New-York tribune., 1874-12-12
PACIFIC MAIL IN THE HOUSE.


We congratulate the Ways and Means Com
mittee on its prompt response to the sug-
gestOn to have the Pacific Mail inquiry
thrown open to the public. Wo now
urge that it be energetic and thor
ough. There will be surfcit of
prompt denials; and the facts are doubt
less far better hidden than in the Credit Mo-
bilier case. That experience was not lost,
either upon lobbyists or Congress. The San
Francisco Agent has freely admitted dis
bursting the money in Washington; but
in the same breath has denied that
he paid any Of it to Con-
gressmen. The middlemcn must be traced.
The same Agent has attributed the dsbursc-
ment of large sum in the same interest to
present member of Congress. That Congress
man must have an opportunity to vindicate
himself
The Credit MObilier investigation would
have amounted TO nothing but for the fac!
that Oakes Ames became personally involved
to such an extent that he was driven to pro-
tect himself by exposing others. Unless by
some unforeseen accident some Congressman
of equal rank shall be put now in n similar
predicament, there is danger that this in
vestigation will lack the force and drectness
finally given by Ames to tlat of the Credit
MObilier. We see great many reports from
Washington that Congress is not likely to push
the present inquiry with great vigor, because
neither party has much to gain, while both
have much to fear from the expected disclO-
sures. Prominent Democrats, it is said, are
quite as deeply implicated as prominent Re-
publicans, and SO the chances are that the
Committee will agree to deal with the matter
as tenderly as possible, and nobody will be
badly hurt.
We can hardly believe that after the lessons
of the past two years the politicians in Con-
gress will be so foolish. 1t is not the dis
closure of a scandal which harms a party half
80 often as it is the attempt to cover a scam
dial up If the Republicans had pursued the
Credit Mobilier Investigation with determine
ton from the very start, and dealt with all
the eliminated members in q spirit Of rigid
Justice, how different the issue of that affair
would have been. Half a dozen delinquent
individuals would have been sacrificed by
their own avarice or folly. but the Republican
party would have come out of tho ordeal
stronger and more respectable than ever. 1t
for its intolerance of rocuery in its
own ranks, and it might have gone to
the polls at the next election with
q new claim upon the gratitude and confidence
of the people. But the party leaders resisted
inquiry as long as they could; when at last
it was forced upon them they did everything
in their power to keep the Committee from
finding out too much and their action finally
upon the report was cOwardly and Ineffective.
That was the scandal. 1t was no disgrace to
the great Republican party that two or three
Senators and Representatives took money
and lied about it; but when the recognized
leaders of the party and nearly all its news
paper organs undertook to shield the guilty
and deny the offense, then the Credit Mobilier
wrong became party crime.
Now as for this Pacific Mail story 1t has
come to point where entire suppression is
impossible. Partial suppression will do neither
side any good. The truth will certainly come
out perhaps not to-day, nor next week, nor
next month; but In the end it will come out.
Whichever party makes the best use of this
opportunity to discover and discard its un-
worthy members will profit by the result.
When commenting on the statement of O
correspondent that Gen. Garfield, for the
Appropriation Committee, had reported the
POstmaster-General's estimate of $J0O0O0 for
the new and unearned subsidy, we begged
the General to relieve himself from
the responsibility at once. He does so in the
most satisfactory way by saying that he has
not reported it. We venture to think that.
in view of the attention now attracted to the
subject, he will be sure not 70 do SO without
very careful consideration. There is no
just claim to the subsidy; the Pacific
Mail has not complied with the conditions ON
which it was granted and it has s1uandered
far more than it got in payments in Washing
ton for the avowed purpose of corruptne
Congress. Meantime it would be o satisfac-
ton to learn that our correspondent, person
officially connected until lately with the Pacific
Mail, was equally mistaken in asserting that
tho Postmaster General bad been misled into