The Portland daily press., 1873-06-10

tv. conscious of having performed q benefcent
work with patient fidelity and disnterested
efficiency.
There has been good deal said about tho
number of members of the commit tee who
have acquired offices, since its formation.
Even the Times INDUCES in parting fling on
this point. But a careful analysis of the list
of names shows that two-thirds OF the body
have neither received nor sought office. There
have been seventy eight persons in the orsahi'
zation, including those appointed TO Nil va
c,ucies; of these two have been elected BY the
paople to State Offices viz, Governor DIX anu
Atty Gen. Barlow; four have been chosen mem
bArs of the Legislature. viz, Messrs. Blumeh-
thai, Crary, Tilden, and Moulton.-Mr Tilden
not having become member Of the commit
tee until after his legislative term ceased. and
Mr., Moulton having been appointed Tax
| Commissioner long after he resigned his seat
| in the committee. Mr.. Geo. G. Barrett was
elected Judge of the Supreme Court, defeating
Ledwith, who deserted the Seventy to become
the Tammany Candidate. The Treasurer, Mr..
Emil Sauer was chosen Republican Presiden-
t;al elector last fall. VIM. Radde and Oswald
Ottendorfer were elected Aldermen, and VIM.
| F. Havemeyer was elected Mayor.
Here are twelve men, whom the people have
taken care of.
Then there are two, who have been appoint
ed by the Governor to Sta e offices yielding no
salary nor compensation, viz. Frederick Sebach
Commissioner of Emigration, and N. Gapo
Dunu member of the Governors staff
Add to these jackson S. Schultz whom the
President has recently drafted for service in
Vienna without pay and Dorman B. Eaton
who has been assigned to the honorary post
of President of the Civil Service Commits
sion.
Now we come to municipal appointments
and we find that seven of the seventy have
been placed in local offices whence they derive
no compensation, viz, School Commissioners
Nelson, vermilye, Hoe, Halstead and Klam
roth and Park Commissioners Stebbins and
Bissnger.
To salaried places there have been exactly
five appointments made, to wit Wheeler and
Moulton, Tax Commissioners; Hatch, Fire Com
missioner; Lane, Chamberlain; and Varnum
| Commissioner of Jurors. There is considerable
doubt whether Mr.. Varnum's predecessor was
l.sally displaced by the Legislature and the
chances are that he will not get the office but
we will accept the intention as if it were the
| fact.
| Thus we have a total of 26 who did get Office
and one (Ledwth,) who got a nomination aud
was beaten by tine candidate of the Seventy,
This leaves fifty one, of whom it may with en-
tire certainty be affirmed that ninety per ce mt
have not sought Office since they joined the
Commi tee of Seventy. At least two-thirds of
them are either Bankers Merchants or Lawyers,
whose private incomes exceed those of any sal
aried office holder in the United States. T1o
of the Committee have been Cabinet ministers,
two are ex-Judges of the Supreme Court of the
| State, four have been members of the lower
| house of Congress and twelve have at some
time or other held important local offices in
the city or State.
Indeed if we adopt the theory of one journ-
alst and set down as an Office holder every
man who has ever been appointed receiver or
director in Bank, Trust Co. or Insurance Co.,
or whose partner. kinsman, near neighbor OF
| friends friend has received some appointment,
whether it be q Notary Public or Commission
er of Deeds, we shall find that pretty much ev-
| ervbody in the Committee is subject to this
singing reproach, in some one or other of these
| moderate forms.
| But here are the facts carefully compiled
from the records, and whatever of praise OF
| censure is to be deduced from them must be
| gathered into the crucibe of public judgment
| in which the Committee of Seventy is to be tri-
| ed.
The most unfortunate blunder which the
| Committee ever made was when it persisted in
| forcing Havemeyer upon the Republicans as
their candidate for Mayor. This was done I'M
| der the delusion that such o nomination would
| 1arr vNf
Convention strenuously opposed the selection,
insisting that Schultz or Stebbins would run
quite as well and that either of them would
make much better Mayor Schultz absolute
| Nv refused to enter the lists, and berg equally
potential in both counsels his sturdy influence
turned the scale in Havemayer's favor. 1t is a
fact beyond reasonable dispute taht but for Mr..
Schultz's efforts, Havemeyer could not have
he was elected and installed in Of
fee he gave the Republicans strons
reason to distrust him by appointing "a
notorious Tammany Repeater to lucrative
office sshatz was mortified a but neyertheless,
and from first to last, in spite of expostulations
from his party friends, advocated with all the
energy of his nature the vesting In the Mayor
of the exclusive power of appointments. He
sailed for Europe before the charter was pass
ed There has not been time to hear from him,
since the Police Board was made up. Mr..
Schultz is a good natured man, and entirely
| Tree from the uegraulnS VICE Oh profanity. but
| it is recorded of Washington that he swore
once under circumstances of great provocation,
and if Mr. Schultz didn't swear when the news
of those appointments re ched him, it will be a
mooted question whether he was restrained by
moral consideration, or solely because he is
quite too much of novice in the art to do JUS
tce to the occasion.
Tt is idle to waste words in vain regrets over
the irretIfevable past, but ii 10 not in human
nature to forego sorrowful thought as we
contemplate the lost opportunity of which
retro pc ,tion painfully reminds US. If there
had lee accord between the city and State
governments we should have had charter
passed without the intervention of lobbyists,
municipal officers rejecting the wishes of the
people, and not the personal caprices of one
man, and permanent and thorough, rather than
transitory and half way reform.
Were it not for this one dark spot in its
record, the Committee of Seventy would 60
out amid the reclamation of the community,
| for whose Interests it has lahored SO zealously
and faithfully. And inasmnch as this was
palpably defect of judgment and not of in,
tention let UP hope it will be condoned in grate-
full memories of the good things which have
been wrought during the twenty months of
local revolution which have just come to a
FL W