The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-01-31
MIR. DAWES POSITION.

MIR. DAWES POSITION.
From the NJ y. Tribune
Members of Congress are prone to wag-
gerry, yet we suspect that one who with sober
face talked Of Mr.. Dawes retrenchment
speech as putting him outside of the Repub-
lican party cannot have fully realized the
righteousness of his suggestion. If he had
proposed that Mr.. Dawes be excluded from
the mammoth 'ring" of tax-consumers, we
might have imagined him in good earnest; but,
outside of that ring, we know no Republicans
who are not in hearty accord with Mr.. Dawes,
and rather inclined, where they differ at all,
to go beyond him.
Nearly five years have passed since our
civil war ended; yet we have five to six hun
dred army officers drawing pay from the
Treasury, yet doing nothing whatever to earn
it. 1t is not their fault that they do not earn
their wages. 1t is our good fortune that we
have no present need of their services and
we are entitled to profit by it. The boys who,
for SIG per month, carried muskets through
blood and fire till the Rebellion was crushed,
were then paid off and sent home, as was
right; their mustering-out bounty of $50 to
300 each was all the extra they received.
The officers; who, since Lees surrender, have
mainly done nothing and been we'll paid for
it, should now be paid off and mustered out
as the rank and file were. They should not
ask to be paid longer for doing nothing and,
if they did ask, they should not be gratifed.
We are bound to be Just; we cannot afford to
be bounteous, much less prodigal. If we are
ever to pay our great debt, we must be rigidly,
sternly, systematically frugal.
Now, every member of Congress seems to
favor public economy in the abstract, while
nearly every one opposes it in the concrete
One wants a new judicial district made,
whereof his brother or best friend is to be
judge, and his cousin or next friend aspres
to be marshal Another wants to increase the
salaries of UnitedStates judges generally, or at
least those of the highest class. Another
wants a liberal subsidy for railroad in
which he is interested, or which is calculated
to enrich his constituents. Another goes in
for river or harbor improvement advanta-
geous to his district. Another wants steam
ship line established and supported from the
Treasury. Thus from every side the horse
leechs daughters cry "Gve! give!" and
while economy is on every lip, the expendi-
lures are swelled by item after item which
might be proper if we were out of debt and
had an overAowing treasury, but are, in our
actual circumstances; clearly unjustifable.
Mr. Dawes hits the right spot when he pro-
poses to cut down the expenses of Congress
with an unsparing hand. Say what you may
of extravaganza in the departments, we are
sure that no one of them, and we doubt that
they all together, squander so much money
as Is fooled away on the minions of the Capt.
toll Committees are provided with clerks
and the edifice filed with supernumerar1es of
all kinds, to the advancement of no interest
on earth but their own. We defy any one
familiar with the ins and outs of the Capitol
to say that he believes the public business
might not be well done by half the persons
now employed and at less than half the cost
now incurred. The sub-door-keepers, fire.
Eakers, folders, sub postmasters, ETC., etc.,
swarm like the frogs of Egypt, and are not
content with liberal pay for doing little or
nothing-they want twenty per cent. extra,
or ''the usual extra compensation or some
extra lick at the Treasmy--no matter what
the name so that they get the money And
there Is a contant pressure on members and
officers to infiict more and more of these
lazzaroni on long-suffering public.
We repeat that the whole country heartily
thanks MIR. Dawes for saying the right thing
at the right time. He may have been mis-
taken in this or that item-he may have done
injustice to worthy functionary by this or
| that comparison-but he is right in the main,
| right in purpose, and right in the effect his
| demonstration is certain to produce. Whether
| Congress shall or shall not be governed by his
suggestions, it will surely be affected by them,
| so that the appropriations for the next fiscal
| year will be considerably less than they would
have been had he kept silence. And for this
| he will be thanked and honored in nearly
! every household whose bread is not buttered
from the Federal Treasury.
MIR. PHILLIPS AND HIS BILLION DOL
LARS.
From the NJ Y. Times.
The power of habit is prodigious. Here is
the Anti-Slavery Society holding it's annual
| meeting in Boston in behalf of the abolition
of slavery, as persistently as if slavery were
still fourishing institution" calling for
bold and gallant spirits to attack it. This
| society once was busy affair, and dealt with
great subject, and was unsparing in its
blows. Now, however, the ingenuity of its
members seems to be mainly devoted to find
ing appropriate topics for discussion. The
| chief part of their meetings is occupied, appa'
rently, in showing how several other matters
are connected with slavery-or, at least,
might be, if slavery were not dead and buried.
For the rest, certain Congressman furnish
convenient targets for abuse and hard names
at each annual meeting; and afterwards it is
| understood that the members mollify theiI
| angry passions with tea and toast. Amongst
those Congressman noticed this year are Sena
tors Trumbull and Ross, who were described
as half baked lawyers and "half-hedgeG
statesmen though we do not remember
anything specially callow in the appearance
of those gentlemen.
But the Gland and money question" was
perhaps the great discovery i'll the way of
topic for discussion at this meeting Resolu
tions were adopted declaring that 'the vote
in the position of the negro race needs land t.