New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1850-06-15

printed and paid for. Next came motion
o prips ten, thousand e1tra copies and this
nereectlv absurd and wasteful motion, though
,nposed. was carried. The presumption OF
those voting for it Of course was that II
would be printed of the types already set
up, and would cost very little. No matter
there was not a shadow Of need Of the print
ing, and the burden Inflicted by it on the
postage paying public, through the iraokeo
of such bulk Of useless matter
which not a thousand persons cut OF three
or four cities would care to read, or oug'f |
to read, nobody cared for of course
The FIRST 1,250 copies were printed Dy
Messrs. Tippin & Sreeper, Printers IN par'I
to the last Congress they made 1t a pampn-
let of 1872 pages; SO that the Low copies
cost the Treasury 1852. The next pa'cn
fsu into the hands of Mr. j. NJ. Belt, Father
Ritcbie,s screen. He stretched the lo2
pares to 1876, and charged for printing the
Ten thousand copies the monstrous sum Oh
Thirty-Sepen Thousand 7'oo Hundred D0'-
lars, but generously consented to forgive
Uncle Sam all but Twelve Thousand Five
Hundred Dollars, in consideration OF some
little doubt about the justice of the charge
How q doubt? He assumed that this job
was Of particular class, for which ne was
entitled TO receive "two dollars per page
per hundred copies "a right jolly price as
any man ever heard of, a touch above Call
fornia. But there ,oqs no such stipulation IN
his contract-the OOyds "per page " aoeTe
q sheer interpolation Of his oicn-a gloss or
increase by construction which such de-
votee Of {" the Resolutions of '9S" as Father
Richie should have shrunk from with hor-
ror If the work were to be paid for ac-
cording to Tippin & Streeper' contract, the
total charge for it should have been S5223 /;
# pnder Part A. of Belts own contract
(which is the true consTuctOn) the charge
for it should have been $657&. Under Part
c. of thc-same, it would have amounted 70
Sl79I. Even had it been executed under
the old Joint Resolution of 1919, fixing the
exorbi,ant rates of former years, 1t wouid
have been swelled to 81, SOFA most abomi-
nable price. Yet for this useless, miSer-
able Job, for which they were entitled 10
charge S657I, the present contractors had
the brass to charge $4,000, fall down TO
SO 800, and that sum they have pocketed.
OF course, Controller. Whittlesey will wish
10 disaIlow the charge when Secretary Dick
ens's account of the disbursement OF the late
Contingent Fund comes before him to be
audited; but what good will that do? Has
it not been settled by an opinion of Attorney
Gen. Reyerdy johnson that the Controller
cannot disallow an account approved by the
President of the Senate-that he must pass
it whether he considers it just or not? And
of course it has been struggled by the Chair
somehow, and the money is gone. NOBODY
pays back to the Treasury. And he who
grabbed it is savagely virtuous over the pay
ment of the Galphin Claim, which was bad
enough, certainly, but seems to have been a
real and just claim to start upon, though
not AGAINST the United States. The Galphins
should have been paid long ago by Georgia;
but who ought erer to have paid this mon
strous charge of Richie & Co. at rate
which would make a common Bible cost
twenty dOllarsf ;,
is there no stopping these perpetuaily
succeeding leaks in the Treasury? What
shall he done when even the noisiest watch
dogs about the building fall to gorging them
selves at this gluttOnOus rate? H. g.