The Fremont weekly journal. [volume] (Fremont, Sandusky County, Ohio) 1867-1877, 1873-03-14
THE JOURNAL.
Good PaY, Good Preach.

From the DAILY GTdphtc,
an illustrated newspaper just
started in New York, we take
the following. 1t is a very sensible
article, and so far as its approval Of
the increase of salaries is concerned,
VIC doubt there arc many who will
differ from its views. But it does
not touch the mean, and deliberate
swindle, practiced upon the people
by the retiring Congress-that OF
voting to themselves $4,000 increas-
cd pay over and above that for which
they had engaged to serve the ma
tion. No newspaper or individual
should hesitate to condemn that
fraud, and the only real fault the
people have yet had to find with
Grants administration lies in his ap-
proval of that iniquity. True, there
was but one other alternative open
to him, but that he should have cho-
sen rather than seemed a party to so
base a swindle. Tackled on to the
appropriation bill as the increase of
salaries was, all would have had to
fail together, if he had vetoed the
bill, but he had the alternative of
calling a special session, and giving
the new Congress the opportunity of
authorizing the appropriations nee
essary to carry on the government,
and this he should have done. All
good men will regret that he did not
do this and defeat the iniquity of the
schemers, who, aided by the retir
ing Congressman, passed the bill:
To THE EDITOR:
In one respect the new Presiden-
tial tenn which is inaugurated to-
day with such unusual spendor will
differ from all of its predecessors.
The incumbent will receive, instead
of salary of twenty five thousand
dollars year, one of fifty thousand.
A like, although not an equal, in
crease of emolunent will be enjoyed
by all the principal officers of the
national government. The Vice
President, the Cabinet officers, the
Justices of the Supreme Court, and
the Speaker of the House will re-
ceive ten thousand dollars, the
Chief Justice, five hundred more,
Senators and Members of the House
seven thousand five hundred. This,
at least, is the scale of payment rec
commended by the Committee of
Conference of both Houses, and it is
to be hoped that it will be adopted.
1t is modest enough surely; and in
deed we all know it is far from being
actually an advance on the scale of
payment fixed at the formation of
our constitutional union.
If good Mrs. Washington could
be restored to the position that she
adorned with so much grace and
suave dignity, and placed, where she
never was, in the city which bears
her illustrious husbands name, as
mistress of the White House, and
were to undertake to keep house nov
on fifty thousand dollars, as she did
on twenty five, she would find, after
taxing her housewifely skill and So
cial tact to the utmost, that the task
was too much for her. She would
soon discover that her tale of bricks
was increased at least tenfold, while
her allowance of straw was but
doubled. Those elegant and decor
Gus, but prim and somewhat arid re
ceptions Ofhers-wherc, we are told,
there was tea and coffee and choco-
late, with cake, cake of two kinds
plain and plum-made no such in
roads upon the ways and means of
housekeeping as the various enter
tainments do which must be given
at the White house now a-days, if
the President is to entertain at all.
The establishment of which she was
mistress was private and humble in
its character compared with that
which must now be kept up by the
mistress of the Presidents house
hold. The times have changed, and
we in all respects must change with
them. We have grown. We have
enlarged our borders if we have not
made broad our phylacteries.
And in the case of one man who
had a reversionary interest in the
White House, and who goes out of
Office to-day with no hope of enter
ing again that dignified but un-
comfortable mansion, or any other
national establishment, as one hav-
ing authority, the expansion of ply
lacteries, has only had the effect of
making the story of his downfall
sadder and more striking. And
even in his case, advancement and
popularity were favored less by pc
culiar sanctity of character and pro-
priety of life than by his reputation
for what is called 'geniahty," and by
the openness and apparent warmth
of his greeting and the freedom
with which he threw wide his doors
and welcomed everybody to the
somewhat chilly cheer of his "tee-
totally e-water entertainments.
Mr.. Colfax is now called a hypO-
crite, because of the lack of manly
candor that he showed when he was
brought to a severe test of his real
character. But it may at least be
doubted whether he has not for years
been imposing upon the world by
the very manner that won him so
large a share of his popularity. We
now are asking ourselves whether
any man could ever be 30 glad to see
anybody as Mr.. Coltax always pro-
fessed to be to see everybody. He
kept himself aloof from no one but
sinners, and even those he was quite
willing to meet in the way of bust
ness; and to him public entertain
ments was business. Any man
might go to his house, at least at
certain times, and everybody liked
to 90 to Colfax's," that is, every
body whose vanity could be tickled
by the notice and the flattery of
rising public man, And yet, un-
grateful creatures that we are, We
500 NOW that It was all q sham Did