The Portland daily press., 1869-05-28
The Ways and Means Committee i'm


t0cHtl0ms
There is probably no task which journalist
performs with so much satisfaction to himself
and from which be rises SO refreshed and NOR
ally invigorated as from-to use the strongest
-"abusing" Congress, either including
the whole body in curse as comprehensive as
that whtrewi,h O'Kelley, the Irish harper
cursed Doneraile in the county of Cork, or
singing out individuals who are either Cop
perheads." like Brooks and Wood, demented,
like Sprague. adventurers, like Butler, or
sporting men, like Morrssey. There are sew
eral reasons for the peculiar exhilaration
arising from this mental exercise. In the first
place, Ten to one there is good ground for all
the censure that is meted out Again your
journalist flatters himself that there is kind
of heroism in attacking public men. "Egad,"
says he, "what ii Jones should make ques-
ton of privilege of this reply to it ON the floor
OF the Senate, denounce me and my paper
before the country, and hand my blackened
memory down to posterity in the Glober'
Furthermore, the gentle reader, under ordi-
nary circumstances, rather likes TO have those
in authority reminded of their responsibility
and of their vulnerability, and sometimes re-
joices TO see an obnoxious individual "hit in
the columns of popular journal. Finally,
the person attacked is not without his secret
qualification in solemnly rising in his place
and saying, "Under ordinary circumstances 1
should not" sc, ,-"The Senate will bear me
witness that seldom intrude matters personal
to myself &c.,-"Justice to myself and to
my constituents requires &c. All these
things cause the aggressive writer to feel
pleasant consciousness of duty performed,
comparable in its mental results with the
physical refreshment and invigoration follow
ing Turkish bath.
Consequently there is more than an even
chance that we may assume deprecatory
and apoIogetic tone when we undertake con-
scientiously to defend the Ways and Means
Committee of the House for taking certain
sums of money from the Treasury-not very
large sums as measured by the ordinary mag
nificent standard of Congressional appropria-
tions-for the purpose of paying the expenses
OF its members in investigating the methods
of collecting the custom duties This act has
been condemned in most severe terms by crit
les, Democratic and professional. The severi-
ty of the rebnke has been but little abated by
the publication of the fact that the members
of the Committee are to pay their own ex-
penses 10 the Pacific coast 1t seems to us
that theeensure is undeserved, and that moth
ing wiser and more fitting could be devised
than for the members of the Committee to do
exactly what they propose. Their duties are
among the most important that can fall to the
lot of Congressman. The tariff, the internal
revenue and the means of collecting and of
harmonizing the two systems of taxation are
for their consideration. Unfortunately but
necessarily, the members are not always well
informed as to the matters with which they
have to deal. Then come attorneys and rep
resentatives Of this, that, and the other special
interest and have a hearing before the Com
mittee during the session, presenting er parte
statements, calculated to blind and deceive.
The parties adversely nterested-usualy the
masses of the people-are perhaps not heard
at all. Hence mistakes that not only take
large sums of money from the Treasury, but
violate economical and financial laws, inter-
fere with industrial progress and vex the ma
tion. Moreover the Committee, embarrassed
by the magnitude and the complications of
the subjects under consideration, as well as
their own want of clear and accurate inform
alton in regard to them, are in a quandary.
Their work drags; they hesitate and vacil-
late; important measures go over from session
to session, or sessions are prolonged and ex-
penses accumulate in consequence of the de-
lays Of the Committee. The object of the
Committee in making its summer tour is to
gain apractical knowledge of the workings of
the revenue system. The time that will be
spent in this way by members who might be
lounging meanwhile at watering places, or else
vexing the public with speeches or letters or
conversation" is an ample equivalent for the
money it will take to keep them usefully en-
rloved. Only they ought to show hereafter
that they have profited by the instruction
they have gained at the public expense.