uilding and the
amount and variety of the business which is there transacted; and the
postmaster in stereotyped phrase represents the desirability of
increased accommodation for the transaction of the business under his
charge.

But I am thoroughly convinced that there is no present necessity for the
expenditure of $100,000 for any purpose connected with the public
business at this place.

The annual rent now paid for the post-office is $1,300.

The interest, at 3 per cent, upon the amount now asked for this
new building is $3,000. As soon as it is undertaken the pay of a
superintendent of its construction will begin, and after its completion
the compensation of janitors and other expenses of its maintenance will
follow.

The plan now pursued for the erection of public buildings is, in my
opinion, very objectionable. They are often built where they are not
needed, of dimensions and at a cost entirely disproportionate to any
public use to which they can be applied, and as a consequence they
frequently serve more to demonstrate the activity and pertinacity of
those who represent localities desiring this kind of decoration at
public expense than to meet any necessity of the Government.

GROVER CLEVELAND.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, _May 10, 1888_.

_To the House of Representatives_:

I return without approval House bill No. 7715, entitled "An act for the
relief of Georgia A. Stricklett."

By the terms of this bill a pension is allowed to the beneficiary above
named, whose husband died on the 21st day of July, 1873. It appears from
the records that he was mustered into the service to date from October
10, 1863, to serve for one year. It is alleged in the report of the
committee of the House who reported this bill that he was wounded with
buckshot in the face and head by bushwhackers, when on recruiting
service, on the 23d day of July, 1863. If these dates are correct, he
was wounded before he entered the service; but this fact is not made the
basis of the disapproval of the widow's application for relief. There
seems, however, to be no mention of any such injury during his term of
service, though he is reported sick much of the time when present with
his regiment, and is reported as once in hospital for a disease which,
to say the least of it, can not be recognized as related to the service.

The soldier himself made no application for pension.

A physician testifies that he was present on the 21st day of July, 18