The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1856-02-11

Il mCut III tuC 41Ou5o Va nCHN C0Cut0utcb sul
morning of the standing committees appoint
| ed for this session by Mr.. Speaker Banks, VIC
presume the House will proceed to ballot
again for Printer. The closing experiments
Last week upon this mass Of the public plum
der left the issue in extreme doubt and un-
certainty. The regular Seward party candi-
date, Mr.. Follctt- Of the Ohio State Jo1nal-was
dropping off; the regular democratic candidate
Mr.. Wendell, formerly of the firm Of Wendell
Il Van Benthuysen, of Albany)-was not gain
ing anything; and the Know Nothings, between
Farnum and Towers, OF Washington, (the one
bookseller in, and the other the Mayor of,
that city, and Sargent, Of Philadelphia, and
Defrees, of Indiana, remind us Of the five thou
sand people of old, all hungry for cold bite,
and with only "five loaTes and two small fishes
to 60 upon, but with no divine medium in this
case to multiply the quantity in the process Of
the distribution.
The total omission of the name OF Vespasian
Ellis, OF the Washington TX. ny Organ, in this
general scramble, is very curious thing.
Whether his late black republican baptism,
and his last summers rigid Southernism, taken
together, have disguised both branches of his
party, or whether he is stalking under the
wing of Mr.. Sargent, Mr.. Farnum, or Mr.. Towers,
does not yet appear We suspect, however, that
both to the buyer and the seller his chances
will prove bad speculation, If any attempt
has been, or should be, made to negotiate a
bargain. That some bargain of some sort
among the three parties Of the House has been
under deliberation, we are led to suspect from
hint thrown out by one of our Seward or
gans, If we are not mistakenly that the spoils
of the House printing are too heavy to give
to any oRe party, and that accordingly some
equitable division of this fat work should
and probably will, be made.
But why give this House printing, with its
profits of fifty, seventy-fve, or q hundred
thousand dollars year, as the case may be
to any party organ, or combination of party
organs? Why not retain this money in the
public treasury, instead of dispensing it for
the disgraceful purposes of party corruption
A government printing office, in saving these
fifty or seventy-fve thousand dollars year to
the treasury, would soon pay all the necessary
expenses for the buildings and materials Of
government establishment. And why not have
. printing bureau as well as patent Office bu
reau, or an Indian bureau, or pension, or
land bureau. THERE'S already Superintendent
Of Public Printing why not place the work en-
tirely under the control of some such officer,
reserying the profits to the treasury which are
now used as party corruption fund?
II there is a man in the House possessed OF
the requisite moral courage and independence
to make move in this direction, we should
like to see him try the experiment at once.
Neither of the three parties wrangling for this
grand haul of the spoils being in majority,
possibly motion to divert it from party pur-
poses to public uses might result in scheme
Of substantial reform. To this complexion it
must come at last" for our federal government,
from this printing and other monetary sources
of Generalization, will go on from bad to
worse till it sinks in the Mexican slough of
rottenness, anarchy and dissolution.
We perceive that in the Senate Mr. Bayard
has introduced bill for government prip :
ing office; but the House is the place for the
initiation Of this project Who moves it,
THE KANSAS WAR-OMINoUs STATE OF Times