The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-09-30
s'WHAT THE ADMINISTRATION HAS
DONE IN SIX MONTHS"
From the N. Y. World.

.
'eThe eloquent speech delivered last Saturday at
Harrisburg by Hon. Columbus Delano, Commissioner
of Internal Revenue, contains an able and striking
summary OF that part OF the administrators work
which has come under his own official notice. 1t
confirms by facts and figures the declaration often
made in our columns that il would soon be found
that the effective work Of the present administration
would compare favorably with that OF any OF its pre-
decessors While the witlngs have been letting slip
their shafts at what they are pleased to censure
the Governments fdleness,' reJrenchment and eco
nomy have everywhere been going on apace, and
none tn less effectively because so quietly'-N. Y.
Times.
No President ever stood SO much in need
of magnifying glasses to render his merits
visible as General Grant; and the stress of
politics in the Pennsylvania election has
called out one of his office-holders in a defen-
sive, laudatory speech. When nothing better
can be said in favor of our rowing, smoking
horse-j jockeying chief magistrate than is said
by Mr.. Commissioner Delano in his speech at
Harrisburg, his case is weak indeed. If an
orator should undertake to give an honest re-
cital of what General Grant has done since the
Inauguration, what could he say? The new
President was Immediately confronted with
two important foreign questions-the Ala
bama claims question, and the Cuban
question. Respecting the first, he has done
nothing; and in respect to the second,
nothing with which anybody is pleased. He
has not made up his mind and has thus far
proved incapable of making up his mind, on
either. He founders without policy; being
reputed an excellent judge of choice breeds of
pups and fast horses, but lacking informa-
ton and resources to qualify him for form
ing opinions on international duties and obli-
cations. On questions of domestic politics
he gives no better satisfaction Even the
Tribune took him to task on Tuesday, and
gave him sharp lecture on his mismanage-
ment in the Southern States, declaring that it
has stood by him as long as it could, ''and
will keep silence no longer" under the pre-
vailing mismanagement. Half the Republ-
can papers of the country have censured and
derided the weakness of his appointments,
and his profuse bestowal of offices on men
who have made him presents Such being
his imbecility and his loss of popularity since
he came into his great Office, his partisans in
Pennsylvania did not misjudge in thinking
that if anything could be said in his vindica-
ton, it is high time that somebody should be
brought forward to say it,
Mr. Delano is perhaps as good a selection
as could have been made for this purpose,
considering that revenue and expenditure
were deemed the only colorable ground of
defense, and that an officer of the Revenue
Department might have some hope of being
believed on his mere authority without a
strict scrutiny into his statements. But when
his speech is examined, it will be found to be
tissue of the most impudent sophistries ever
put forth by disingenuous partisan in sup
port of an indefensible cause. Delano cries
up General Grant (and this is his chief topic
of praise) because greater revenue is col
lected on whisky this year. with tax of fifty
cents on the dollar than was collected last
year under President Johnson, when the tax
was two dollars. phis sounds plausible
only so long as it is addressed to igno-
rance. When the tax was two dollars, the
profits of illicit distillation were so enormous
that no energy or vigilance could have pre-
| vented frauds on the revenue. 1t was be-
cause Congress was of this opinion that it
| reduced the tax to fifty cents before General
| Grant was elected President. If Congress
had been of opinion that any amount of
| honesty, capacity, or vigor could collect the
| two dollars it would have left the tax at that
rate, and have given General Grant the op-
| portunity to win golden opinions by collecting
| il when his predecessor had failed But
nobody believed that so high tax could be
collected. Mr. Rollins, Delano's predecessor
| as Commissioner of Internal Revenue, Re-
publican who never lost standing with the
party, and was kept in Office in spite of Presi-
dent johnson, recommended the reduction of
the tax on the ground that 30 high
tax could never be collected and
that lower rate would yield a
larger revenue. 1t reflects neither credit