Rensselaer Republican, Volume 23, Number 31, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 April 1891 — UNCLE SAM CLOSE FISTED. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

UNCLE SAM CLOSE FISTED.

Many Millions Does He Owe tha« He Refuses to Pay. Special Washington letter. The government was very .poor duping Washington’s two terms of office—even poorer'than the people—-for method; of taxation had not yet been matured, and while the outgo was regular and certain the income was capriciou* and doubtful It had been agreed that the public buildings should be constructed with money obtained from the sale of the government lots in the city, but this came in slowly, and a part oi it went in expenditures not contemplated by the contract. The fact is that the usually level head of the great Washington himself was turned during that decade. That prudent personage actually indulged in| enthusiasm and flew kites. He dieted that the raw swamp town that had been named for him would haver 100.000 population in twenty-five years, and that it would outstrip New York, or even Boston. He speculated somewhat in real estate here himself and paid for Washington lots twice what; they would fetch to-day. He enconri ged Robert Morris to speculate, and 1 that shrewd financier, who had held! the armies of the revolution up by main! strength, sunk all of his money and! passed four years in a debtors’ prison. It was during that dismal season that, the federal government appealed toi Virginia and Maryland for a loan, un-> der the implied threat to keep the captol at the north if the loan was not forthcoming. t In round figures Maryland lent $72,000 and Virginia $120,000. Not a cent of it has ever been paid back. Will it; ever be? Doubtful.

As a senator recently said, “the. United States government is the mostj relentless creditor and the most exact-! ing and unscrupulous debtor that thoi sun shines on. When it is owed it is a very Shylock, when it owes it is as indifferent to its obligations as a tramp.” The machinery to which a creditor of Uncle Sam must appeal is so elaborate as to dissuade all but tha pluckiest First, he must apply to congress for permission to go to the court of claims. After tedious years and great expense that court is reachedperhaps witnesses summoned, and tha correctness of the bill verified—perhaps. Then he must go to the secretary of the treasury and induce that august functionary to condescend to include the amount in the current propriations asked for.

If the favor i 9 graciously granted, the claimant, if still alive, must go back to congress and watch the appro* priation at every step of its progress, through two committees and through two houses. Nine times out of ten some demagogue thief “Object!” to the amount and it is dropped, and the claimant's children or grandchildren may again present the bill, with the same circumlocution, in future years. The Robert Morris 1 have mentioned was out of pocket $300,000 for ad vances during the revolution and his loss was never made good. Similarly John Ericsson saved the country by sending the Monitor to Hampton Roads in 1862, and was never paid for it On his death-bed he daunted an unpaid bill in the face at Uncle Sam. There are tens of millions of dollars in the treasury that honestly belong to the citizens of the United States for various services rendered, and they are likely to stay there forever.

I happen to know a case In point. In 1861 a cartridge factory blew up in this city and killed some twenty young women engaged in the difficult and dangerous business of filling cartridges by hand. A young man exumined the 6cene, thought it over, and concluded that he could make a machine that wonlij do the work. He broached, the idea tc the war department and wad. laughed at for his pains, being in* formed by the chief of ordinance that the thing was impossible. The young man, whom I will call Dodge, persisted in his dream, devised a plan, made a working model, carried it to the chief of ordnance and set it going. That puzzled functionary was surprised, bewildered, pleased, convinced. He took it to the secretary of war and said: “Every cartridge hitherto made in the world has been made by hand; no more will be made by hand when this remarkable m ochine is generally adopted, and it will save two-thirds the expense.” The secretary sent for Dodge and gave him n order for a machine, authorizing him to incur the necessary expense in making it The young man went to New York and Boston, got the various patterns constructed and parte made, assembled them and set up the machine in Washington. It did all that had been predicted for U and immediately superseded hand filling in all the arsenals of Ihe country. More than that, the government made machines and sold them to France, England and other countries and the whole world now fills Us cartridge* with machines made on the same model. Well, that was a quarter of a century .ago. Dodge has never received • pen jy for his valuable aud humane Invention town any source whateveal

UNCLE SAM AS A MISER.