THE INCREASE OF PUBLIC EXPENDITURES.

THE Constitution of the United States invests Congress alone with power to appropriate money from the National treasury to the public use, but in the practical working of our system of Government, the responsibility for public expenditure is divided between Congress and the Executive department. "No money shall be drawn from the Treasury but in consequence of appropriations made by law," and the President "shall take care that the laws be faithfully executed." Under these two provisions of the Constitution and under this measure of responsibility, in general terms, are placed the control and disposition of the moneys which from year to year are gathered into the Treasury of the United States. There is, however, another provision-undoubtedly arising out of the jealousy with which the founders of the Republic regarded military power-which, while investing Congress with authority "to raise and support armies," ordains that "no appropriation of money to that use shall be for a longer term than two years." There is unquestionably a further and most important limitation on this power of appropriation found in the nature and extent of the powers conferred by the Constitution on the several departments of Government and especially on Congress, for it is necessarily implied that the expenditure of the public money shall not extend to objects beyond the scope of the Government established.

The comprehensive authority for raising revenue, "The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts, and excises, to pay the debts and provide for the common defence and general welfare of the United States," perhaps more clearly limits the power of appropriation, by just implication, to the promotion of objects exclusively national. Within the limits named, which are more implied than expressed, there is no restriction on the power of Congress, except those con

tained in the fourteenth amendment incident to the late war, to appropriate money from the public treasury.

The usual practice has prevailed ever since the organization of the Government for the President to transmit to Congress, at the opening of each regular session, an estimate in detail of the money required by each of the Executive departments during the ensuing fiscal year, and on the basis of these estimates the appropriations are made. But Congress can make (except for the support of the army) what are called permanent and indefinite appropriations, under which, without further action of Congress, large sums of money are annually withdrawn from the Treasury by the Executive departments. These permanent and indefinite appropriations which Congress in former years deemed it proper to make, have become apparently permanent features in our system, and are in the main for the payment of the interest and principal of the public debt and the cost of collecting the customs revenue. There is, however, a long list of minor permanent and indefinite appropriations, and the tendency is, notwithstanding persistent opposition, to enlarge the list, for such appropriations are convenient to the departments and diminish the labor of Congressional Committees. That abuses should occur under this practice is inevitable. This class of appropriations includes money deposited in the public treasury by private parties for surveys of public lands; thus, while last year Congress appropriated $400,000 out of the Treasury for that purpose, private parties, in view of the excessive profits of surveying contracts, deposited $2,052,306.36 to secure such surveys, which is expended without action of Congress. But permanent and indefinite appropriations are mainly confined to the extraordinary expenditures, and the appropriations annually made by Congress substantially express the current ordinary expenditures of the Government.

It is obvious that the authors of the Constitution, while careful to define and limit many of the great powers conferred on the departments of Government, yet in the matters of revenue and expenditure-matters of vital and persistent interestrelied exclusively on the vigilance of the people and the restraining force of public opinion. Hence, the Constitution casts the responsibility of such measures largely on the House of Congress most immediately responsible to the people. "All bills for raising revenue shall originate in the House of Representatives,"

and "the yeas and nays of the members of either House on any question shall, at the desire of one-fifth of those present, be entered on the journal." The Constitution also carefully provides for keeping the people well informed of the action of Congress, especially as to expenditures: "Each House shall keep a journal of its proceedings, and, from time to time, publish the same"; and specially provides that “a regular statement and account of the receipts and expenditures of all public moneys shall be published from time to time."

So it will appear, that while Congress is charged with the control of the public moneys and has the undoubted constitutional power to fix a definite limit on their expenditure, yet because of the practice of permanent and indefinite appropriations, the dependence of Congress on the Executive department for details of the public requirements, and especially the persistent habit in departments and bureaus of making expenditures, and contracts involving expenditures, in excess of the appropriations, which sooner or later, in the form of "Audited Accounts," receive legislative recognition, the responsibility for the expenditures of Government is practically divided between Congress and the Executive departments. The demand for the constant exercise of the powers of the people in the administration of the Government is nowhere more manifest than in the ample, and in a large degree unrestricted powers of Congress in the raising of revenue and its expenditure, and in the tendency in Congress to divide the responsibility for expenditure with the Executive departments, which, while less open to public observation, are the more exposed to unscrupulous raids upon the public funds committed to their charge. Surely, the fathers could indulge the confident belief that in matters that concerned the integrity as well as the burdens of Government, public vigilance would not be suspended.

