New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1861-12-07
NATIONAL RETRENCHMENT.

mitted to the House of Representatives bill
reducing generally all salaries and emoluments
exceeding $4,000 per aDnum in the service OF
the United States. Military and Naval officers
in time of war are exempt from this reduction,
but in peace they are to fare like Others. The
rate of reduction ranges from ten to twenty.
five per cent, being highest on the best paid
Offices and lowest on those which command the
smallest compensation above $4,000. On sala-
res below 50, eco per annum, 10 reduction is
proposed.
! Perhaps the best feature of this bill is that
which requires every Collector of Customs, Head
of Bureau, or other functionary having other
emp'0y(S of the Government under his super
vision, to make an annual report of their num-
I how reductions of their number or compensa-
ton may be made without injustice to them or
prejudice TO the public service. And, on the
presentation of such report the President Is
authorized to make the retrenchments sug-
gcsted, without further legislative authorization
than is afforded by this act.
/ OF course, tie bill VIII be met by all manner
of objections and oayils. Few or none Will
openly aud squarely condemn its general pur-
pose, but many will want it modified in this or
that particular to exempt each himself or some
fayorite from its operations. Thus The Herdtd
heartily approves its sections which abolish the
Franking Privilege, reduce the pay OF Mem
bers Of Congress from $4,000 to $4,000 per
aunum, and their allowance for travelling eI-
peuses from forty TO ten cents per mile, re-
curing their mileage TO be made up by the
Topographer of the Post Office Department, aud
to be con puted by the most direct mail route
All this Tie Herald delights in; but it has
serious objections to Gny reduction OF the sala-
rics of the President, ambassadors, &C., &c.
/ Now we do not decide which of these Gee
tons ia the more con.mendable. but we have a
very clear conviction that the former Will be-
much tie harder to pass and is more likely to
defeat the bill than any otter. You can con-
vince anybody else far more easily than a
Member Of Congress that il is a shameful abuse
TO pay Member from Oregon, in addition to
his salary, Five or Six Thousand Dollars per
annum for barely coming TO aud returning from
/ Washington, when bis actual expenses do not
exceed $1,000. II you could only get this
matter before the People for q direct vote,
they would correct the abuse by vote OF at
least a hundred to one; but then you can't,
aud the matter is left to the only tribunal on
elsth whereby the wrong could be pcrpeuated.
Hence, though little will probably be said
about it, this attempt to reduce the pay and
reform the mileage of Congress is very likely
/ to defeat the whole bill.
And -. ~. - 'a'ficuty could not be avoided.
Had Mr.. Conkling seen tit to lnV."d'c' O''
which did mol touch the pay and perquisites OF
| Congress he would have been hooted down at
once. The fact % such omission would have
been forcibly urged as fatal 10 the bill. The
measure may be killed because it is consistent
aud thoroughly right; but it would have been
dead already had it been timidly and haltingly
wrong.
! We do not hesitate to say that, in ordinary
times, we should prefer not TO touch the salary
Of the President. IL il very moderate, consid-
crng the responsibilities. and hospitalltles neces-
.
that the President must generously entertain,
not Lis personal friends, but official and other
/ important personagcs in behalf of the Nation.
But sweeping retreuchment is a National ne
cessity; and an act which cuts down q clerk
or tide-waiter's y, 600 per annum aud leaves
! the Presidents S25, coo and the ambassadors
$4,000 to 81, 800 intact, would be exposed to
iDtolerable odium. Better 20 straight through,
even though it be found expedient to reduce
salaries aud emoluments below 81 900 per an.
nun.
/ In one way or another, the office seeking
nuisance must DO abnted. 1t is drying up the
fountains Of productive industry and rusting
the spring, Of improvement. Our able. aspiring
youth, who ought to BIO the pioneers Of our
further aud rapid advancement in Agriculture,
Manufactures, Mining, Metallurgy, &C., &c,
are nearly all intent on some sort Of public
employment; md the consequence is deadly.
We are not producing one really good farmer,
manufacturer or mecbauic-we mean one who
takes pride in and is calculated TO improve and
eAalt his yocaton-where We need hundred.
Those who should teach us, before the close OF
this century, how to plow twenty acres per
day, to make cheaper as well as better fabrics
from Flax than were ever yet made from Cot.
ton, to grow Indian Corn for ten cents per
bushcl Git is sold for that sum now in the West
but at sad loss to the producer), to make
tun of Steel for the price of three tuns of Pig
Iron, and to slirpass Europe in the beauty
while underseling her in the price of our Cot