The Portland daily press., 1872-09-03
TERMS $500 PER ANNUM IN ADVANCE.

under the administration of Gen. Gra t.
Had they foreseen that for the merest par
tlSan purpose Senator of the United States
would pervert to the injury of one admins
tration remark which was less true of it
than OF most Others, they would have pre-
vented the intended injury by more ample
statement. The computations to which the
report refers were made during the admins
tration of Andrew johnson. In Januarv
1866, the commission for the revision Of the
revenue laws stated:
"Of the officers employed in the New Yorl,
| Custom-house it is believed that a majority of
| them have no special qualification for their
| places, and little knowledge of the law under
which they discharge their duties, while the
estimates presented to the Commission of the
annual losse. experienced by the government
through the frauds perpetrated in connection
with this institution range from S12,000,00O
| TO S25, 100000. In regard to the In
| ternal Revenue Department, the Commission
| have no allegation of fraud to present, but
| at the same time are constrained TO say that
! in point of organization it is very far from
| what it should be. In proof of this they
have but to cite the opinion of the late Com
| missioner, before referred to, concurred in by
| the Commission, that if the law as it now
the receipts from it would not fall short of
SoOOOOO,OOO per annum; or, in other words,
| that complete administration of the law
would justify wiping out more than one-half
of the excise tax from the statute book''
| The Special Commissioner of the Revenue
for the year 1868 says:
"But in addition to- whatever of surplus
may accrue to the national treasury through
the agencies above cited, very large amount
| of receipts can also undoubtedly be secured
| by means of thorough and effective reform.
1t is useless here to enter into any discussion
| as to the extent of the losses to which the
| government is annually subjected through
| the positive dishonesty and inefficiency of
great numbers OF the subordinate officials in
trusted with this management of this branch
| OF the public service, but that such losses are
very great no one who has given the subject
attention can have the slightest reason to
doubt. Assuming S155,000,000 as the annu-
al average of receipts from internal revenue
as the law and its administration now stand.
the Commissioner believes that an increase of
S75,OOO,0O0 in the receipts as minimum
could be obtained without any practical diff
Guilty."
And Mr.. Jenckes, alluding to such and
similar investigations, said in the House OF
Representatives on the fifth of April, 1869:
/ II Deen ueHlOnsITdJeu over anu over
\ again that our tax and tariff laws call for
S4OO,0O0,OO0 of revenue annually, and that
bnt s3OO,OOO,OOO reach the Treasury"
The loss which is described in these ex-
tracts was indirect as well as direct. 1t arose
from the evasion of the law, either through
official connivance or inefficiency. 1t was
not a loss of money actually collected and
stolen on the way to the Treasury, which is
Mr.. TrumbulPs assertion, but money that
under the law was due but never collected.
The loss was undoubtedly due in some degree
to the high rate of taxation, which heightened
the amount Of bribes, and thus severely
tempted official integrity. But appointment
by patronage is not careful to ascertain in
tegrity, and the report of the Civil Service
Commission therefore says: "For a large part
of that loss system of the service which is
fatally unsound may reasonably be held re-
sponsible." And thereupon Senator Trum-
bull publicly declares that the friends of Gen
eral Grant confess that a quarter of the pub
lie revenue is stolen every year, and that it is
the result of corrupt administration of the
laws by the present authorities at Washing
| IOu! AEc TcsL Ol OtIdIOT ar
guments and assertions of the same charsc-
ter? And will any one who has heard the
Senator make this statement inform Us
whether he declared his own belief in what
he was trying to make his hearers believe?
Under Andrew Johnson, when these compu-
tations ere made, the evils of the patronage
system of the civil service eliminated. They
were so gross and enormous that public at
tention was aroused, and the necessity of
reform became apparent. The report prop
erly selects the worst condition Of the service
as forcible illustration of the mischiefs of
the system, but it is now evident that it
should have stated at what time the investi-
cations were made.
For under Gen. Grant the practical reform
in the honesty and economy of administra-
tion has been enormous. The ratio of loss,
direct or indirect, has been conspcuously di-
minished. After a reduction in the tariff of
nearly $50 O,000,000 year, Grants first two
years showed gain of s55, ,O0O, 900 over the
last two of johnson. The aggregate annual
reduction Of taxes under Grant has been
s135, 100000 or s136, 900, 900 yet his Admins
tratiOn last year paid into the Treasury $751;
100000 more than in the last year of John
son. Johnson's Administration paid about
S13,O00,000 of the public debt. Grants had
paid on the 1st of July, 1872, 1884, ,O00, ,000.-
1t has reduced the debt at the rate of $780,
424 per month. Such facts prove beyond
dispute the honesty and economy of the finan-
cial administration of Gen. Grant, and they
disprove conclusively the wild assertion that
corruption of every kind now holds high car
nival They establish the perfect god faith
of the President in declaring that he wishes
reform Of the civil service. For not only is
it practically reformed by the greater effcieri-
cy and honesty shown by the facts, but the
| President aims at such reform of the sys-
TEN itself as will tend to secure efficiency and
honesty always and under every Administia-
ton.
With this explanation it is impossible that
Senator Trumbull can longer repeat the as
sertion that Gen. Grants friends confess that
a quarter of the revenue i. annually lost,
owing to the corruption of the administration.
Less than year ago the Senator exhorted
the people Of Illinois TO sustain the Repub-
lican party because under its administration
economy has been introduced into the pub
lie service" He must have known what he
was saying. He did not think then that the
civil officers stole quarter of the revenue.
And if he would deal candidly with the
administration and its friends, he will, when
ever he refers to the subject again, quote the
words of the report, and state that the calcu-
lations to which it alludes as showing loss
of revenue were made under the administra-
ton of Andrew Johnson, and that they could
not be truthfully made under that of General
Grant.
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