Jasper County Democrat, Volume 9, Number 50, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 March 1907 — A BILLION SPENT IN THREE MONTHS. [ARTICLE]

A BILLION SPENT IN THREE MONTHS.

Republican papers and Republican politicians say that the late session of congress was “efficient,” Well, what did it do? From December to March it devoted its time to salary grab measures, subsidy grafts and to the expenditure of a billion dollars of the public money. ' Seven Republican congressmen from Indiana voted for the ship subsidy steal. The two Indiana senators, Beveridge and Hernenway, voted for it, The ship subsidy proposition is merely a new form of thievery. It would have been passed if it had not been for the solid Democratic opposition. And even then it was only by holding the senate floor and talking against time that the steal was prevented. Some time ago the justly famed Abe Martin remarked that the militia ought to be called out to disperse the Legislature. At the conclusion of the session Abe made the following sage and truthful observation: If any plain people hev been benefitted by th’ two thousand-dollar-a-day Sixty-Fifth General Assembly, it must o’ been thet apple woman thet sets by th’ elevator in th’ State House.’’

The people of Indiana should romembor these names: James E Watson, Jesse Overstreet, Edgar D. Crumpacker, James Foster, John C. Chaney, George Cromer, Abraham Lincoln Brick. They are the names of Republican congressmen from Indiana and they all voted for the attempted ship subsidy graft. This graft consisted in taking money out oi the public treasury and giving it to the ship trust. Every one of the above named men knew that the people of this State and of all the other states were opposed to the proposition. Every one of them and every other man who voted for this iniquity is unfit to be a member of the American Congress.

The legislature whioh has just expired commanded the services of the following Republicans: One governor, one lieutenant governor, one speaker, fifty-three representatives, thirty-seven senators, one secretary and assistant secretary of the Senate, one sergeant-at-arms and one assistant sergeant-at-arms of the Senate, one clerk and one assistant clerk of the House, 125 subordinate clerks, doorkeepers, stenographers, janitors, a total of 223. Assisting were all the committees of both House and Senate, each with a Republican ohairman. Further assisting the above aggregation were three

Republican daily newspapers published in Indianapolis. To oppose the above force was a little but valiant company of fortyseven Democratic representatives tatives and thirteen Democratic senators —a total of sixty. It is easy to see where the responsibility for the miserable failures of the session must be placed.

The Fifty-ninth congress is d-ad, but the evil it did lives after it. It was the "Two Billion Dollfti ” congress. It spent approximutely that much of the people’s money. The last session, beginning Dec. 3 and ending March 4 a brief period of three months — appropriated $919,948,679 for the fiscal year 1908. This is an increase of $40,359,494 over the appropriations made for the current fiscal year and $57,266,192 over the appropriations for the fiscal year 1899, made at the first regular session of the Fifty-fifth congress*, which covered substantially the entire expenses of the military and naval establishments on account of the war with Spain. But it appears from a statement prepared by Congressman Livingston, the ranking Democratic member of the house appropriations committee, that the expendi- j tures for 1908 will be $75,000 greater than the above figures show and that there will be a great deficit. Mr. Livingston says: "Enormous as are these appropriations for the next fiscal year, there should be added to them the further sums of $25,000,000 on account of contracts authorized in the naval bill for additional warships and for which no sums whatever are yet appropriated, and the sum of $49,829,349 for contracts authorized in the river and harbor appropriation bill, in addition to the appropriations made in that act. These sums, added to the total apparent appropriations of the session, make the tremendous sum of $994,778,028.63, carried either in direct appropriations or authorizations at this session of congress, establishing a new record for federal appropriations approaching the prodigious sum of $1,000,000,000 for a single session of congress. “The highest estimates placed on the probable revenues of the government from all sources during the coming fiscal year indicate that they will be at least $100,000,000 below the appropriations and authorizations for expenditures chargeable to the session of congress just closing. “The increase for the army over last year is #6,718,117.67. Increase for the navy over last year, $21,367,000, with the authorization for two new ships. Increases for fortifications, $1,844,000. Increase for pensions, $5,691,000. If thiß military spirit and extravagance is to continue, the ways and means committee had better get busy and provide a large increase in the revenues.’’