Democratic Sentinel, Volume 2, Number 33, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 September 1878 — Windom’s Wasted Millions. [ARTICLE]

Windom’s Wasted Millions.

It is not often that a public man whose whole Congressional career has been illustrated by extravagance, and who is personally responsible for a large part of the reckless appibpriations of the Senate, sets up a claim to l>e an economist;’wnd seeks to deprive others who have done their best to effect some retrenchment in the loose public expenditures of their fairly earned credit. Mr. Windom, who has long been Chairman of the Senate Committee on Appropriations, where, backed by a majority of his political friends, he has exercised absolute control over all the regular bills for carrying o» the Government, has undertaken this new character.

The Republican Congressional Committee has issued a “ supplement ” and spread it broadcast, over the West, in which Mr. Windom assumes to explain away the reductions made in the last and present Congress, and do deny the results which were achieved after the House of Representatives had passed out of Republican hands through the tidal wave of 1874. Every observer of affairs in the last three years, when, owing to the general distress, attention has been more fixed on these subjects than usual, knows that an immense saving has l>een effe«»ted in all branches of the public service since the power of the Republican party was broken in Congress by the loss of the House; and, if one cause more than another contributed to that remarkable change, it was the abuse of power in voting away the people’s money, and the corrupt objects to which it was appropriated. The people in their wrath took the first weapon they could find to break the head of the party that was guilty of these wrongs, and* Massachusetts was more conspicuous than any other in electing the Democratic ticket, in order to emphasize her indignation at the prodigality and open venality of successive Republican Congresses. It was no love for the Democracy that led to that phenomenal change in politics, but a resolute purpose to sweep away into disgrace and exile the men who had prostituted their trusts to selfish uses, and to admonish the party which had tolerated them that there must be an end to that sort of corrupt rule. These facts are familiar to the whole country, and yet Mr. Windom tries to break their force by misrepresenting the actual good that has been accomplished, in spite of his constant, bitter, and unqualified opposition, which the majority of the Senate always sustained, and which the departments supported with false and exaggerated statements.

Take a few illustrations, which are fresh, and easily disproven if any way erroneous. A comparison of the last three years with a Democratic House, and the preceding three years when the Republicans had full swing, will show the difference in the appropriations actually made, as follows: ilepublii-an I Democra/.h-. 1871$1 SI ,587,054.61 1877$ 145.997 ,956.72 1875 177,979,478.77 1878 140,384,606.95 1876 172,600,205.53 1879 157,213,983.77 Total.. $531,866,733.91 Total.. $443,596,497.44 Here is a plain reduction, which no sophistry can destroy, of $88,270,236.47 in the eleven great bills for the support of the Government. But these figures, imposing as they are, by no means represent the economy sought to be achieved in the last three years. The bills for these same objects, as they passed the House, were: For the fiscal year 18775138,080,856.68 For the fiscal year 1878 131.309.307.37 For the fiscal year 1879 147,687,739.94 T0ta15417,077,903.99 It is thus seen, by deducting the bills passed by the House from the appropriations actually made, that if the Senate had accepted them there would have been a further reduction of $26,518,593.45. When these bills went to the Senate, Mr. Windonf and his political associates increased them as follows: 18775157,419,767.36 1878 148.988,885.75 1879 191,852,299.41 T0ta15468,260,922.52 Deduct saint- bills aa passed Houne for these years an above 417,077,903.99 • Increase by Senates 51,183,018.53 There is no possible escape from this showing, which proves that after the lesson of 1874, and the hard times since 1873, the Republican party has either learned nothing, or is unwilling to run outside of the old ruts. But for the Senate, led in this matter by Mr.-Win-dom, there would have been a great reduction and a corresponding diminution of public burdens. As it was, the House was unable to carry out its policy, and consequently more than $26,500,000 were added to the expenditures, every dime of which and much more, too, by a reduction of the army, ought to have been saved. It is evident that, in the role of an economist, the Chairman of the Committee on Appropriations of the Senate is not a great success, and he will not succeed in deceiving many people this year with his million or more of manufactured “ supplements.”