The Portland daily press., 1873-03-18

having succeeded they look with good natured
confidence for speedy practical results of their
reform crusade. They hail the opening of
the session, as the dawn of the day of deliv-
cry. Everything promises well at the outset.
The new-fedged statesmen are full of pro-
LESSONS, and start off with bills and resolu-
tions in such numbers and of such exalted
purity of purpose, that for while all the
good people in town are radiant with hope
fitness, and joyfully exclalm, "wel, at last
we are to have genuine reformation.
But weeks pass and nothing is DONE
Months disappear and the sweeping resolu-
tions and vrtuous bills slumber in the pigeon
holes of the committees to which they werere-
ferred. Mea thine bills without number, of a
strictly private nature are hurried through
both Houses and become laws which are put
ting money into the purses of the parties who
secured their passage. The legislative broker
pursues his mysterious calling in silence and
measurable secrecy. He holds high court at
the best hotel, dispenses recherche wines
with lavish prodigality, disports himself with
the air of prince, and seems to be the one
man in Albany whose supplies of money are
as inexhaustible as the widows cruise.
When the time comes for adjournment it
will be found that the Legislature has enact
ed several hundred laws aud yet strangely
enough it has not found time to pass upon an
act already made to its hand and presented
to it on the first day of the session providing
| for the peace, order and health of a single
city, containing fourth of the population of
the whole State.
| 1t is impossible to contemplate this state Of
things without sorrow and indignation. IF a
remedy is not soon applied, governments of
the people will cease to be Of any practical
service. New \ ork city pays forty millions
of dollars year for what it calls govern
ment. What return does she get for this
enormous outlay? Streets that are disgrace
fully dirty every day in the year, and redo
| lent of pestilence for three months of hot
| weather Courts in which suitors wear out
! their lives in the vain effort to get justice.
| A police system which is the merest sham,
never preventing and rarely detecting crime,
SONCluCu Wy q cOt. VI SOHltuiosiOuClo WIZ
spend quarter of their time in endeayoring
| to retain their Offices, and the other three
quarters in manipulating local politics! De-
| partments created for the ostensible purpose
ofregulating and identifying the city, but
perverted 10 the objects of partizanship, and
| filled with useless subordinates, quartered on
the treasury as part of the price by which
| the highest places were obtained! The pub
lie Exchequer besieged by hungry spoils hun
| tiers, greedy contractors. and all sorts of adj
venturers, who cajole or threaten as may
seem most likely to serve their purpose, and
who often, when other means fail, find an
ally in judicial robes who, however tar
dy he may be in dealing with private claim
ant, acts with surprising alacrity in pressing
all demands against the city to instant en-
forcement.
1t may be said, indeed, it often has been
said, that these evils could be abated if good
men of all parties would combine and bend
their energies to complete publication of
the grievance Of which so much just COM
plant is made. Now there have been several
| such combinations during the past twenty
years and they have been crowned with tenn
porary success. But the very moment we
cone to the point of organizing the force
VIII Oh is to sweep the Augean stables we be-
| come involved in hopeless wrangle as to
who shall be selected for the work, and forget
| in the intensity of our quarrel all about the
serious business we started out to do. Hence
| it is that bad men resume sway so soon after
we have achieved moral revolution which
gave promise for the moment Of working out
our redemption and enfranchisement. Hence
it is that so many good and thoughtful men
of influence and position in our midst resign
themselves with kind of despair, to a situa-
| alton which, humiliating and degrading as it
is, their past experience has taught them is
remedies. / by no means subscribe to their
| doctrine, or approve their apathy, but it must
| be admitted that they have had innumerabe
evidences of the apparent hopelessness of
bringing about reform of the abuses which
have so long afflicted the people of New
| York.
Gen. Grant has at last suspended the rules
embodied in the recommendations of the civil
| service commission by appointing to the sur
veyorship of this port Gen. George FL.
Sharpe. The appointment will commend it
self to gegeral favor. Gen. Sharpe is an e lu-
Gated and accomplished gentleman, was a
gallant soldier in the late war, has served as
U. S. Marshal of this District for nearly
three years and has an unusual amount of
| vital force and executive energy. The
President certainly has been fortunate
in his selections of the leading federal
officers of customs here. General Arthur
| is a gentleman of fine presence, cour-
| teous manners, and remarkable readiness
| and aptitude to deal with the business of
his office. He is quick to see the bearing of
things, and while his education as lawyer
enables him to catch the legal points in the
revenue cases that come up for his decision
at a'glance, he is sufficiently practical man
to comprehend and meet the wants of the
merchants, and to extend all the facilities
in his power to the prosecution of the COM
mercial enterprises, whence the government
derives so much OF its revenue. These quail
tiles have made Gen. Arthur one of the most
popular collectors we have ever had.
Mr.. Ladin's high character paved the way
for his being received here very cordially
| when he came to supereede Mr.. Grinnell
as Naval officer, and he has been equal to his
| reputation and won golden opinions from all
classes of citizens.
The emoluments of these offices have been
| considerably exaggerated. Apart from mole
| ties they are by no means large. The col
| lector receives $500, the Naval officer $4,000,
The surveyor $4500 each per annum. Dur
ing the war there were so many seizures that
sut of late years they have been mnch d.
minished. Now and then there comes
windfall of magnitude. Of the $271 1000 paid
by Phelps, Dodge & Co., these officers each
received $21 200. But that was the largest
seizure ever made in New York. There was
one Of $4,000, and another Of $4,000 some
two years ago. But as a general rule the
moeties come in by humid eds instead of thou
sands. Smuggling is a dangerous business,
because the penalty is so severe. The man
who seeks to evade ten per cent of the duty
forfets the whole invoice. In other words,
in the effort to save $4,000 he may lose
100000. That is such odds that prudent
man would decline taking the chances as a
matter of dollars and cents, even if he had
no scruples of conscience about cheating the
government, which many importers seem en-
tirey destitute Of YARMOUTH.
Free High Schools.
FRYEBURG, March II, 1873.
IT, H., 30 L. D,ooo