The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-12-11
How to Save the Money.

How to Save the Money
From the ~. Y. Tribune.
If good resolutions were omnipotent, every
drunkard would reform-soon after Christmas
and our finances, Federal, State, and local.
would henceforth be patterns of integrity and
frugality. And, though good resolutions go
but little way, that is, at all events, the
right way. So let us rejoice that Congress is
resolved on retrenchment, and help its good
will by assisting to point out the ways and
means.
First among our sources of expenditure
stands the army. 1t is costing oday more
than half of our annual outlay, except in salts
faction of the national debt. And it is a very
poor tool for the work to be done by it. Send
ing regiments of infantry and artillery out
upon the Plains to fight Indians is like setting
tortoise to catch hawk. The Indians will
take good care to keep out of the way, except
when they can surprise an outpost, or fight
with preponderance in numbers of twenty to
one. Regular cavalry are little better-just
little. They will lose ten horses for every
Indian they get fairly in sight of.
If Indians are to be fought, thoroughly
competent, experienced cavalry general with
his staf,sshould be stationed in each Territory,
with good supply of arms and ammunition,
he having authority to call out force of
mounted volunteers whenever he shall see fit.
Let him accumulate supplies where he will
need them; and, at the proper time, let him
call for one hundred, three hundred, five hun
dred, or more volunteers, each to appear at
the designated rendezvous on given day,
with his horse, equipments and blankets-he
to be armed, provisioned, and paid 81 per day
for himself and horse until mustered out.
There would always be good men, we'll
mounted, to answer such call on ten days
notice. though the rendezvous were in the
most desolate wiIds of Utah or Idaho. Such
force would do its work quickly and well,
and would not cost so much as the rations OF
the regulars, who do not and cannot do 1T
at all.
Our iron-clads ought mainly.to be sold, if
only for old iron. They will rust out before
we are likely to need them again. and two
thirds of them are already out of date. Mil
lions worth of naval property should be got
rid of within the next year. 1t is costing a
great deal too much for officers and guards to
look on and see it rust and rot.
Congress sbould abolish the franking privi-
lege-not modify it. Let all our people pay
their postage, as Queen Victoria does. The
late Mayoralty contest in our city was con-
Quoted in good part by personal appeals and
circulars, all franked. Wood franked his own;
and Chanler, or some other Tammany M. c.,
franked HofmGn's. So it goes from year to
| year-the mails and post Offices gorged and
! glutted with stuff that pays no postage.
| Franked lottery circulars and puffs OF quack
| medicines infest the whole country by the
million. And it is idle to talk of correcting
the abuses of franking, when the taxing Of
one man to pay for carrying another mans
letters is the great, cryingsabuse. If A., b.
and c. are authorized to send their letters ano
documents through the mails, and have then
distributed by carriers at public cost, D., r..
and 4. will borrow and use their franks TO push
their wares into notice. No reform can bt
worth rush that leaves the franking priv
lege in existence. $3.50.
The mileage swindle needs the like whole
some discipline. Once, it was excused on the
plea of inadequate pay but Congress is now
the best paid legislative body on earth, unless
Louis NapOleon's gagged Senate forms an ex
ception. Take the Oregon members, for ex
ample. They must usually leave home about
the middle Of October, say of 1867, and canno
see it again until the middle of April 1863
say eighteen months services, Including I
long vacation. The pay for this service i:
$lO, O,OOO-quite enough. Now, we do not Object
to paying their travelling expenses-say $1,000
in addition. But they were allowed to charge
exorbitantly for the journey they do make and
then double the dose for an imaginary or con.
structive journey home and back again that
they do not make, between the regular ses
sions. And, though an unrepealed law pre-.
scribes that there shall be no more paid them
for going home and returning between the two
sessions than though they stayed and worked
straight through from one to the other, it has
never been obeyed nor regarded. And the
provision of the act of 1856 that members
absent from their seats shall forfeit their pay
is systematically evaded. Since Congress il
bent on retrenohment, why not correct this
AS the sittings of a Congress do not average
400 days, and the pay is $l0, 900 per Congress
every days absence should insure deduction
OF at least $25. And there should be no ex
cuse heard, except that Of employment else
mittee. -
We believe there are thousands of ouston
house places that should be cut off-the in
cumbents either doing nothing for their sala
ries, or nothing that Is Of any use. This nigh