EXECUTIVE MANSION, _July 9, 1886_.
_To the Senate_:
I herewith return without approval Senate bill No. 856, entitled "An act
to provide for the erection of a public building in the city of Dayton,
Ohio."
It is not claimed that the Government has any public department or
business which it should quarter at Dayton except its post-office and
internal-revenue office. The former is represented as employing ten
clerks, sixteen regular and two substitute letter carriers, and two
special-delivery employees, who, I suppose, are boys, only occasionally
in actual service. I do not understand that the present post-office
quarters are either insufficient or inconvenient. By a statement
prepared by the present postmaster it appears that they are rented by
the Government for a period of ten years from the 15th day of October,
1883, at an annual rent of $2,950, which includes the cost of heating
the same.
The office of the internal-revenue collector is claimed to be
inadequate, but I am-led to believe that this officer is fairly
accommodated at an annual rental of $900. It is not impossible that a
suggestion to change the area of this revenue district may be adopted,
which would relieve any complaint of inadequacy of office room.
With only these two offices to provide for, I am not satisfied that the
expenditure of $150,000 for their accommodation, as proposed by this
bill, is in accordance with sound business principles or consistent with
that economy in public affairs which has been promised to the people.