, calcu- lated t he percentages of expenditures embraced by these several classes. The first, the war expenses, were 54 per cent, of our entire expenditures. The military establishments — the War and Navy — were 18 per cent. ; and the civil service, the third class, embracing all not comprehended in the others, 28 per cent. In the succeeding year the same analysis was applied to the expenditures for the year 1874. And I have done the same tiling in a table I have here for the last yearof 1875. I have taken, advantage of the classification of my friend from Ohio, and have carried it out into the last year it was possible, to wit, the year ending June 30, 1875, the last fiscal year for which we have any returns. It is an interesting matter to see how the percentage of these ex- penditures has been maintained. In the last fiscal year, the last we have had. the war expenses — those incident to the war — are $147,882,- 034.75, or 53.7 per cent, of the expenses. In the year previous this class was 53.3 per cent, and the year previous to that 54 per cent. The second class, including the military establishments, the War and Navy, amounted in the last year to $48,314,499.50, or 17.5 per cent, of the whole. And here is a fact which I commend to the gentlemen on the other side who contemplate an attack upon these establishments, that, while the class from which there is no escape, and which I think few gentlemen would be in favor of cutting down, has about main- tained itself during the past three years, the War and Navy estab- lishments for the year ending June 30, 1875, amount to 17.5 per cent., while during the previous year it was 20.4 per cent, and the year before 18 per cent. The next class, including the general civil establishments, amounts to $78,4*20,858.59, or 28.6 per cent, of the entire expense, against 25.9 last year and 23 per cent, the year before. I now give the full tables : 6 :g : isi 113811 il i i i> ;*« * 1*! itf sin 138 gsssss S3 5SfS3i S11SS3 : :SS :£S8S i ill isasi ■ i m : s 'l='°" : : ■ * i 1 s ss IS II as - 8 1 - 2 ;8S s § ill i i" m i 3IKI9I awm s iiiiiiiHi S" i ■ j* i iCTft • . ■ .-1 • • cm ill ; i »" SS3§§ : : : i §nii MM irfigg : : : j v i-i n s h ■ • i ■ 8 a s 2" si 2 1 i 1 - S :SS S 1 ill 3 Sill 1 3388311 9 8SB8888I8 s 1 S S3 IS ft ifs? S3 1 5 8 SS83S858 BS8I 1 ISISsIS iiiiiNMNi illinii!!! iiniiinnj immny Ml!!!! ililliil liiiiiii H! pi I : III 1 Iili m y n m f i Ill ! ! ; il : 1 i 1 i i :::=::::: : \ mi \m \ iiijil ill 11 ! II! j in 1 I! 2 : p< ! i! i s 1 1 1 h ! I INNfif i 1 1 H Ml if i i Iji iliif ii mm iili I I ii y ;i ii i * l|i i| A if fulfil nut 1 ' i« 1 j ; j j j j ^ : : ! : ! ; l!!H!i innu liiiiii pi turn iSiifn i jfjfll! 9 Total expenditures by years. 1873. 1874. 1875. FIRST QR0UP. Amount paid directly on account of the late war 8157, 2'J2. 415 81 •5154,171,130 50 $147, 882, 034 75 Per cent, of whole for each year. 54. 53.3 53.7 SECOND UKOUP. 53, 998, 982 25 58, 093, 305 69 43, 314. 499 50 Per cent, of whole for each year. 18. 20.4 17.5 THIRD GROUP. Civil service proper 79, 083. 847 27 74, 2G9, 473 57 73, 426, 858 59 Per cent, of whole for each year 23. 25.9 28.6 Total 290, 345, 245 33 287, 133, 909 76 274, 623, 392 a4 Now, I wish to invite attention to the work of Congress in the first session of the Forty-third Congress in the reduction of expenses, as shown in the appropriation bills for the year ending June 30, 1875. My friend and leader, the chairman of the Committee on Appropria- tions, will be glad to learn how much the road in which he is so ardently pressing has been trodden before. The following table shows the difference between the appropriations for the years 1874 and 1875. It is taken from the official Treasury digest of appropria- tions. Recapitulation by acts. Third session Forty-second Congress, fis- cal year 1874. First session Forty- third Congress, fis- cal year 1375. To supply deficiencies in the, appropriations for expenses of taking ninth census, approved De- cember 16, 1871 To supply deficiencies in the appropriations for expenses of Joint Select Committee on alleged outrages in Southern States, approved January 16, 1872 To supply deficiencies in the appropriations for salaries and contingent expanses of the Post- Othee Department, approved February 20, 1872. To supply deficiencies in the appropriations for the service of the Government, approved May 18, 1872, and January 8, 1873 To supply deficiencies in the appropriations for the service of the Government, approved March 3, lb73, and June 22, 1374 *For legislative, executive, and judicial expenses of the Government, approved May 8, 1872; March 3, 1873 ; and June 20, 1874. . . .' For sundry civil expenses of the Government, ap- proved June 10, ls72 ; March 3, lc-73 ; and June 23, 1874 For support of the Army, approved June 6, 1872 ; For the naval service, approved May 23. 