Evening Republican, Volume 16, Number 30, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 February 1912 — TRAVEL BILLS BIG [ARTICLE]

TRAVEL BILLS BIG

Documents Covering Wide Range Expenses Come to Speaker. J" Uncle Sam’s “Road Men” Who Are ' "On the Wing” All the YearExpend Enormous Sums % of MonsjG. Washington—Executive documents that dribble' along in the mail of the speaker of the house show . where great sums of government money go with every passing year. Legislators who were real solons in their day and have long since passed the way of all legislative solons preached and practiced the doctrine of publicity, now supposed to be a modern thought, By enactments which first and last numbered scores, if not hundreds, they imposed upon the departments the necessity of making transactions public. , But these reports, are chiefly tabulations and columns of figures. Of course, up-to-date people, as a rule, pay. little heed to such an output.. They are Joo busy to scan and analyze. Who cares that SIOO Were paid to a civil engineer to make a survey of Podunk creek with a view to its improvement when an appropriation from congress could be obtained? Who cares 4hat the'traveling expenses of Special Agent Bill Jones, Investigating land frauds on the public domain, amounted to $987 Within a few months? But most of these comparatively small expenses, which ran Into toillions annually, are all reported in detail to congress. It would not be correct to say that the expenditures are Improper. Very many of them cannot be avoided if the government is to be run efficiently. And yet the fact remains that there probably could be much curtailment without impairing efficiency in the public service. Travel bills, for Instance, have Increased and multiplied during the last decade. It has become an attraction of office-holding at Washington that one has the opportunity of seeing the world without expense, as enlistment posters for the army and navy alluringly announce. The bureau chief who cannot get In a pleasant trip or two every year to some distant part of the country Is rather slow. He is looked down upon by his more enterprising colleagues? There are literally hundreds of “government men,” as they are often called out in the states, who are "on the wing” nearly all of the year. They have a great variety of missions. Some are connected with the score and more of commissions and-others are special agents, Inspectors and the like. All, of course, are within the ,|aw. Otherwise they could not draw their expense money. Primarily congress Is as much to blame as heads of departments If there are abuses. The comptroller of the currency, a stern official, must approve of every Item as coming within the law. Secretary of Agriculture Wilson has just reported that "expedltures for travel” in his department for the year amounted to $197,509.85. That Is only one of the nine departments. Some spent much less for travel and some spent a vast deal more.. But the department of agriculture serves as a fair example- There were 76 different accounts, and some accounts carried expenses for a number of men.

Postal officials travel more, probably, than those of the other departments of the government, except it be the army and navy. That, however, is a service very near the people. As the poet office department is wellnigh self-supporting now, according to the method of bookkeeping followed by Its accountants, all those postal Journeys-are paid for out of the proceeds of postage stamp sales. The war department has the great travel account of all the government departments. Officers and enlisted men must be transported long distances and by the thousands and tens of thousands. There is a smaller but none the-less fat travel account for the navy. The Interior department, administering great affairs and enterprises In the west, likewise spends big sums upon its travelers. The government has become a mammoth business enterprise. There must be Washington men from time to time upon the ground. Inspection along costs millions of dollars. U. S. LEADS IN WARSHIP BUILD- ■ ; .« ? . ING. / • —The naval intelligence office has made good a statement contained In Secretary Meyer’s annual report of great Interest to shipbuilding circles by showing that with the exception of Great Britain the United States can anddoes turn out cheaper and bigger warships, and in less time, than any other maritime power. The naval Intelligence office has just issued a little pamphlet concerning “Some of the Principal Navies of the World,” Intended to answer many requests for Information from debating societies, journals and periodicals, as well as from individuals, concerning the relative strength of the principal naval powers. On the basis of the tonnagd already completed, the United States stands second to Great Britain, but Germany will occupy that enviable ptacwas soon as the vessels now hufiding ar© completed - One point of interest in this report that the big 31,»5-ton dreadnought Utah was bunt here in twa years and ® IX m °f ft nee oi tne x»nusn yara® ibbi year

