The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1872-08-29
UNPRECEDENTED Cruelty.


sincere. dsinterested love for the prominent |
recruits to their ranks which is so
desirable among brethren? There are some
things that indicate very different state OF
feeling. There are evidences of design to
drive the office-seeking proselytes, eleventh
hour converts who came in to take away the
bread from the mouths OF
those who had borne the heat and burden OF
the day, at the moment when it appeared
that their prize was almost won, into msan-
ity and untimely death. Ii not, why does
the crafty editor of the Belfast Republican
Journal publish that maddenin: list of federal
office-holders with monstrously exaggerated
salaries? Why does the argus print that
long and glttering array of custom-house
officers, pIentifully besprinkled with figures
indicating desirable salaries,-an array mar
shaled with such painful accuracy that the
two places for cents are carefully preserved
through the entire column lest a stray dime
should fail of its due weight in the tremen-
dous aggregate? To say, for instance, that
N. K. Sawyer, Collector of Frenchman's
Bay, receives $1,310 for his services in col
Letting the customs and doing anything to
beat Grant, does not very much impress the
average mind; but to say that this bright,
consummate flower of reformed civil ser
vice receives 81 $40. 10 is overwhelming! No
doubt it drives the Joys, Tisdales and other
Reformers of those parts into paroxysms OF
tantalizing hopes and fears. This exaltation
of the cents place in general financial state
ments is a "move" for which politicians are
indebted to the insurance companies, and as
the Maine Democratic editors one after
another startle their readers with the infor-
nation that the Collector of Saco receives
S25O.O0, let them not forget the debt of graf
itude they owe to the Anglo-Bengales Dis
interested Loan and Life Insurance Com
pany, of which David Crimple is Secre-
tary.
But the most diabolical malignity is dis
played in the Journals list. That paper
boldly and layishly hurls ciphers on the right
of its ponderous columns and talks of prince
ly sums with prodgalty which must make
the ''liberal' head swim. Hannibal Hamlin
for 26 years of public service is charged with
receiving 5000, 1000; Morrill, for Is years, $780,
600; Blaine for - years, $3.50, 900; Schoield,
who, the Journal ingenuously remarks, has
been Congressman for 10 years and udnts
to be for tacenty gears to come" rs, 900; Hale
for three years, ,000 But the climax is
on Frye, who has not yet served two years.
Any abridgement of this item in which the
highest qualities of the imagination are exer-
cised would be sin:
W. P. Frye, Congressman from Second
Maine District. A modest and retiring vio-
let, lohO hopes to receiUe at least, $150,000.
1t is hardly within the bounds of possibility
that the Liberals, with their minds already
for long years seriously infamed by their
morbid lust for office, can imagine such a
statement without dangerous cerebral excite
ment. How the wolfsh eyes of the liberal
Carleton will CLEAN as they roll down the Sc
ductive column with its gorgeous specifca-
tons! How the liberal Lang, wild with the
office hunger of years, will gloat over the
bright record of delightsome salaries, luscious
fees and ravishing perquisites! How the
great and good man, lofty patriot and high
toned reformer who leads the Liberal hosts
in this county, will let the immense financial
possibilities of successful political career
sink into the very depths of his gigantic and
valuable soul!
But the Journal is good-natured sheet
and we are perhaps wrong in attributing
malice to it. Maybe the trifing eccentricity
of adding from one hundred to fifteen hun
bred per cent to the emoluments of our public
men may arise wholly from viewing the mat
ter from the Democratic standpoint. 1t may be
that the generous sums are to be looked upon
not as an exhibit of the money actually re-
ceived by the present honest incumbents of
the offices named, but as a suggestion of what
might be and would be realized by persons
capable of availing themselves of the auvan-
tages of the different situations. The Journal
looks at the matter in a speculative way
Nobody believes, for instance, that Senator
Hamlin, with his austere simplicity, ever
touched dollar that did not belong to him.
He must have received much less than one
hundred thousand instead of twice that sum
for quarter of a century spent in the service
of his country. But in Democratic hands it
might have proved far otherwise. Increase
of expenses and an advance of salaries are
almost invariable concomitants of Democratic
rule. No wonder that to an editor who is
fresh from the contemplation of the financial
achievements of his compatriots in New York
the modest salaries of Republican officials
look small. A Tweed or Sweeney or Hall
would get more than even two hundred thou
sand dollars out of even one Senatorial term.
Democrats do things on scale of magnif-
cence that shames our humber manners.
In Knox County-the only one Democrats
control in the State-they have greatly in
creased the expenses and the pay of County
officers. In Connecticut and New Hamp-
shire, in which they have recently obtained
power, they have invariably increased ex-
penses when an opportunity has occurred.
Where they have had the most complete
control, there has been the most reckless ex-
tfavagance. Taking all these things into
consideration, it is not entirely certain that
the "reformers' who want to 60 to Congress
might not, if successful, actually get for
few years of public service the $15O,OOO
charged SO much in advance to Mr.. Frye.
But for the next four years at least, this raid
on the treasury must be delayed. Under
Grants second administration low salaries
and honest men in Office will be the Republic
can motto as heretofore.
GEN. BURNSIDE received most hearty
greeting from goodly number of the old 9th