1872; March 3, 1373; Deceruher 31, 1873;' and June 6, 1374 §1, 646, 833 82 9, 496, 406 14 84, 053, 812 39 18, 170, 441 18 20, 753, 255 50 32, 173, 257 90 26, 925, 746 88 31, 796, 003 81 27, 788, 500 00 22, 275, 707 65 20, 813, 946 70 10 Becapitulation by acts — Continued. Third session Forty- second Congress, fis- cal year 1874. First session Forty -third Congress, fis- cal year 1875. For the Indian service, approved May 2!), 1672 ; February 14. 18 1 3 : and June 22, 16 1 4 For rivers^ and harbors, approved June 10. 1872: ATii-eli "i 1 v7*} . oiwl .Time 1 ^7 a For forts and fortifications, approved June 10. 1672 j February 21. Ie73 ; and April 3. Is74 For support of Military Academy, approved May 9^ liCT9. TVliviiirv 9fl 1B7'-i. uiti .Time li 1>J7J —■-). AC i , X trUl Hell \ *.C. J. C J .> , tlllll 13 UlU U, ±C * 1 ... . For service of Post-Office Department, approved Tunc 1 1 kTO . TWa.i-/>Vi 1 1 SiT'l . oinl Turn. •)'< 1874 'j ii lit i . i^k: jicii ciio. i ~ to j aim *j one ^o. i~ ■ i . . For invalid and other pensions, approved Febru- arv Ofl i i*o . Jannaw 111 1 . a.iut Jnn« 9(1 1 S74 OB. J (W, — .Uilllllill^ 1W, ir j j , ( U1II ij uur i'l, 1. It.. For consular and diplomatic service, approved May 22, 1672; February 22, 1673; and June 11, 1674 5, 505, 218 90 7 tv> ono no t , oji, joo uu 1, 899, 000 00 QJJ 'J17 tut on. o l t ou R AfIC, COO OO 0. UO.i 00 to 4Pfl nun on ou. icy, uuu \jv 1 , .1 1 1 , 3oU 00 5, 538, 274 87 ^ ooi oon on O, iSS6, ouu UO 904. 000 00 'via cq^ oa ooy, coo OU 7 1 — ^ R lO nn <, 1 i J, o4.i UU oo Q*n nnn oo 3, 4 4, 804 00 VP tl Vt '-Til Tw iT 1 m 1 1 rl 1 11 ' i' Of A 1 1 » '"1 1 1 \" "W'W vl*" ATI j. *ji iih.-|ihmpi uujjliuiik Uciii^N | iivn x ui i\, ti|>- Twit pfni vt-1 inn qtiiI lwivt fitrift 1 it Tt 1 1 1 i '"i ti 'i i"w il i < Indiana; Huron, Michigan; Saint Louis, Mis- souri : Hartford, Connecticut, stage and expenses of national loan in 1875 and for postage in 1874 should be deducted from the totals of those years, leaving the amendeil totals. This table shows a reduction of 619.331.405.62. " In the note appended to it. the Secretary properly states that for the first time the annual bills of the last session contained 62.210.763 for expenses of the national loan. But the amount expended in the preceding year for the same purpose was 62.606.- 863.04: and the last session of Congress should have been credited with a further reduction to the amount of the difference between these sums, namely. $590, 100.94. This item, added to the amount of reduction stated by the Secretary, gives a re- duction of 619.923.506.56. The difference between this amount and the amount estimated in my speech of June 23. 1?74. consists in the two items, which, as I then stated, were not included in my estimate. One was the 64.000 000 appropriated for the naval emergency arising from our trouble with Spain, which should not be considered as a part of the ordinary cost of carrying on the Government: the other was the aggregate of all the relief aud pension ai ts passed at the last session, which amounted to 62.121,- 540.66: these acts were not under the charge of the Committee on Appropriations, and they amounted to a larger sum than I supposed they would. But including the relief acts, and leaving out the nayal emergency appropria- tion, the actual reduction in the ordinary appropriations for the public service at the last session was 624.000.000 less than at the preceding session." 11 Without — for my time is passing away — without discussing details, this table shows that in the year eudiug June 80, 1-71, all the appro- priation bills amounted to $170,424,800.84. And i » - 1 me Bay here that apon this part of my subject relating to the reduction of appropria- tions I use in treating of aggregates the sums of the various appro- priation bills, not reckoning tin? permanent appropriations, which wo have little or nothing to do with. The work that we are engaged in in reducing expenditures must be done upon these bills. My friend in front of me [Mr. Holmax] knows that with all his desire, proper and just as it is to retrench and cut down expenditures, the perma- nent appropriations, like that for the interest on the national debt and some others, are things with which we cannot and do not expect to meddle, .and so the figures I give embrace that domain of expendi- ture which is fair work for Congress. For the year 1874, as I have said, the expenditures were $170,434,- 800.82. Under the leadership of the gentleman from Ohio [Mr. Gar- field] Congress in that session, the first of the Forty-third Congress, reduced the annual appropriation bills so that they amounted for the year eudiug June 30, 1^75, to $151,106,128.27. Following this table which I have already given are certain remarks made by the gentle- man from Ohio, who used these same figures in a speech made here in W.