Jasper County Democrat, Volume 8, Number 44, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 February 1906 — BLEEDING UNCLE SAM [ARTICLE]

BLEEDING UNCLE SAM

Grafting Still Flourishes In the Departments. HOW THE PEOPLE ABE PLUNDEBED Extraordinary Difference In Prices Paid For Supplies For the Government Offices—A Lour Lease of Power Has Given Rise to Lax Management and Extravagance. That as fast as one graft is found out and abolished there are two others at work plundering the people is shown by the purchase of supplies for the government offices. When the scandal in the postoffice department exposed such Republican rottenness many people fondly imagined that since some of tho grafters were punished all the grafting and extravagance were abolished. But, although there has been improvement in the postoffice department, the price now being paid for supplies in the other departments shows grafting or gross ignorance. As red tape is a supposed necessity in a government office, every department buys a large quantity, but the price varies according to the propensities of the purchasing agent. The war department paid $1.42 for a dozen spools, while the state department paid $2.25. For oilers for the typewriters the navy department paid 25 cents a dozen, while the interior department paid sl.lO per dozen. For foolscap paper the postoffice department paid GVi cents a pound, while the navy department paid 992-100 cents a pound. For quart bottles of writing fluid the postoffice department paid $1.30 a dozen, while the department of justice paid $4.50 a dozen. For small bottles of mucilage the postoffice paid 'Bl cents a dozen, while the war department paid $1.95. For quart bottles of mucilage there was even more disparity, for while the postoffice department paid $1.65 the department of agriculture paid $3, and the department of justice paid $3.83. For tracing cloth thirty-six inches wide, twenty yards in each roll, the war department paid $4.90 a roll, while all the other departments paid as high as $6.14 a roll for the same article sold by the same firm. There is an interesting variety of prices in the table for copying ink. The postofflce department paid $1.70 a dozen quart bottles; tho navy department, $5.76; treasury. $2.10; commerce and labor. $3.85; agriculture, $4; the interior, $2.82, and the department of justice, with its usual high price, $5.88. For red ink the postoffice paid 24 cents for one dozen two ounce bottles; the tfar department, 70 cents; the navy department, GO cents, and the agriculj tural department, 23 cents. It will be noticed that the postoffice : department, where the scandals caused a shakeup and a new office was created to purchase all the supplies used, the prices now are the lowest and presumably reasonable. But what can be said of the buyers of all the other departments, who are paying so much more, In many cases double? From the department of justice, which appears to be tHe most extravagant or the greatest grafter, down to the department of agriculture, which has been under suspicion for some time, there is evident need of business supervision, for the price paid for some articles is more than the same could be bought for at retail. Under a Republican administration Uncle Sam is bled at every pore, whethor it Is millions for armor plate or thousands on ink and mucilage. A long lease of power breeds extravagance and grafting, and what is needed is a Democratic congress to Investigate all the departments of the government. for It is almost Impossible for a i party In power to reform itself that relies upon graft for its campaign funds.