New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1870-07-11
DEulGOGUES And THE ARMY BILL

DENAGOGUES AND THE ARMY BILL.
We Weld to none in gratitude to the army,
friendship for its members, or desire for its
welfare We do not think it wise to maintain a
large standing army in time of peace, but what
we do have deserves constantly watchful
care in some measure proportional to the risks
it incurs and the services it renders in our be-
half Yet we cannot agree with much of the
talk about the army with which on Friday
and Saturday the Senate was deluged; while
the final action of the Senate on the bill then
before it seems to us at once unwise and dis
ingenious
1t was proposed to reduce the pay, hitherto
unexampled in this country, of the niger Off
GERS to reduce the disprOpOrtiOnate number of
Generals of the various grades by limiting
further appointments, and making the offices
of General and Northumberland end with
the present incumbents; to reduce the number
of enlisted men to 10000; to Obviate the evils
arising from the absurdly awarded brevet
rank; and in many other ways to sim
pity and make more efficient the army
administration. There was vehement hostility
to the bill among the higher officers of the
army, although, as Senator Wilson stated, the
siasticaly in its favor. Gen. Sherman writes
to us to say that he had not protested against
its passage and we cheerfully acquit him OF
any action of the formal nature which he
seems to indicate. But he certainly opposed
the bill, and care was taken to
make his opposition as effective as possible
Yet, in view of the fact that it only re
duced his salary from about $4,000 to S12,-
900, and left him allowances the value of which
raised this sum to about $4,000, nearly double
that of his official superior, the Secretary of
War, or of the Vice President, and over double
that of the Chief Justice of the United States,
we think he might, remembering the burdened
condition of the country, have forborne Oppo-
siton, on personal grounds, to a measure of
necessary economy which bore so lightly upon
himself. That Gen. Sherman favored, as he
reminds us, an increase in the salaries
of the Secretary of War and the
Chief Justice, aggravates rather than
condones his conduct. 1t is a time for
lowering, not for raising, salaries; and the
place to begin is with those disproportionately
high We should be glad to pay Gen. Sherman
double what he now gets-if we could. But
first we should prefer to do justice to the
great numbers of other soldiers in less
conspicuous places, who, to the extent of
their opportunity and capacity, served the
country as faithfully and incurred even
greater dangers and privations ito do justice
to the national creditors ito institute such
retrenchment and economy as may lift burdens
from suffering industries, leave our people
with less pressing occasion to remember with
bitterness the cost of our great struggle, and
promote the National prosperity. The time
for generosity to our most highly-prOmOted
Generals win come after we have been able
to do justice to their less conspicuously hon
Ored subordinates.
But Senators took an opposite view, and the
Army bill was laid on the table on Friday, ex-
pressly on the ground that the high salaries
of leading officers were slightly reduced by
vote of 30 70 10. The debate was in no way
creditable. Gen. Nye's speech was not quite
HID to the usual excellent standard of his efforts
on the New-York and Nevada stump. Mr..
Carpenters appeal was less transparent, but
scarcely more worthy, and none ~of the rest
rose much above the ordinary level OF .dema-