*>, in which he shows, as anybody will see who reads it, that in ad- dition to this 810,000,000 reduction, shown on these appropriation bills, the Committee on Appropriations and Congress should be cred- ited further with certain items — for instance, the emergency bill giv- ing to the Navy Department, at the time when war was deemed to be imminent with Spain, $4,000,000. In addition to that the appropria- tion bills ought to be credited that year with >i sum which had for- merly been permanent, to wit, the appropriation for the issuing of the national loan, which added to the appropriation bill something like §3.000,000— a gentleman beside me says §3,800,000. And the gentle- man from Ohio, in casting up what Congress should be credited with, comes to this conclusion : "Includinj the relief act, leaving ont the naval emergency appropriation, the actual reduction in the ordinary appropriations for the public service at the last session was $24,000,000 less than at the preceding session. That was then in sum and substance. Mr. Chairman, the work of Congress that session in the reduction of expenditures. Not a small work, sir ; but a great work ; work done faithfully, and, what is bet- ter still, upon which there has been no back step taken. Let me enumerate here some of the REFOKMS AXD RETREXCHMEXTS made by Congress through its organ, the Committee on Appropriations, iu the first session of the last Congress. There was first what I have alluded to. the national loan expense, which was formerly paid by au indefinite appropriation of a percentage on the entire issue, and was a thing as entirely in charge of a Bureau of fhe Treasury De- partment as is the private business of any gentleman on this floor iu his own control. This Bureau spent 83,800,000 a year, a sum as large as that which ran the Government in the first year of the present cen- tury. There was no let or hinderanee on that expenditure. There was no limitation as to amount of labor. There was no limitation as to salaries paid. But the Committee on Appropriations took this evil by the throat ; they took it from this irresponsible control and trans- ferred it to a regular appropriation bill, making salaries for the em- ployes, fixing the amount of money to be spent for materials, and, in 12 {addition to all this, reducing the amount spent over half a million dollars. Now, Mr. Chairman, that work is done. My friend on my left [Mr. Randall] cannot do it over again. He can keep up on his bills the system brought in. by the old committee, but the work is the old committee's, not his. There was an evil of a like kind in the War Department. Enlisted men were allowed to be employed very much as in the Printing Bu- reau, without any limitation or control, and we found that some hun- dreds were so employed. That evil was cured like tlie other, and in the same way. In the naval bill, the Marine Corps men were reduced in number. In the Army bill there was a reduction of five thousand men, so that the Army to-day stands as a reduced organization by the work of the Forty-third Congress. The salary bill that passed in that Congress reduced salaries some- thing more than a million dollars. The DEPARTMENTAL FOUCES were taken in hand by the committee and after long and arduous labor •were in many places cut down. The drones were driven out, the force was diminished, and where there had been in a single Bureau a hundred clerks the committee would cut down the number to sixty, seventy, or eighty, as mature deliberation showed it could be done without crippling the service of the Government. The Committee on Appropriations reported to the House a clause increasing the hours of labor in the Departments, because it believed that without any op- pression upon employe's more time could be spent by them in labor to the advantage of the service, and it therefore provided for an addi- tional hour of work each day. We were beaten on the floor of the House, and the hours of labor remained as they had been before, and so continued until during the past year, when by order of the different Departments an hour a day was added to the work of the clerical force. Nor let any man