Rensselaer Union, Volume 1, Number 13, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 December 1868 — EDITORIAL. [ARTICLE]

EDITORIAL.

Report of the Secretary of War. The report of General Scuorm.n, although brief, is too long to appear in onr columns. A condensed summary, giving tho leading features of most public interest, is all we can publish. - The strength of the army on the 30th of September, 1888, was 43,081, which will be reduced by the Ist of January, 1860, by expiration of term, to about 43,000. There is but one volunteer officer left in the army. He suggests that the term of enlistment be increased to five years as a measure of economy and efficiency. . The Bureau of Military Justice is deficient in the number of advocates, and no provision 'of law exists for their appointment. The expenditures of the Quartermaster’s Department, for the year ending Juno 30, 1868, including claims for stores taken for the use of the army during the war, wore 836,506,381. Claims for property taken during the war have been*allowed to the amount of $500,381 ; rejected $2,654,430; still pending $6,905,691. There have been collected in the National Cemetri.es the remains of 316,233 soldiers, of whom 175,764 . have been recognized. The expense has been $9,700,000. Tho proposed military depot at J Jeffersonville has been broken up ! and th? 8150,000 appropriated for a ; w arehouse at that point has been returned to Treasury. I The Southern railroads yet owe $4,627,095 for material sold, them ' after the war. He asks an appropriation of $50,000 for a stock farm to supply horses tor tit© cavalry. The. average cost of the army rations during the year has been about ■23 cents. The monthly value of toi bacco furnished the troops has been i $20,000. ' The value of subsistence supplied . to the Freedman's Bureau has been $650,000, and to the Indians $570,1 000. ■ - ' t

The deaths in the army during the year were J,621; 452 from yellow fever and 228 from cholera; 174 were discharged for disability. The expense of the Medical Department has been 8842,190 during ,the yeari | The expenditures of the Pay De- • partment during the year ending 'June 30, 1868, were: For the reg- • ular army 817,802,968 ; for. the Military Academy $169,199; and to volunteers $42,696,444. The Recon- ■ struction disbursements were 82,piILULIL; leaving -an ..iinevliendfid ; balance of 8469,626. The total disi bursements under the Bounty Act ■ were $57,764,774 and, with the ' claims allowed at the Treasury, i amount to $54,000,000. ■ Ths Secretary asks permission to ' sell the arsenals at Rome, N. ¥., Vergennes, Vt., and the lands at Harper’s Ferry, and to establish an arsenal at Omaha. The total expenditures of the Freedman’s Bureau during the year reach $3,977,042; 150,000 persons have received medical treatment, and an average of 16,000 have received daily rations. Number of pupils attending school 104,000. • The actual current expenses of the War Department for the year were $68,743,094, to which old war debts to the amount of $9,961,406 are to be added, making an aggregate of 878,704,501. \n>e appropriations for the present year arc $35,440,557, which it is estimated will fall shott of the required sum by,.sl 3,975,000. 'the Secretary advises the transfer of the Indian Bureau to the War Department,

Greeley purposes to write, during the year 1869, an ylementary work on Political economy, wherfciq the policy of Protectiou tbsllojne Industry will be explained and vindicated,. This work will hot he given to the public through successive issues of Thu New York. Tribute, and will appear in ail its editions—Daily, $10; Semi-Weekly, $4 ; Weekly $2 per annum. The Congressional Committee tQ ’ investigate t|>e oltytion frauds iri New York city have arrived and commenced their sessions Last Saturday. * ...