New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1860-11-15

You are inclined 10 snetr NJ MS hOrdld asplra-
TONS but Why Here is a poor, Woodworking city
mechanic, who is barely able, by the utmost dill
gence, to win the needfu bread Of his growing
family. lie earns perhaps ten dollars per week
when fully cmployed and that barely supplies the
crowded lodgings, coarse garments and tolerabe
food, that ore the barest necessities of his fam
ily's daily existence; but occasionally work fails
and be is compelled to solicit credit of his grocer
and crave the forbearance Of his landlord, run
ming up q debt to be slowly paid off by future
parsimony. His whole life is succession OF mean
expedients, of paltry economies. How can you
blame this man for wishing and seeking TO get
appointed on the Police or to an lnspectorshiP
of Customs That would secure him-for
time at least--against the terror OF being thrown
out of work, the hard necessity OF standing, cap
in hand, before one employer after another,
meekly soliciting opportunity to earn his bread
it would enable him to feed and lodge, to dress
and school. his little ones az he feels that they
really need. How can you blame this man for
taking bis chance with others in seeking an APP
pointment when such is to be had
And vet the system which invites him to do
so is blight and curse. Our clever, active
young men are debauched and ruined by it. They
take or they hold position with this or that
party. not so much from deliberate conviction
that it is right, as from shrewd calculation
that-either in the pending contest or in the
long rn-it is likely to win. Perhaps few are
conscious of this impulse, but it does not the
less surely exist Thousands are swayed by it
in our City alone.
The Young mechanic is not governed by an ardent
desire to achieve emnence in his handicraft and
does not give his best thoughts and efforts to it;
for his hopes Of success in life are not bound up
in it. He does not save and invest the earnings
of his unfettered years; for he says TO himself:
These are paltry and of no account: shall
"sOon obtain an appointment on the Police, or
ain the Custom-II House, and then / can easily
"make money!" So he smokes and drinks, If
he does no worse; he spends his evenings in
club.rooms and bar-rooms, intent on making the
interest that must ultimately secure him the
place he covets-Or something as good He thus
becomes poor economist, an Indifferent work
man, bad or very middng husband aud father,
and probably dies a poor, brokcndown, disap-
pointed ofhce-seeker and leaves his children to
the tender merces of municipal charity. Such
is a rude outline of the biography Of thousands
on thousands.
Blame not the men-pity them rather; for
they are victims of internal system-of that
system that fixes the recompense OF placemen
above that of faithful workers in productive ayo-
cations. The simple, effective cure for these
woes consists in he reduction Of official comPensa-
ton to that Of equicaem serrice in other fields Of
useful effort. This does not at all imply that q
Marshal of this District, a District-Attorney,
Collector of Customs at this port should be paid
only the wages of q hodcarrier, but merely that
they should be- paid what the abilities and ac-
quirements demanded by their respective posi-
tons would earn in other service. A great law
yer may as fairly earn his 500 per day as
payer earns his dollar; for that days work in
Court implies not merely rare natural gifts, but
years of laborious and costly preparation. But
we do and must insist that while nearly every
capable upright, intelligent mechanic would make
a fair Policeman or Inspector of Customs, 1t Il
wrong it is mschevOus, while the average
wages of good mechanics do not exceed
$40 per week to pay Policemen $40
and Inspectors OF Customs sd, and that il
is such exOrbitant compensation of placemen tina
poisous the whole body polite with oflice-seeking.
If newly appointed Policemen and Inspectors
were paid but so each per week, to be
increased after two years faithful service to SD,
and after each three years thereafter by ~ until
it amounted to o maximum of SIS, the public
would be better served than it now is, the itch
for Office would abate, and our current politics
become far more honest aud unsellish. And until
the reform We urge shall be effected, il is sheer
waste of breath to nyegh against the universal
ity Of Ofice-seeking.
Young man now keen ON the scent Of an
office under the incoming Administration go
ahead You have just good right as the
next man, provided he is no more capable aud
worthy than you are. But never forget that
where so many seek, ninety-nne of every hundred
must fail, and that you stand an excellent chance
to come out one of the nnety-nlne. Do not
then, wear out great deal of shOe-leather in
the hunt-dO not make bore of yourself by i'm
portuning Indifferent persons to waste good lux
in signing your recommendation not forget
that bOeing corn and pulling stumps will be good
business these many years and that great
many more people must always get their living
by them than by holding office. You may secure
what you are now intent on, but you probably
viii not; and if failure should make sOured, ma
Gguant renegade of you, it will be very certain
and obvious that one office-seeker has got his
drserts however il may be with others