The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1865-04-13
Retrenohment versus ECONOMY.

OuuCl LILO nCdQ vi 1COuOlny 0sN AsS-
trenchment," Tuesdays argus furnished
what looks like capital illustration Of that
type Of so-called economy which is quantity
described as Saving at the spiggot and vast
ing at the bung" In a word, the argus finds
that certain of our municipal officers are bet.
ter paid than public servants of similar func-
tions in Newburyport, and therefore proposes
to reduce our expenditures in this direction to
the Newburyport standard. Aa0
We desire the argus to take notice in the
first place that retrencbment and economy are
two words and not one, as we hope abundant
ly to prove. Thus, if a man finding prices
rapidly rising to engulf him year ago, had
decided to retrench by stopping his newspa-
per, the Argus surely would not regard this
act of undoubted retrenchment as based upon
Fsa sa IF Il a @gAG h sS
the Argus year ago; nay, it would have
been economical to stop the Argus and take
the Press. but no one would pretend to re-
gard the mere stoppage of a newspaper with
out supplying its place as economical. This
may be regarded however as mere argu-
HtCAtAHt ttA UOHttbCHts IL oO, bACAO 40 OuO
case of the man who found the expense Of
keeping horse too great for his income, and
conceived the plan of retrenching,o ON the ami
mails fodder by furnishing the brute with a
pair of green goggles and feeding out to him
unlimited pine shavings. The horse was de-
ceived, but unluckily died of indigestion. In
this instance it is certainly plain that retrenth-
ment was not economy.
1t is by no means sure then that the public
business of our city will be more economically
managed by retrenchment of expenses. Mind
we do not say it will not; we only contend
that economy and retrencbment are two
things. The same people, who habitually buy
because goods are $50 cheap" and without
reference to needs, are they who by natural
reaction always retrench because goods are
$50 DEAR" and with equal disregard of all
considerations ofhealth aud prosperity. Now,
we maintain that the ''cheap and nasty" prin-
ciple is not best for family or community
in word. that the quality as well as the guam
dty Of labor is an elemept of price. We do
not desire to see public employment in this
city so degraded that only the incompetent
! can afford to enter upon it. on la
Aud what pattern is this which is held up
for PortlandP Fifty years ago this Newbury-
port and Portland started even in population
and capital. The same spirit of retrench-i
ment which rules Newburyporsz now ruled
then. Her capitalists ~Luit ships and sent
them to the boot market and invested their
earnings in paying railways and manufactures
already established elsewhere Portland flung
her capital into the bottomIess gulf of her
own railways, kept her vessels for her own
trade, built her own factories, and after many
days, lo it came back. Not much niggardly
retrenchment about all this, but after fifty
years the population of Portllnd is thrice and
her valuation four times that of NewburyUort.
The imports of Newburyport have fallen off;
ours have increased forty fold, from one.thrd
of million to thirteen millions of dollars an
nually. No, no, weshall not go to Newbury-
port for instruction in the art of building up
a city.
But, says our neighbor, you have not
to the liberal salaries of her Office holders.
Certainly not Such an inference would be
worthy of your logic, not ours. We haze
proved that no very distinguished prosperity
flows frcm the illiberal salaries of Newbury-
port officials. We haze shown that the whole
of the argus, if it can be called an
is utterly weak and puerile. And
we now invite the argus to a discussion of
this question of salaries on reasonable grounds.
Lay your finger on some one salary which is
larger than the amount and quality of labor
and the contingent nature of the employment
will justify, and we will cooperate with you
cheerfully in procuring reduction. But give
us something tangible to consider, and don't
give us scale of prices from Newburyport
or San francisco, or Van Dieman's Land.