INTERNAL RELATIONS. 287 



2d, to count material on hand as costing nothing to the appropria- 

 tion, making estimates only for supplementary funds for actual 

 expenditure. 



The first alternative is cumbersome and would often be extrav- 

 agant, and the second is misleading and, when the material 

 employed was bought under a different appropriation from that 

 under which it is consumed, would be unfair, as it would rob one 

 appropriation for the sake of helping another. Such a practice 

 often repeated would increase unduly the apparent cost for mate- 

 rial, say of cartridges, if this cost, instead of being finally deter- 

 mined by the indications of the cost sheet, as is here proposed, 

 were arrived at from the ratio of product to appropriation, as was 

 done at the National Armory in 1878. 



When the material on hand is held under the appropriation 

 under which it is to be consumed, there is no transfer between 

 appropriations, and the adoption of the second alternative would 

 do no wrong if the material said to be available were always 

 actually used as intended in the estimate. But we can never be 

 .sure of anything in advance, and hence I believe that the safest 

 general rule would be to make estimates for funds according to 

 the full estimated cost of the work and to apply the saving due to 

 the use of surplus material on hand towards continuing the 

 .accumulation of a similar surplus as a timely provision for future 

 emergencies. 



There are certain conditions in which this procedure would 

 appear absurd, but notwithstanding, I believe that the general rule 

 -would give the best results. For example, let us say that to make 

 certain repairs to quarters, $100 in funds will suffice, provided 

 that material on hand be used, the material having been bought 

 long ago, say for gun carriages. Wooden carriages have become 

 obsolete, and the timber which it is proposed to use has been 

 stored so long as to be in dire danger of dry rot ; there is there- 

 fore every reason that the timber should be used on the quarters, 

 provided the gun carriage account be indemnified. This I would 

 do by estimating the repairs at their full cost, which the Chief of 

 Ordnance should know before reducing thus the general resources 

 of the department, and recovering from the appropriation for 



