Weekly Trinity journal., 1872-03-09
OUR WASHINGTON LETTER.
WAsHiNGToN, Feb. 16, 1872.
ABOLISH FEED OFFICE,

| w ASHlNGTON, RCD. Ito, 1877.
ABOLISH FEED OFFICE.
Among the most important suggestions
in the direction of Civil Service Reform,
is that of Secretary Boutwell's to abolish
all feed offices, and the distribution of
moieties. He advocates the sensible doc
trine that every officer should receive
stated salary, and that all fees, emolu-
ments, moleties, etc, should go into the
public treasury. This reform should also
be applied to our State offices. Tho Gov
ernor of the State of Michigan receives
an annual salary of 81 ,000-the Sheriff of
| Detroit $50, 900 in fees. The Secretary of
the Treasury $4,000, but the Collector of
Customs in New York S0,000. The
Reglstar of the county of New York, the
Sheriff and other officers receive from
$50, 900 to $4,000 per year. Instances of
this inequality need not be multiplied, for
they will readily occur to the reader. 1t
seems almost mystery why these mani
fest abuses have been so long tolerated.
If competent Secretary of the Treasury
or of the Interior can be had for S., 600
per year, no officer in the country should
receive more than that, and the fees should
be paid into the National or State Treas
ury. Our salaried officers are generally
paid too little, while the feed offices are
extravagantly remunerated, and this ex-
travagance, so far from procuring the
best men, leads the most corrupt to obtain
the places by bribery and other foul prac-
tees. Let this abuse at once be stopped,
and the foundation for other reforms is
laid.
SELL ON THE SENATE.
During the last midnight hours of q
session Of Congress, among other hasty
legislation rushed through by lobbyists
was bill authorizing a bogus patent to
be used for lighting the gas of the Senate
chamber. Many of the Senators and
members voted for it under the impression
that it was the patent of the Capitol cleo
trician, Prof. Sam Gardiner; but it is
now found to be a palpable infringement
OF the Gardiner patent Steps have al
ready been taken to stop its use elsewhere
and | have just learned that notice is
about to be served on the United States
Government authorities that it will be |
held liable in damages and that suit will |
be brought at an carly day if its use be
not promptly abandoned in the Senate |
Chamber.
Though put up in n cheap and nasty
tin-shop style, with wire hanging exposed
in the chamber, it cost the Government
S4,5O0, and requires extra attendance to
operate it, while the House and Dome
apparatus of the present electrician is sub
stantally erected of ample capacity to
light the entire Capitol building from
Dome to cellar and without any additional
expense or force to operate it. The parties |
who have thus sold the Government are
said to be entirely irresponsible. The
cheat consists in usinga patent cap to the
Gardiner insulator, which latter is indis- |
pensable to the operation of lighting by
spark, an obsolete process now used in the |
Senate which was long since abandoned
by Prof. Gardiner as unreliable. Its i'm
practiblity is shown every time the Sen
ate Chamber is lighted, as upon last
Friday night, when many of the gas jets
failed to ignite and were lighted by hand. |
The machine does not turn the gas on and |
off by electricity as does that Of Prof |
Gardiner to the exclusion Of all others
and when the Senate is in secret executive |
session and requires gas-light, one or
more persons must necessarily be present |
tramping over the ceiling to turn on the
gas and touch off such burners as fail to |
catch the uncertain spark.
For several years the House and Dome
have been noiselessly lighted by the orig
inal inventor of an improved plan, who
has made it life study and has already
sixteen patents covering all the ramifca-
tions of the electrical gas lighting bust
ness, which with never-faling uniformity
turns the gas on and off, lights and regis
ters on dial when the gas is on and
when lighted. 1t is one Of the greatest
sights of the Capitol to witness the cleo
trician stand at his dial near the rotunda
and by pressing a key and turning silver
crank light more than three thousand
burners in the twinkling Of an eye, with
out approaching House or Dome
Senators dsgusted with repeated fail
ures, noise and exposure Of secret pro-
ceedings, propose to get rid Of the worth
less machine and the liability for its use
at the same time by adopting the com
plete Gardiner apparatus so that the work
of lighting the Capitol may be performed
with certainty without disturbing the |
lawful rights of an inventor or the secret |
sessions of the Senate at precisely the |
same annual expense as that incurred be- |
fore the experiment was thrust upon the
Senate.
BOUTWELL, BELIED.
The new rebel manager of the Wash
ington Patriot is nothing if not rabidly
disloyal. Monday he had bitter attack
on Secretary Boutwell, in which he de-
nounces him for being satisfied with full
party vote sustaining his action in the
Syndicate matter. To suppose that any
Democrat would fail to vote under all
circumstances against Boutwell,, the stur-
diest pillar of the Administration pile,
would be presuming too much on the
honesty of party men who are hungering