New-York tribune., 1870-01-29
MIR. DAVES,S POSITION.

MIR. DAWESS POSITION.
Members OF Congress are prone to waggery
vet we suspect that one who, with sober face,
talked of Mr.. Dawes's Retrenchment speech as
putting him outside of the Republican 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 inained,
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 hundred
Army officers drawing pay from the Treasury,
vet doing nothing whatever to earn 1t. 1t is
not their fault that they do not earn their
wages it is our good fortune that we have no
present need of their services, and we are en-
titled to profit by it. The boys who, for $l6
per month"; carried muskets through blood and
fire till the Rebellion was crushed, were then
paid off and sent home, as was right; their
mastering out bounty of $50 to 500 each was
all the extra they received. The officers, who,
since Lees surrender, have mainly done moth
ing and been well paid for it, should now be
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, sys-
tematcally 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 aspires to
be Marshal. Another wants to increase the
salaries of Y. S. Judges generally, or at least
those of the highest class. Another wants
liberal subsidy for railroad in which he is
interested, or which is calculated to enrich his
constituents. Another goes in for q River or
Harbor Improvement advantageous to his dis
trict. Another wants a steamship line estab-
lished and supported from the Treasury Thus
from every side the horse-leechs daughters
cry "Give! Give y and, while Economy is on
every lip, the Expenditures are swelled by
item after item which might be proper if we
were out of debt and had an overfowing
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 Capitol.
Committees are provided with clerks and the
obi aH wit of n kinda
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 en-
ployed and at less than half the cost now in
Cured. The sub-door-keepers, fire makers,
folders, sub-postmasters, &C., &C., 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 Treasury-nO matter what the name 30
that they get the money. And there is con-
tant pressure on Members and officers to infiict
more and more of these lazzaroni on a long
suffering public
We repeat that the whole country heartily
thanks Mr.. 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.