New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1867-12-10
1ow TO SAVE THE MONEY.

drunkard would reIOrTl-SoOn uilei Nhi ioV""o
and our Finances, Federal State, and local,
would henceforth be patterns of integrity and
frucality. 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 assist
ing to point out the ways and means.
First among our sources of expenditure
stands the Army. 1t is costing to-day more
than half of our annual outlay except in salts
faction of the National Debt And it is 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
a 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 a
little. They will lose ten horses for every In
dian they get fairly in sight of.
If Indians are to be fought, thoroughly
competent, experienced cavalry general with his
staff should 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 hundred
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, well mounted, to
answer such q call on ten days notice, though
the rendezvous were in the most desoate wilds
of Utah or Idaho. Such force would do Its
work quickly and well, and would not cost 30
much as the rations of the regulars, who do not,
and cannot, do it ut 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thirds of them are already out of date.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
great deal too much for officers and guards to
look OH and see it rust and rot.
Congress should abolish the Franking Privi-
lege-not modify it. Lot all our people pay
their postage, as Queen Victoria does The
late Mayorality contest in our City was con-
Quoted in good part by personal appeals and
circulars, all ranked Wood franked his own;
and Chanler or some other Tammany M. G.,
franked Hoffman's. So it goes from year to
year-the mails and post offices gOrged and
Franked lottery circulars and puffs of quack
medicines infest the whole country by the mil
lion. And it is idle to talk of correcting the
abuses of frankng, when the taxing one man
TO pay for carrying another mans letters is the
great, crying abuse. If A., b. and G. are au-
thorized to send their letters and documents
through the mails, and have them distributed
by carriers at the public cost, d. Z. and +. will
borrow and use their franks to push their wares
into notice. No reform can be worth rush
that leaves the franking privilege in existence.
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 NapoleOns 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 cannot
see it again till about the middle of April, 1869
say eighteen months services, including q
long vacation. The pay for this service is
S1O,OOO-quite enough. Now we do not object
to paying their travelling expenses-say $1,000
in addition. But they are allowed to charge
exorbitantly for the journey they do make, and
then double the dose for an imaginary OF con-
structive Journey home and back again that
they do not make, between the two regular
sessions. 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, 1t 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 is
bent on retrenchment, why not correct this !
AS the sttings of q Congress do not average
400 days and the pay is $4,000 per Congress,
every days absence should insure deduction
of at least $2j And there should be no ex-
cuse heard, except that of employment else
where as member of an investigating COM
mttee.
We believe there are thousands of custom
house places that should be cut of-the incum-
bents either doing nothing for their salaries, OF
nothing that is of any use This might not
secure their divorce from the Treasury; but
the fact that nearly all of them pay assessments
to elect the Copperhead ticket in their respec-
tive localities will help. If no change be made,
at least 100000 will be raised out of Custom
House officers next Fall to beat those Republi-
cans in Congress who shall be candidates for re-
election.
Why not cut down our Foreign Embassies,
Missions, and ConsulsY They cost mint OF
money, one-third of which might be saved.
Cut the $175OO fellows down to $4,000; the
$4,000 chaps to $4,000; the s1OOO0s to $1,000,
and the S7,5OOs to $4,000, and perhaps some of