say, Mr. Chairman, here what I have frequently heard upon this floor, that these appropriations are no test of real reduction, because reductions are frequently made with a view to deficiencies, and that it is simply a show, a pretext, and that the de- ficiencies for the succeeding year will make it all up. Now, sir, it is worth while to look at the deficiencies bearing upon these reductions. Sir, in the succeeding year after this reduction by Congress the defi- ciency appropriations amounted to but about four million dollars, a less sum than had ever been called for in ten years, so that this reduc- tion was bona fide, and was carried out by the Departments. But, Mr. Chairman, I must hurry on. The good work did not stop here ; it did not stop in 1874. At the next session of the Forty-third Congress the committee reduced the appropriations further by the sum of |7,292,817.39, as the table which I hold in my hand shows. So that in those two years there was a reduction in the appropriations of the Government of nearly $31, 000,000, and the deficiency bills for that year, instead of being increased by these further reductions in the two years of the Forty-third Congress, bad ruu down so that they only amounted to $800,000 for the whole year. 13 Third session Forty-sec- ond Congress— fiscal year 1&74. First session Forty-third Congress— fiscal year 1875. Second session Forty-third Congress fiscal year 1870. §6, 636, 074 61 $5, 797, 234 88 65, 224. 275 36 9, 858, 147 42 10, 5!>1.M7 56 C. 906, 452 29 3, 743, 243 .-7 3, 709, 984 13 3. 417, 437 42 1, 874, 515 00 3, 454, 965 92 1. 420, 272 30 409, 660 00 490, 547 34 455, 513 03 .» i 1), U4U «> I 1, 494, 491 11 1 JOT 4't 280, 038 57 298, 655 86 301,315 8!» 36,732,0-25 17 24, 429, 522 37 30,301.332 93 22, 498, 620 55 20, 813, 946 70 17, 268, 100 33 6, 46a 977 44 7, 148, 174 54 5, 874, 558 2S 30, 480, 000 00 30, 355. 000 00 30, 075, 000 00 20. 057, 132 00 14, 817, 306 56 8, 025, 542 59 6. 102, 900 00 5, 463, 000 00 6,793.517 50 1, 899, 000 00 904, 000 00 805, 000 00 1. 982, 979 59 2,014, 457 70 1, 855, 409 9!< 6, 496, 602 00 6, 222, 842 00 7, 390, 205 00 15, 674, 164 29 16, 951,781 53 18,103,574 47 172,290,700 82 155, 017, 758 20 147,714,940 81 Now, Mr. Chairman, when we have the animal appropriation hills and know that they are correct, and have also got the animal defi- ciency hills for the year succeeding, we have the question clinched. In any appropriation hill no man can tell what the reduction has heen until he knows the deficiencies resulting from it. But in these two years, showing a reduction of appropriations of $31,000,000, which in so much lessened the hurdens of the people, the good faith of the reduc- tion is shown by the deficiency hills lessening largely each year; and herein let me say a word in regard to deficiency hills. It was one of the GREATEST WORKS ACCOMl'LISHED IN YEARS PAST 1JY CONGRESS this holding the Departments inside the limit of what had heen appro- priated. There had heen a pernicious practice for years of spending without regard to the appropriations and then coming in for deficiency hills. But while the deficiencies for 1870 and 1671 and following years ranged from fourteen million to twentv-three million dollars a vear, in 1674 they were hrought down to 84,000,000 and in 1875 to $800,000. For the next year I am told that, with the exception of a deficiency in the pay of the Army, which is a matter of computation only upon a fixed rate of pay, an Indian deficiency, and a printing bureau defi- ciency, the whole amount will he less than s400,000. All this was, as 1 have said, a good work. It was a work that any Congress may he proud of, and that any committee which had a share in it may he proud of. It is a work that any party which sustain t d it and carried it out may be proud of. And this reduction of defi- ciences the gentleman from Indiana [Mr. Holman] will hear me out in saying is not the least but perhaps the greatest of all this work. Now, sir, if I am asked if my conclusion from all this is that no fur- ther reduction can be made, and that this Congress has nothing to do hut to take the estimates of the Departments, or at best follow the ap- propriations of last year, my answer is, Xo ; by no means. Had this House been of the same political complexion as the last, and had the Committee on Appropriations been constructed just as it was last year, I have no doubt that it would have gone on in the line before inaugurated, cutting down expenses here and there, always 14 with this result, that each year's reduction would he less easy, because we should each year approach nearer and nearer to