New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1872-01-19
4 CHANCE FOR RETRENcHMEN1

Congress and the country is directed to Re-
trenchment and Reform in the Civil Service,
to Top off all eXcrescences. Something has
already been done in this direction; the dimi-
mutton in the list of products and interests
taxed for purposes of internal revenue has
somewhat ahated the ofice-holding nuisance
in one branch of the Treasury Service. The
arrogant bureau which, q year ago, thought
itself sufficiently strong to demand recogni-
ton as q separate Executive Department, has
dwindled, is dwlndling, to an unpopular and,
we trust, short-livcd limb of the vast financial
system of the Government from which it
sprung. 1t will not be long until the collec-
ton of excise duties on spirits and tobacco,
and the sale of stamps, will he small
enough and compact enough to warrant tho
rclegatiOn to private life of great army of
officials who now consume the substance Of
the land and demoralize the politics of the
nation. Next must be pruned away other
useless branches, some of which have been
let alone simply because public attention has
not been much called to their needless exist
ence. OF these, less conspicuous in its useless
cOstliness, but less useful than any, is the So
called Naval Office of the Customs Service,
That this department of our CustOm-hOuses
is an anachrOnjsm, q fossil remainder, an alb
surd relic of an ancient order of things, has
already been 80 far acknowledged that the of
flee has been abolished at all of the ports of entry
in the country, save some half-dozen, where
the political patronage and value of the same
in partisan machinery is strong enough to
extend lease of life indefinitely. 1t could
not be expected that Congressman who find a
positive element of political strength in the
distribution of offices should have enough
stern virtue, in the midst of a general demon
alization, to resolutely cut off any portion of
their patronage.
Yet, Congress has again and again been told
that the Naval Office is an expensive super
fluffy; Congress Committees have received
ample testimony on that point; and the vet
eran Commissioner of Customs, the Hon. Ma
than Sargent has repeatedly and conclusively
shown that the Government yearly costs the
country hundreds Of thousands of dollars more
than it should, simply to keep up number of
these useless offices and their subOrdi-
mates. The Naval Officer of the Port
was designated, in colonial days, as the
custodian of the Kings private share of
the avails of duties levied on imports
Navy stationed at the port where he exer-
cised his functions, which were simply to watch
the civil officers of the Crown and see that
His Majesty got all that belonged to him.
When the young Republic erected its own
governmental service, it used most of tho
machinery which had been left by the mother
country, and so the Naval Office in the Gus
tom-house, representing no higher idea than
the Kings prvy purse, became part of the
new republican system of collection of the
revenue. In those days of imperfect public SER
vice, the Naval Office as it continued to be
called, was the auditing department of the Gus
tom-house. The accounts of the Collector were
there examined and approved; permits, clear
ances, registers, and similar documents were
in it, and n general account-in-
little Of the multifarious business OF the Gus
m-house was there kept for the oetcnSible
purpose Of checking The Collectors depart
ment.
This is sill substantially tho theory