.... ’ IT was to turn out the Monarch, displacement 22.500 tons, in one year and eight months. . Germany took two years aid eight months from the time the keel was laid to commission the battleship Helgoland of 22,440 tons; France took three years and one month to complete the battleship Danton, >8,019 tons,-while Japan consumed five years and one month In building the battleship Akl, of 19,800 tons. ’’ In the matter of cost, too, the American shipbuilders make a good showing. The 20,000-ton dreadnought North Dakota cost $8,472,150; the German. Helgoland, $11,239,800; the Japanese Satsuma, of 19,350 tons, cost $9,262,800, and the French Voltaire, $10,520,000. Even the British shipbuilders were driven hard by their American competitors, for the Superb, 1,400 tons, smaller than the North Dakota, cost $8,158,828, while the Mg* Lion, of 26,350 tons, or about the size of our New York, cost $9,125,875 without her guns and stoics. - I? 1 1 Sqmi KAW DESCENDENT PRESIDES. ——— . For the first time in the history of the senate a member of that body with Indian blood in his veins was selected as its presiding officer by a vote of the senate itself. When Vice-President Sherman’s mother-in-law, Mrs. Babcock of Utica, N. Y., died recently it was necessary that there should be a presiding officer chosen by the senate during the absence of the vice-president. Under the rules of the senate the vice-presi-dent may temporarily call some one to the ohalr and in this manner Senator Curtis of Kansas has presided over the senate in times past In cases ; of extended absence, however, the senate must have a president pro tempore to wield the gavel. • It will be recalled that many futile hours were used' In the last session of the present congress In trying to elect a president pro tempore of the senate. Senator Galllnger of New Hampshire was the choice of a large majority of the republicans, but he was opposed by the progressive republicans, who hold the bidance of power in the senate, on the ground that he had not kept full faith with them in the making up of the senate committee in the last session. Consequently, the senate has been unable to elect a president pro tempore. « So that Vice-President Sherman might leave Washington to attend the funeral of iris relative, a compromise was agreed to whereby Senator Gallihger nominated Senator Curtis to preside over the senate for a week and this motion was unanimously agreed to. Senator Curtis’grandmother was a Kaw Indian. He was born in Kansas and served eight terms in the house of representatives before his election to the senate. In 1908 he received 1,600 acres of land in Okla, homa as a part of the Kaw allotment. He shares In the honor of representing the native Americans in the senate with Senator Owen of Oklahoma, whose mother was a member of the Cherokee nation.

AEROPLANE FLEET FOR ARMY. Before the end of the present fiscal year the army will own twenty aeroplanes,. distributed among army posts, some even going to the Philippines. General Allen, the chief signal officer, is asking congress for an appropriation to buy as many more of the machines during the next fiscal year, and with that number at his disposal he believes It will be possible to demonstrate thoroughly the utility of aeroplanes for military purposes. Information us to the results obtained by the Italian officers who have used aeroplanes in the war with Tur* key In Tripoli is eagerly awaited, but so far the details of the operations of the Italian military aviation have been carefully guarded. It has become evident that there .must be a substantial addition to the number of officers In the signal corps if the branch of the service is to remain charged with the handling of aeroplanes in the military operations. The machines might be intrusted to civilian experts, but to make them of value for military purposes they must be manned by officers trained in military science and able to do scientific scouting work. BIG GUNS STAND TEST. Ithas become known that the big guns of the heavy defenses guarding the southern entrance to New York harbor were given an extraordinary test recently in the presence of Secretary of. War Stimson and General Weaver, Chief of coast artillery. The day was a raw one, the thermometer standing at about five degrees above zero, while a gale of fifty miles velocity swept over the harbor. The soldiers were obliged to operate the delicate range-finding instruments with their bare hands, and so bitter was the cold that the gun carriages worked stiffly and did not return to the loading position after discharge, making loading operations much harder. Under all these difficulties, however, splendid results were attained. Two targets were towed by a tug at a distance of three and a half to four miles from the batteries, and there is no doubt that every shot at them would have been a hit on the battleships of the dreadnought type. This was the first time the coast artillery ever held fire command service practice under such unfavorable conditions of wind and weather. Secretary Stimson was greatly pleased with ths results.