The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-01-21
A .ydCHDAW PLUCRED.

a JdOhDd w Il ~ ObDD'
A NEW reading of the old fable Of the jack
Saw who strutted for time in the gay
feathers of peacock, only TO be held up to
derision after he was stripped Of his borrowed
plumage, has Just been furnished in Con-
press. Dawes, Of Massachusetts,, has been
winning the enthusiastic plaudits of the De-
Ynooracy by his fierce diatribes against the
administration, and airing his individual pre-
tensions as O claimant for the honors OF
frst-class economist by opposing the League
Island bill, but as the debate progressed his
arguments were fully answered and his real
motives thoroughly exposed by the Repre-
sentatiyes of this State. He has discovered
by this time that instead of Pennsylvania
wearing her heart upon her sleeve for davis
TO peck at with impunity, she is able to not
only drive off her assailants, but to pluck
Ehem of their fine feathers. 1t now
appears that some of the Republican
members from this State preferred Mr..
Blaine to Mr.. Dawes as Speaker of the House,
and that's what's the matter. The Massachu-
setts enemy of the League Island bill writhed
under this imputation when it was made yes
terday by Mr.. Scofeld, but there can be
when the envenomed and absurd character of
Mr.. Dawes opposition is considered. The
proposed measure is of such character that
the only possible motive for antagenizing it
must be sought either in desire to spite
Pennsylvania or to stave off action for time
in the hope that eventually New England
site may be chosen for the leading navy yard
of the Union. Philadelphia does not ask
that single dollar shall be taken from the
national treasury or penny added to the
burdens of taxpayers. She has begun her good
work by presenting to the Government, as
q free gift, the finest and largest site for a
navy yard in the world, and she proposes that
this step shall be followed up only by the ap-
preparation from time to time of the moneys
received from the sale of the site of the pre-
sent Navy Yard to the improvement of the
new one. Mr. Dawes and Mr.. Washburn, the
prominent opponents of the bill, did not hest
tate at the last session to vote million to the
Rock Island arsenal and bridge, and quite re-
Gently Washburn hurried through an appro-
priati0n of 5000, 600 for the improvement of
the Des Moines Rapids; but they are suddenly
seized with fearful fit of economy when the
Government is asked to provide itself with
splendid and adequate new navy yard, in lieu
of an insufficient old one, notwithstanding the
hberality already displayed by this city, and the
assurances that the moneys received for the
old site will defray all the necessary expendi-
lures. MIR. Dawes, to give keen edge to his
demonstration, to redeem from utter con
tempt an attack which would otherwise have
been too frivolous to attract serious atten-
tion, and to disguise the ranking hatred
generated by disappointed ambition, ran
sacked the whole list of the estimates of the
administration, heaped up blunder upon
blunder of his own in attempts to convict
Grants Secretaries of blunders and extrava-
gance, and then singled out as the special OBJ
ject of his animadversion the one particular
item which of all the list was the most inno-
cuous, and which only proposed to exchange
bad navy yard for good one, after the Gov
ernment had solemnly pledged itself to con-
summate this excellent bargain.
MIR. Dawes wound up one of his most
savage assaults on the Cabinet with a declara-
tion that faithful are the wounds of a
friend;" and he seemed to be unconscious that
he was playing the part of the cowardly as
sassin of old who sought an opportunity to
strike fatal blow with his dagger by making
the friendly salutation, ''Is it well with thee,
my brothera' His opposition to the League
Island bill, in connection with his other amia-
BILE peculiarities, indicates that there is no
more sincerity in his pretended love of eco-
nomy than in his alleged devotion to Repub-
icanism. We have no doubt that he would
rather see the nation squander ten millions
in vain effort to construct an insufficient
navy yard in New England than vote for the
appropriation of a single dollar to make all
the natural advantages of League Island avail
able. The sooner such men are exposed the
better viii it be for the Treasury as we'll as
for the naval and other interests of the
country. FtflIF