Jasper County Democrat, Volume 4, Number 3, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 April 1901 — WASHINGTON GOSSIP [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

WASHINGTON GOSSIP

According to the latest official list, there are 10,440 public functionaries of various kinds and degrees employed exclusively in the District of Columbia eonducting the numerous departments and bureaus of • the federal government. These are the civilian appointees in tfie executive departments and do not include Senators and Representatives and several hundred employes of the housee who vibrate between the capital and their homes in other parts of the country. Nor does this aggregate include 350 or 400 army and navy officers, active and retired, who form a large permanent colony. The monthly compensation of thes» 19.446 civilian employes amounts to sl,635,708.81. Therefore the aggregate sum in salaries annually paid out in Washington by the government disbursing clerks reaches the enormous total of $19,628,505.72. Besides, probably not less than $3,000,000 additional goes to the Senators and Congressmen and their subordinates and perhaps $1,250,000 more to the army and navy officials, most of whom are of high rank with large pay, there being constantly in Washington not less than sixty generals and admirals, active and retired. These totals form a grand aggregate of $23,878,050.72 annually paid out in Washington in the single item of salaries.

Last year our national liquor bill amounted to $1,050,505,787, an average per capita of $13.94, or 17\68 gallons. In 1900 the people of Great Britain paid $804,458,590 for alcoholic drinks, an average per eapita of $17.29. Of this amount England paid $667,607,215, an average of $20.79 per head of population; Scotland, $71,529,505, nu average of $16.58, and Ireland, $65,322,070, an average of $14.50 per head. The aggregate shows a decrease in Great Britain from the previous year of $6,358,780. The people of the United States, however, are consuming larger quantities of alcoholic liquors than formerly. Last year the average of all alcoholic drinks per capita —17.6 S gallons—has only been exceeded once since 1891, when, in 1593, the average reached 18.20 gallons. 'More galionr of coffee are consumed' than any other drink or stimulant, amounting in 1900 to 1,257.985.296 gallons, compared with 1,221,500,160 gallons of beer. In 1900 we also consumed $37,312,608 worth of tea and $6,000,000 of cocoa, bringing the total for alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks to $1,228,674,925. an increase over 1899 of $81,777,103.

The statistics of foreign trade show that there has been a constant increase in the exports and a constant decrease in the imports. The figures for the nine months of the current fiscal year ending March 31 show a total of $1,140,170,728 merchandise an increase of $88,540,032 over the corresponding period in the previous year, which was the highest record in our history. At the same time the imports show a decrease of $42,292,639 compared with the nine months of the previous year, which makes the balance of trade In our favor $540,687,337 for nine,months, an increase of $128,832,671. The largest increase has been in the export of agricultural products. The export of manufactures is slightly less because of the interruption of trade with China and the fact that shipments to the Hawaiian Islands and Porto Rico are no longer included in the statistics of foreign commerce. Tlie government reserves as a monopoly the right to carry the mails. For the convenience of the public letters may be transmitted by express upon the payment of the regular express charges provided they are inclosed in government stamped envelopes. It is a violation of the law for an express company or individual to transport mails upon which the postage has not been paid in that way. An adhesive postage stamp will not do. Express companies arc not authorized to cancel imprinted stamped envelopes which they are permitted to deliver, but it is expected that the receiver will in opening the envelope render it untit for further ns*. Imported postage stamps cannot be cut from one envelope an l used upui another. Should a government stamped envelope be defaced any postmaster may redeem it if it bears no mark of having been previously used. Assistant Postmaster General Madden is receiving many replied to his circglr.r seeking the judgment of legitimate newspapers as to the propriety of ruling out of the second-class mails publications that depend upon premiums for their circulation. A large majority of the replies contain assurances that the publishers’ associations throughout the country will hack up the depaytuieut in any mousims it may take to suppress “fake" periodicals. The congressional appropriation of $3,000,000 for the extension of the rural delivery postal service becomes available in three months, and Chief Maehen of the I’ostotflce Department is now getting ready to spend it. The rural delivery routes cost an average of SSOO a year each, and, allowing $560,000 for clerical Hire and -other expenses, it will bo possible to establish about 5.000 new routes.

The President has appointed l seventeen new army chaplains and a board has been detailed to examine them ns to their qualifications. Among other things the board is instructed to inquire into their “moral character,” which is said to he very important iu the case of a chaplain. On the 30th of June next, in obedience to an act of Congress, all government aid to sectarian schools for the Ihdians or religious missions among them will bo ter-* minuted, but assurance* have been received from the boards of management of tho different denominations that their work will continue without interruption and nt their owu expense. Iu former years largt gums of money were paid to tbe variotu religious denominations -for sectarian schools, bnt since 1894 most of the appro oriations have been cut off.