The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1860-02-06

IL 81 U6x =. C4TgT &-f
The Public Printing Corruptlsn-Estab-
lashment ~ . National Printing OAce.
The developements which are being made In
Washington regarding the corruptions Of the
existing system under which the public print
ing is executed are of most extraordinary
character, and call for the active interference
of all honest men in Congress, no matter to
what party they may belong. 1t is useless to
talk about the character of our government
and the honesty of the Legislature whilst such
gross corruption and rottenness exist uncheck-
ed as this legalized robbery of the public
money, by which set Of needy adventurers
are fattened, and a parcel of miserable con-
sumptive newspapers, utterly without influence,
circulation or character, are pensioned and sus-
tanned. We have no sympathy with the colliti-
giants in this affair. It matters little to the
public how the plumber has been or is to be
distributed. As far as Wendell is concerned,
there is no reason to discredit his testimony
that in order to secure the printing he was COM
PEELED to divide the profits among q host of beg
carly Adventures, each one of whom doubtless
had induced some member Of Congress to give
his vote-practically to sell it-upon condition
that his friend or hanger-on should receive
portion of the spoils. The direct charge which
Wendell makes of having had to pay Bowman
twenty thousand dollars year to keep up the
Constitution, out of the profits of the Post Office
blanks alone, is uncontradicted. The assertion
that Wendell has paid 100000 election ex-
penses is not denied. Wendell claims that all
these facts show that he has been badly treated.
But to the mind of any unprejudiced man we
think very different conclusion must be- ar
rived at. 1t is the public who have been badly
treated-it Is they who have been rob-
bed-it is their money that has been thus infa-
mously squandered-it is the public treasury
that has been thus brazenly broken into and
despoiled. And the responsibility of eontinu-
ing this scandalous system of robbery rests not
upon this party or the other, but upon every
single member of Congress who permits its
continuance, and who does not by his voice as
well as his vote place on record his adherence
of crime which, committed against a private
individual, would justly send the perpetrator
to the .penitentiary, and whose moral guilt is
no less great because the responsibility of the
crime rests upon the Congressional body, and
not individual members, who are thus sheltered
from the penalty of the offence.
There is at this time practical mode by
which the corruption which prevails under the
present system can be extirpated. Our tele-
graphic advices from Washington inform us
| that the republicans in caucus have decided
upon bringing forward the name of some OBJ
scure person from the West as public printer
thus repeating the farce of the last Congress,
when penniless adventurer was elected printer,
and Immediately sold out his Office to prac-
teal printer, who did the work. The solution
to the difficulty will be found in the establish
ment of a national printing Office, as bureau
of the government attached to one of the de-
partments. We have for years advocated this
plan as the only mode by which the corruptions
of the present system can be cut of, the work
properly executed, and vast saving made
in the expense, directly and indirectly.
Directly the saving will be in the
government paying only for the actual
cost of the work performed indirectly, in its
ceasing to be an object, as at present, to any
one to induce Congress to print immense mum.
beers Of useless documents, and thus relieving
the mails of the bags Of trash which now en-
cumber them, and which add so materially to
the expenses of the Post Office Department.
And, above all, it will put an end to the rot
tenness and corruption which the Senate inves-
tigation shows to exist, force those beggarly
adventures who are clinging even now to the
skirts of members to go to work, earn an
honest living, or 60 to the poor house, and
compel those miserable hack newspapers
which are supported upon the stealings from
the public treasury to give up the ghost. A
newspaper which cannot obtain supportfrom
the public has neither circulation, influence nor
position, and can render no equivalent for any
eleemosynary support it may obtain.
There is no more difficulty in the way of the
establishment of national printing Office than
in the existence of national navy yards
and national arsenals. They are of the
same character-employing mechanics to
perform the mechanical duties, and paying them
| for the labor they accomplish. On the con-
trary there is an evident inconsistency in giving
out the printing by so-called contract, and not
carrying out the same system not only in the
navy yards and arsenals, but in all the various
bureaus Of the government. An argument
against the propriety of establishing national
printing Office would have equal force as ap-
piled to the several departments; and yet no
one pretends that the State, Treasury, Interior,
War and Navy departments should be let out