In the early years of our history there were high motives for frugal government, not only in the impoverished condition of a people just emerging from a great struggle, but in the desire to present a contrast between a free people administering their own affairs and the impoverishing governments of Europe; nor can we doubt that the self-denying statesmen of that day sought to present to the coming ages the example of a Government having in view only the happiness and prosperity of its people. To the close of 1791, from the inauguration of Wash

ington as President, the revenues were $4,409,951.19; and the entire expenditure, including $175,813.88 for pensions, $1,177,863.03 for interest and $699,984.23 payment on the public debt, amounted to $3,797,436.78, leaving still nearly three-quarters of a million of dollars in the Treasury. Passing from this period to the close of the half century, we find that in 1841 the entire current ordinary expenditures (omitting the extraordinary-pensions, interest, and payments on the public debt, for these cannot well be considered in a review of current, ordinary expenditures and belong to specific periods) were $23,808,405.78. The appropriations for this year, for the ordinary expenditures, were $22,147,701.91. The expenditure exceeded the appropriations in consequence of Indian war. The appropriations include for the civil list, diplomatic and postal service, $8,517,079.35, and for the army, navy, fortification, West Point and Indians, $13,620,566. The civil list includes appropriations for military, geographical and geological surveys. The Executive office is not overlooked, and for that service the whole appropriation is as follows: "For annual repairs of the President's house, gardeners' salary, horse and cart, laborers and tools, and for amount due F. Masi and Company for repairs on furniture, $2628." And at the foot of this list of appropriations for 1841, the following interesting legend arrests attention: "No new offices created or salaries increased." Such, at the end of half a century, was the force of a great example and public vigilance; and yet, as will appear, the expenditures of 1841 were materially above the average of that period, at least of ensuing years, and exceeded by two million dollars those of the preceding year. Up to this period, the entire expenditures of Government, including pensions and excluding the public debt, was $632,351,388. Our territory had been vastly extended by two great purchases, and our population had reached beyond seventeen millions.

We are not able as yet to compare our second half century of government with the first; dividing the completed period will indicate the result when it can be done. The appropriations made for the current expenses of the first fiscal year of President Lincoln's administration, which commenced on the first day of July, 1861, excluding a double appropriation for the postal service and the pension list, were $64,621,603.46. Some increase of military force was included, and the disordered state of the country precludes any just comparison; but during the preceding

decade, as will appear, there was a marked tendency to increased expenditure. The appropriations for the current ordinary expenditures of 1882 were $148,412,071.46, and for the present fiscal year reach $179,729,015.21, pensions and public debt in both years excluded. The entire current appropriations for the year are $295,729,015.21, including $116,000,000 for the pension list, sixteen millions of which are for deficiencies of the preceding year. A portion of this appropriation for pensions, it is believed, will not be required during this fiscal year. To this is to be added the estimated expenditure of $80,591,225 under permanent appropriations, making the aggregate for the year $376,320,240, independent of the sinking fund.

In 1841, at the beginning of our second half century, our population exceeded seventeen millions; in 1883, it is over fiftythree millions, and our current ordinary expenditures, civil list, consular and diplomatic, postal service, army, navy, and miscellaneous (pensions and public debt excluded), have increased on the basis of the appropriations above given, in the period of forty-two years, more than sevenfold. It must be admitted that in some degree growth of population involves some increase in the expenses of our Government, but it cannot be shown that the necessary increase would be even observable except through a considerable period of years.

For several years the prominent, and yet, within reasonable limits, the most justifiable increase of expenditure is noticeable in the post-office department. In 1853, it had reached by slow degrees, $7,982,957, and in the last fiscal year, $40,482,021. This is largely attributable to the extension of the railroads and the heavy charges they impose on the Government. The postal service is of especial interest and value to the whole people, yet recent events have demonstrated how readily and plausibly even a great public institution, where intregity is of special value, can be dishonestly employed in the interests of private aggrandizement. But the decline of the old-time frugality is everywhere manifest. The most unexpected objects for expenditure are discovered. The appropriations for the present year contain $61,676.45 for expenses incurred by gentlemen in their contests for seats in Congress. At the close of our first half century, $29,128.00 was deemed sufficient for the compensation of the President and the expenses of the Executive office; in President Lincoln's term, $39,600 was all that was required; while