the hase-line of the actual needs of the Government. But while admitting that there is work yet to do, I do not mean that anybody here or any man in the country who does me the honor to read what I say shall he mis- led by the OFT-REPEATED GET as to the extravagant expenditures under the present Administration or that the republican party has from year to year added to the bur- dens of the people by its appropriations and expenditures. I do not mean, Mr. Chairman, that it shall be assumed that there is to be and could be no check to this wasteful flow until the democratic party was placed at the head-gates, and I want to warn my friend from Pennsylvania [Mr. Randall] that in his efforts he does not spend his time and energies upon a field that has been already cropped. There is ground that is worth going over yet, and I want to help him in going over that ground, But I want him to bear in mind the French proverb, that the man who goes out after the plucked cherry comes home empty handed. And this leads me naturally to some scrutiny of the AVORK BEFORE US FOR THE COMING YEAR. If any gentleman has been studying the Book of Estimates he has no doubt found upon page 175 three parallel columns showing the appropriations for 1876, the present iiseal year, the estimates for the same year, and the estimates of the Departments for the succeeding year, that ending June 30, 1877, for which we must appropriate in this Congress and upon which we are now embarked, one of the bills being that now before this committee. Here are the three columns, and they show an aggregate of appropriations for the present year, the one in which we are now living, of $293,166,177.57. Against this are the esti- mates of the different Departments for the succeeding year, amount- ing to $314,612,608.48, or $21,446,430.90 in excess of the appropriations for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1876. Estimates for 1877. Estimates for 1876. Appropriations for 1876. $2, 865, 378 50 $2,963,342 10 62. 963, 562 10 18, 717, 045 40 18, 549, 048 03 19, 034, 265 76 3, 403. 450 00 3, 605. 250 00 3, 403, 250 00 1, 352, 485 00 1, 344, 785 00 1.412, 985 00 33, 697, 178 50 31, 641, 526 50 28. 554, 987 79 20, 871, 666 40 19, 096, 567 65 17, 316, 306 90 5, 787, 795 64 6, 851, 681 96 5, 125, 627 00 29, 533, 500 00 30, 500. 000 00 30, 000, 000 00 28, 591, 410 30 26, 299, 469 31 16, 755, 062 10 9, 281, 602 19 9, 914, 378 00 8, 376, 205 00 13, 881, 185 79 12, 591, 169 58 10, 534, 857 66 146, 629, 910 76 146,673,551 76 149. 689, 068 26 314, 612, 608 48 310, 030, 769 89 293, 166, 177 57 At the first blush this is not an encouraging feature to the honest retrencher, that the Departments should call for $21,000,000 more than we appropriated last year. I am free to own that if we were obliged to go on and appropriate this additional amount it would largely neu- tralize the good work of the past years. But I want to show that not only is there no need, of this, but that the increased estimates are nat- ural under the system rmrsued in the different Departments. 15 It is no new thing for Congress to be confronted by'esti mates larger than the appropriations of the preceding years. The Departments look upon the question of expenditures from one point of view, Con- gress looks at them from another. The Departments look at appro- priations and expenditures from the view of accomplishing all proper things as fast as possible. Congress has learned to look upon expend- itures from the point of view of only expending under our present enormous taxation such sums as are necessary for the fair running of the machinery of the Government. Now this is illustrated by the different Departments in which these estimates are made up. The table which I here insert shows where these increases are found. I am glad to say that in the legislative es- tablishment the estimates are $98,000 less than the appropriations of last year; so that there is no call upon us for an increase there. The appropriations for the last year for the executive establishment were $317,000 more than are asked for for the next year ; so that there is no question of extravagant estimates there. In the judicial establish inent the appropriations for this year are the same as the estimates for the next year within s*200. In the Department of Indian Affairs the estimates are $002,000 more than the appropriation of last year. In the Pension Bureau the estimates arc $466,000 more than the appro- priations of last year. IX PUBLIC WOKKS. I ask gentlemenHo bear the figures in mind. The estimates for public works are $11,836,348.20 more than the appropriations last year for the same purpose. That is a very large proportion of the increased estimates which the Secretary of the Treasury has sent in for the com- ing year. What are embraced by public works? In the first place, every custom-house, every post-office, and every light-house that is erected from Maine to California. If a member is desirous of having a post-office or a custom-house erected in his district or in his town, he besieges the Secretary of the Treasury in season and out of season, until at last he worries that official into sending in an estimate of the cost of such a building. If the Secretary of the Treasury, like the present incumbent, is a firm man and can say "no" when he ought to, then a member who wants a post-office or a custom-house gets a resolution through this House directing the Secretary of the Treasury to make an estimate. The river and harbor bill, too, shows how these estimates are increased. The Corps of Engineers, who have charge of those works, are every year directed by Congress to make new surveys. There has not been a river or harbor bill passed by Congress for years but at its tail end there is a long list of surveys directed. The Corps of Engineers make the surveys, estimate what the works will cost, and the estimates are sent by the Secretary of the Treasury as a part of the estimates of the Department under which the Corps of Engineers operate. So the estimates are swollen, and in this one item alone I am glad to find over eleven millions of the twenty-one millions of increase. That need not trouble anybody. WE CAN GET ALOXG WITHOUT ANY NEW BUTLblKGS. I am glad in this to join hands with ray friend the chairman of the Committee on Appropriations in his work of cutting down expendi- tures. This item last year was $10,785,000. For the next year the estimate is $28,000,000 and odd. I believe we can get along with con- siderably less than the $10,000,000 which we appropriated last year, and, if so, then we will have wiped out every additional increase that is called for by the Book of Estimates. And the Secretary of the- Treasury is not to be held as himself responsible for these. He, sends them in from the other Departments as their estimates, made up in the manner that I have indicated. In the rOSTAL SERVICE there is an additional deficiency estimated at $905,397. This morning) Mr, Chairman, has furnished an instance of the rule that we may as well take home to our breasts with reference to this Department : '•Those who dance must pay the fiddler." It' we are continually put- ting upon the Post-Office Department new burdens, giving it new duties, ramifying and extending the scope of that great Department, we must be prepared (and I say it advisedly) within the next five years to see the expenses of that Department run up to 8.")0,000,000 a year; and it will be nobody's fault but ours. The miscellaneous items are increased by $3,347,3*23 — not as large as the others that I have been discussing, but yet a formidable figure. These are made up largely of three or four different estimates. For public printing and binding $374,000 increase is asked ; for engraving and printing, $316,000 ; for surveys of public lands, $335,000 ; and the estimate of amounts necessary to pay the judgments of the Court of Claims is $1,600,000 more than last yea r. If the court is not to render judgment for these larger sums (and that can easily be told by inves- tigation) there will be no need of appropriating this sum. As to the survey of public lands, I believe that we can for one or two years get along without going even to the extent that we have appropriated for heretofore, and that all of this increase and more may be saved. This, then, disposes of $2, 000, 000 of this item of $3,300,000. We have, then, as far as estimates go, nothing formid- able to contend with. We have a base-line to act on, the appropri- ations of last year, and in certain directions, as I have said, I believe we can still go on and reduce. I for one am desirous that the efforts at reduction should be made in the right places. I give here the tables showing the appropriations for last year and the estimates for the next year which I have been discussing : Legislative establishment : Appropriations for If 76 $2, 963. 562 10 Estimates for 16T7 2,865,373 50 Appropriations over estimates 93, 183 60 1 Executive establishment: Appropriations for 1876 19.034.265 76 Estimates for 1877 18, 717, 045 40 Appropriations over estimates 317, 220 36 Judicial establishment : Estimates for 1877 3.403,450 00 Appropriations for 1876 3,403.250 00 Estimates over appropriations 2u0 00 Forei